Novel 1987 - The Haunted Mesa (v5.0) Read Online Free PDF Page A

they often spoke the language, enabling him to become fluent. Several times he attended his friend’s classes, picking up a bit of Bible knowledge as well as learning of the Holy Lands.
    He began dating a local girl but her parents disapproved. Who was he, after all, but a drifter with no future? Smoothly but effectually her parents broke it off; at the time he was heartbroken, with a feeling he had been treated unjustly.
    He moved on, worked in lumber woods, managed to sell an article on carnival life, and another on deer to a wildlife journal. Again he went to work for a small-town daily, and when the editor-operator became ill, ran the paper for him until his recovery was complete. His career underwent a sudden change when the editor returned.
    A few days before, a man had arrived in town who professed to communicate with the dead. Before their eyes he received messages from long-dead relatives of the townspeople, including advice for the lovelorn as well as suggestions on how to invest their money.
    Melburn called him into the office. “Mike? Didn’t you work with a magic show once?”
    â€œYeah!”
    â€œHave you been hearing about this medium who just came to town? Could he be faking it?”
    â€œHe is a fake. He’s using one of the oldest routines in the world. We used it in carnivals to read hidden messages.”
    â€œI want you to expose him, Mike. Then do a story about it. He’s been telling old Mrs. McKenna that he has a communication from her dead husband on how she should invest her savings.”
    â€œYou want me to attend a seance?”
    â€œYes, I do. Get the goods on him, do a story on it, and we can syndicate the story.”
    He had exposed the charlatan and, after the story’s syndication, followed it with an article on a haunted house. Unwittingly, he had found his career.
    A national magazine hired him to do a series on haunted houses; another followed on famous magicians. A visit to Haiti and the resulting book on voodoo brought him a best seller. After that he began a series of trips to far-out, mysterious places. In the Sahara he visited the tomb of Tin Hinan, followed by the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, then to Socotra, the Enchanter’s Island. He had spent most of a year in Tibet.
    In the space of a year he became an international celebrity. He dug into history to uncover strange events, studied phenomena ignored by science, and although an acknowledged skeptic, he closed his mind to nothing. Quick to detect fraud, he had also come to realize there was a residue of something, something not quite explainable by any method he knew. At least not by present knowledge.
    Time and again he had found himself skirting something shadowy, something that lacked substance yet seemed to be there. Many times he found it necessary to pursue other angles of approach, and it was upon one of these problems that he first met Erik Hokart.
    Hokart was an inventor, a specialist in some areas of electronics. Far more than most research scientists Hokart was keenly aware of the commercial possibilities of some of their discoveries. The result was that he had gone into business and made millions, promptly retiring to enjoy what he had.
    It was Erik who had guided Mike Raglan through some of the labyrinths of mathematics and physics. Often they discussed Erik’s obsession with the canyon country of Utah and Arizona, and a place in which to build.
    The final choice had been Erik’s own. Had Mike known, he would have strongly advised Erik Hokart to choose another place, yet what reasons could he have given?
    Mike Raglan looked again across the snow where the mysterious white van had stood waiting.
    Another occupant? Or simply an empty van? Was there one man or two? Or more?
    Uneasily, he considered what little he knew. Erik was in trouble. Erik had contrived, somehow, to have this daybook delivered to him.
    This man or these men knew of its delivery and tried to recover