at are the possible places?"

"What would such a place need to be like?" Luis asked, then answered his
own question, "It would need to be on a road, not only leading from the
base, but to the outside. Also, it would need to be a lonely place,
would it not? And it would need to be a place where the things could be
hidden and not be seen, but where a helper from outside could find them
easily. You see, I follow your reasoning. Where is such a place?"

The boys waited. Luis knew the area. He might have a good idea.

"There is one which is perfect. It is called Steamboat."

"But that's a town," Rick objected. "People would notice a truck from
the base."

Luis chuckled. "People, yes. Ghosts, no. An evil man like this Earthman
would not care what a ghost saw, would he? Ah, but you are new here, and
you do not know. Steamboat is a town without people. No one has lived
there for forty years."

"A ghost town," Scotty said in surprise. "But don't tourists go to ghost
towns?"

"They do," Luis agreed. "They go to Searchlight, and to Rhyolite, and to
Calico, and other ghost towns near here. But they do not go to
Steamboat. It is on bad roads, many miles from the nearest good highway.
Besides, who has heard of Steamboat? No newspaper writes about it, and
no one advertises it. You cannot even buy a souvenir at Steamboat. There
is no one to sell them. Ghosts do not peddle souvenirs."

Luis chuckled at his own joke. "You have a good head, Mr. Brant. I will
think about this. Perhaps you will think some more, too, and we will
compare notes later. Will you come to visit me again?"

"We'll come," they promised.

Outside in the brilliant sunlight, Rick said to Scotty, "You bet we'll
go to see him again! How did you like his idea about the ghost town?"

"It can be reached from Careless Mesa," Scotty pointed out. "I wish we'd
known it was a ghost town. We could have explored it some afternoon."

Rick said what had been on his mind since Luis made his suggestion. "I
think we'd better pay it a visit."

"When?"

"What's the matter with right now?"

"Nothing, I guess. But why the rush?"

Rick wasn't sure himself. "Maybe there isn't any rush. But on the other
hand, maybe there is. Look, we've kind of assumed Mac and Pancho are in
on this, haven't we? Well, their movements must be pretty well known, at
least while they're at work."

"They have to check their truck in and out. Why?"

"Let's talk about it over a coke. It's hot."