Louis LAmour - The Lonesome Gods

Johannes VerneNeither the smoldering hatred of his grandfather nor the searing terrors of the desert could stop him from pursuing love, adventure and fortune in the untamed vastness of California.

Miss NesselrodeA woman of uncommon beauty and an even rarer talent for business. Yet her success threatened many, and her past held a secret that haunted her future.

Meghan LaurelHer red-gold hair, lovely bearing and fond attentions won Johanness eye, but her courtship by his deadly rival became his greatest danger.

Don IsidroBeyond emotion, beyond reason, beyond family ties, he swore a terrible vengeance against Johannes and his father, carving a bloodstained trail of tragedy and fear.

NOVELS

Bendigo Shafter

Borden Chantry

Brionne

The Broken Gun

The Burning Hills

The Californios

Callaghen

Catlow

Chancy

The Cherokee Trail

Comstock Lode

Conagher

Crossfire Trail

Dark Canyon

Down the Long Hills

The Empty Land

Fair Blows the Wind

Fallon

The Ferguson Rifle

The First Fast Draw

Flint

Guns of the Timberlands

Hanging Woman Creek

The Haunted Mesa

Heller with a Gun

The High Graders

High Lonesome

Hondo

How the West Was Won

The Iron Marshal

The Key-Lock Man

Kid Rodelo

Kilkenny

Killoe

Kilrone

Kiowa Trail

Last of the Breed

Last Stand at Papago Wells

The Lonesome Gods

The Man Called Noon

The Man from Skibbereen

The Man from the Broken Hills

Matagorda

Milo Talon

The Mountain Valley War

North to the Rails

Over on the Dry Side

Passin Through

The Proving Trail

The Quick and the Dead

Radigan

Reillys Luck

The Rider of Lost Creek

Rivers West

The Shadow Riders

Shalako

Showdown at Yellow Butte

Silver Canyon

Sitka

Son of a Wanted Man

Taggart

The Tall Stranger

To Tame a Land

Tucker

Under the Sweetwater Rim

Utah Blaine

The Walking Drum

Westward the Tide

Where the Long Grass Blows

SHORT STORY

COLLECTIONS

Beyond the Great Snow Mountains

Bowdrie

Bowdries Law

Buckskin Run

Dutchmans Flat

End of the Drive

The Hills of Homicide

Law of the Desert Born

Long Ride Home

Lonigan

May There Be a Road

Monument Rock

Night over the Solomons

The Outlaws of Mesquite

The Rider of the Ruby Hills

Riding for the Brand

The Strong Shall Live

The Trail to Crazy Man

Valley of the Sun

War Party

West from Singapore

West of Dodge

With These Hands

Yondering

SACKETT TITLES

Sacketts Land

To the Far Blue Mountains

The Warriors Path

Jubal Sackett

Ride the River

The Daybreakers

Sackett

Lando

Mojave Crossing

Mustang Man

The Lonely Men

Galloway

Treasure Mountain

Lonely on the Mountain

Ride the Dark Trail

The Sackett Brand

The Sky-Liners

THE HOPALONG CASSIDY NOVELS

The Riders of High Rock

The Rustlers of West Fork

The Trail to Seven Pines

Trouble Shooter

NONFICTION

Education of a Wandering Man

Frontier

THE SACKETT COMPANION:

A Personal Guide to the Sackett Novels

A T RAIL OF M EMORIES:

The Quotations of Louis LAmour, compiled by Angelique

LAmour

POETRY

Smoke from This Altar

THE LONESOME GODS
A Bantam Book

PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition / April 1983
Bantam paperback edition / February 1984
Bantam reissue / October 1992
Bantam reissue / August 2002

Photograph of Louis LAmour by John Hamilton
Globe Photos, Inc.

All rights reserved.
Copyright 1983 by Louis & Katherine LAmour Trust.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 82-45945.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.

eISBN: 978-0-553-89940-5

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words Bantam Books and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

v3.1

To the Applebaum boys,
Stuart and Irwyn

I sat very still, as befitted a small boy among strangers, staring wide-eyed into a world I did not know.

I was six years old and my father was dying.

Only last year I had lost my mother. She died longing for that far-off, lovely California where she was born, and of which she never tired of talking.

Warm and sunny, people said when speaking of California, but I knew it as a place where fear lived.

Now we were going there. We were crossing the desert to face that fear, and I was afraid.

My father sat close beside me trying to sleep, but torn occasionally by violent spells of coughing that caused the other passengers to turn their heads, some in pity, some in irritation.

Our wagon, drawn by six half-wild mustangs, plunged into the night, rocking and rumbling over a dim track that only the driver seemed to see. Ours was a desperate venture, a lone wagon with two outriders attempting the crossing from Santa Fe to California.

Lying awake in the darkness, I remembered what people in Santa Fe had said. Its a crazy idea! One wagon? Even if they can slip by the Apaches, the Yumas will be waiting at the crossing of the Colorado.

Remember what happened to that last outfit? The Yumas agreed to ferry them across the river, but when they had half of them on the far side, the Yumas just took off with all their goods and stock. Left em to die in the desert, with nothing.