Excerpt
Stampede Mesa
Crosby County, Texas
I told Billy it was a bad idea, letting the herd overnight on Stampede Mesa. Oh I grant you that the grazing atop the 200 acres mesa is nearly always choice. But the history of the place! Well, none of the other cowboys would go near the mesa, especially at night. And no one in his right mind would take a herd there. They'd heard the same stories I had.
One cowpoke I know, a real shy fellow name of Ted, once told me in confidence that one stormy evening, while he was riding past the mesa, he had seen a herd of cattle stampeding through the clouds, driven by a terrible ghost on a blindfolded horse. The herd and its guards had fallen down a cloudy canyon and disappeared before Ted's eyes.
Now Ted is such a truthful fellow that the other cowpokes call him preacher. I believed his story, and was real angry when Billy insisted we overnight the herd there. But I was outvoted. None of the other cowboys would admit to believing in ghosts, and I was laughed to scorn when I voted we try another place for the night. So I rode a little away from the others, watching my section of cattle and remembering the story of Stampede Mesa and how it came to be haunted.