Ghostwalkers Read Online Free PDF

and even got a degree from Exeter.”
    â€œA degree in what?”
    â€œNatural philosophy, with an emphasis on chemistry and geological studies.”
    Grey sipped his whiskey. “You’re a scientist?”
    â€œAmateur natural philosopher I believe is the correct phrase.”
    â€œWell … holy shit.”
    â€œIndeed.”
    â€œLet me guess,” mused Grey, “that’s what brought you back to America. Chemistry and geological studies, I mean. You’re prospecting?”
    â€œCorrect.”
    â€œFor ghost rock?”
    â€œAlso correct,” said Looks Away.
    Night had fallen around them like a blanket, leeching away the heat of the day and leaving in its place a moistureless cold. Somewhere out in the blackness something scuttled across the dry sand. Above them the sky was littered with ten billion stars, but even these burning suns looked like chips of ice scattered on a piece of black basalt. Grey got up and took a blanket from his saddle, wrapped it around his shoulders and sat back down. As an afterthought, he walked over to the rock on which Looks Away had arranged all of the guns. He retrieved his own, examined the barrel by firelight, blew through it, dumped out the bullets, and thumbed them back in after inspecting them for grit. Then he slid the gun into its holster. He did not do it with any of the fancy flourishes some men use. Grey was a skilled gunman but he wasn’t a showman. He picked up Riley’s little derringer and slipped that into his pants pocket. His knives were there, too, and he returned them to belt and boot sheaths. Then he went and sat back down. He was aware of Looks Away watching him with intelligent dark eyes. The Sioux made no comment about Grey taking back his weapons, and that told him a lot about their relationship. Maybe not yet friends, maybe not allies, but definitely two men at peace with one another. Fair enough.
    â€œThat explosion,” said Grey as he picked up his tin cup, “wasn’t ghost rock.”
    â€œIt was and it wasn’t.”
    â€œYou deliberately beating around the bush, or is that a British thing you came back with?”
    Starlight sparkled from Looks Away’s white teeth. “A bit of both, I dare say.” He poured more whiskey into their cups, stared into his for a moment, sipped, sighed, and began speaking. “A lot of people are studying ghost rock, you know. Not just here in America, but all around the world. It’s not unfair to say that it is the most significant scientific discovery of the nineteenth century. It’s potentially one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time, and I am not exaggerating when I say that. Of all time.”
    He let that hang in the air between them. Grey waited.
    â€œEver since ghost rock was discovered in the Maze out in California,” continued the Sioux, “everyone has been looking for it. Men have actually left gold and silver mines in order to search for the ore. Think of that. Abandoning a working gold mine in order to find that damnable black rock.”
    â€œWhy shouldn’t they? Gold can’t make a ship sail faster than the wind,” said Grey. “It can’t make a gun fire twenty times faster than a man can work a rifle lever. It can’t make a carriage run without horses.”
    â€œExactly,” said Looks Away, nodding. “Ghost rock is all of that and more.”
    â€œHard stuff to find, though. Nowadays, I mean. After the big Quake of ’68, folks were finding bits of it everywhere including their own backyards; the supply seems to have dried up.”
    Looks Away shook his head. “That’s not precisely true. A lot of people went to great—very great, I dare say—effort to collect as many pieces of it as they could. Much of that sundry supply was begged, borrowed, bought, or stolen.”
    Grey nodded. “Mm. I’ve heard tales. I also heard they found a