Read Online Novel 1987 - The Haunted Mesa (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour - Free Book Online

I do not know what to say, what words. It is like this, only…only
different
.”
    â€œYou said they went back. How did they go?”
    â€œThere are places, openings sometimes, never always. Places where can go through to Other Side. The old man who tells me your words, he got through but never get back. He was young man then. He was what he say a ‘cow-boy’? They come to look for him. Somehow they know he is on Other Side. He very…he keeps away from them. Somehow…they do not find him. I think he kills one man, but he finds ways to hide.”
    â€œHe is there yet?”
    â€œStill there. Some of my people know. They help him. But he very how you say? Strong? He know how to hide. Now I do not think they look any more. Maybe. I do not know.”
    â€œWhat do you call him?”
    â€œHe is Johnny. Only Johnny.”
    â€œYour people were the cliff dwellers? The old ones the Navajo call the Anasazi?”
    â€œYes.”
    Mike glanced out the window. The street looked the same as always. A truck was parked across the way, its driver coming toward the café. His own Jeep was in plain sight. Two local men stood across the street talking. All seemed to be as usual.
    What was he to do? If they had taken Erik back, wherever “back” was, then he was gone, perhaps gone forever.
    â€œWhat will they do with Erik?”
    â€œMany questions. When no more answers, they kill. They hate much and they fear. They rule all, yet they live in fear. They fear to lose their power, they fear we who do not agree will get strength from Other Side. They fear ideas from your side. Any who get through they kill.”
    â€œThen some do get through?”
    She shook her head. “Not often. In my memory only two, I think. Or maybe they did not tell us all. Long ago there was a boy, a young man who got through. I do not know what happened. Long, long before that, there were two men who hunt gold. They were tortured, killed, then left on Other Side.”
    â€œWhat do they know about us? The people on this side?”
    â€œMuch. Sometimes they send men to steal. To kill. You have things to listen, things to speak long distances. This they want.”
    And Erik was a specialist in the field. What he did not know, nobody knew. If they discovered this they might keep him alive.
    â€œWhat about the kiva?”
    â€œIt is mystery place. Long ago story say it is secret way to pass through. The kiva is sacred place, but evil men close it up. Now they want open.”
    She sipped her coffee. “I think they make house now. I think they want always place, an all time open place to go and come.”
    Mike watched the street, trying to bring his thoughts into focus. What was going on here? Was this real? Or some elaborate hoax? He knew nothing about physics but he knew such things were said to be possible, that parallel worlds could exist. At least, some believed they could. He had seen things in Central Asia and Tibet…could there be a connection? He doubted it.
    Erik’s cry for help must be heeded. Whatever else might or might not be true, he was in trouble, and he had called on Mike for help.
    â€œOver there? After your people went back from here, what happened?”
    She shook her head. “I know little. For a time they lived as always, then change. It was my ancestor who began it.
    â€œHe was very young boy when, by himself, he built a larger dam to save water. He grew fine crops. He found new ways to do things. He created devices—what you call machines—to do things. The evil ones decided he was bewitched and killed him.
    â€œThey could not kill his thoughts. Those who killed him began to use his magic. They built stronger walls and larger houses and they built other dams. Then they made laws to say who can have water and when. People accepted the laws because they were good and they kept away much trouble. But the ones who said yes or no on water soon made other