Free Novel 1987 - The Haunted Mesa (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour Page A

anything, really. Just looking for the truth.”
    â€œThat why Hokart got you out here?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI guess you’ve seen a lot of odd things. I heard about you being in Haiti, Tibet, and down there in the jungle country of Peru.”
    â€œI’ve been around, and yes, I’ve seen some strange things, and I’ve a hunch, Gallagher, that you know something of what we’re up against.”
    The man did not reply for several minutes. “No,” he said slowly, “I don’t. That country down there isn’t in my bailiwick and I stay out of it. Most of us do, and that goes for the Indians, too. They don’t like it much.”
    His cheeseburger came, and when he had taken a bite, chewed, and swallowed, he looked at Raglan again. “But that man you were talking about was no ghost. And that fire—”
    â€œKawasi said one of the men threw some discs and when they broke, there was flame.”
    Gallagher looked over at her. “How big were the discs?”
    She indicated the top of his coffee cup. “That big, maybe a little larger.”
    â€œGallagher, at the risk of you thinking me crazy, I want to leave a thought with you. The Hopis say, and apparently the Anasazi believed it, that this is the Fourth World.”
    â€œEverybody around here knows that story.”
    â€œAnd that they left the Third World because it was evil.”
    â€œThat’s the story. What’s on your mind?”
    â€œSuppose when the drought came, and the warring Indians from the North, that some of them went back into that Third World, where it was evil? Suppose some of them knew how to go back and forth?”
    Gallagher did not look at Raglan. He looked out of the window and chewed on his cheeseburger. “You’re asking me to believe quite a lot,” he said thoughtfully. “But what about the van?”
    â€œThey’d have to have a working base over here. A place to keep the van and whatever else they need. They would want a useful place that wasn’t too obvious.”
    He was silent again. People were coming into the restaurant and from time to time somebody spoke, glancing curiously at Raglan and Kawasi.
    â€œIf I suggested such a thing they’d say I had a screw loose. Not that a lot of people around here don’t believe in Navajo witchcraft.” Gallagher glanced at Raglan again. “What about you? Are you going to be around?”
    â€œHokart has disappeared. I am going to look for him. I may get my tail in a crack.”
    â€œYou’re likely to, if what you say is true. I’ll see if I can locate that van.”
    â€œGallagher? If you find it you’d better have a man or two as a backup. I mean it. They will play for keeps, and if what I’m thinking is right they can escape beyond your jurisdiction.”
    Gallagher finished his cheeseburger. “Sometimes my jurisdiction is what I want it to be.”
    He looked at Kawasi. “Where will you be?”
    â€œWith me,” Mike said, “when it’s possible. Tonight she will be in the motel next door. If your people could keep an eye on it…”
    â€œWe can and we will. I’ve got some good boys here.” He touched the napkin to his mouth. “That Third World now…?”
    â€œI may have to go there.”
    Gallagher took a long look at Raglan. “You really believe all this? I mean—well, I’ve talked to the Indians, and once in a while one of them, when he’s alone and not with any of the others, he’ll come up with some mighty strange tales. But still…” He shook his head.
    â€œAt this moment Gallagher, I’ve no other way to go. I have some evidence which I cannot share with you now. It does not belong to me. I believe it is either solid evidence or an example of a weird kind of insanity. In any case, you had a restaurant destroyed in a flash fire. That’s evidence. Erik Hokart has