In the Desert

Just back from the Amazon, the boys head out on a school bus trip to California. When the bus stops in the middle of the night at a deserted café, the boys become tangled up in a host of untold secrets buried beneath the sand-swept terrain. Is the reclusive old man, Mr. Natonto, at the center of it all? And what’s he up to in Lizard Flats? Or is it the legend of the Negro Arena Diablo come back to haunt the inhabitants of Gila Bend? A harrowing escape from the sun-baked desert leaves the boys thinking they can put the whole bizarre tale behind—until the local highway patrolman, Officer Hernandez, tells them Mr. Natonto died six months ago! What could it possibly mean?