“Since they may be down there for several more hours, I suggest we take a tour of these ruins.”
“I’d like that.”
Longarm was not a superstitious man, but as they crept through the little rooms and admired the beautiful red and black designs on the inside walls of a bedroom, he could almost hear the whisperings of ancient spirits.
“It’s cold here,” Miranda said once as they ducked into what appeared to have been a storage room. “I bet the old people really suffered from rheumatism and aching bones.”
“I suspect so,” Longarm replied. “My guess is that they stayed very near the mouth of the cave and soaked in as much of the afternoon sunshine as possible.”
“Do you think that quite a few of their children fell to their deaths?”
“I imagine the children must have learned quite young to stay away from the mouth of this cavern and that their mothers watched them like hawks.”
“I hope so,” Miranda said as they left the storage compartment and passed along a second-story balcony that connected two separate square towers. “Everywhere I look I see places where you could fall to your death.”
“I doubt that they saw it that way,” Longarm told her. “I’m sure that they felt right at home and very safe from all enemies.”
Longarm and Miranda worked their way deeper into the cavern, back where they had been told that the Anasazi kept their domesticated turkeys penned and also deposited their refuse. Sure enough, they discovered evidence of turkey droppings as well as many bird and animal bones.
“I could spend years poking around in here, digging up things,” Miranda said. “I wonder if the other cliff dwellings are as big as this one.”
“I don’t think so,” Longarm said, looking back toward the kiva where the archaeologists were still working. “Cliff Palace is supposed to be the largest.”
Just then, Barker and Lucking emerged, cradling dirt-crusted objects in their arms.
“What are we going to do?” Miranda asked as they ducked behind a wall.
“I think we ought to announce ourselves and take a look at whatever it is they are bringing out of that kiva,” Longarm answered.
“But won’t they become suspicious?”
“I don’t think so,” Longarm answered. “At any rate, I’m not one to slink around. Let’s just greet them as if we were out exploring and having a good time.”
When Lucking and Barker realized that they were not alone in Cliff Palace, they were less than friendly. Lucking was especially incensed.
“This is really no place for tourists without experienced guides,” he said, giving them stern looks. “I would have thought that you would both have had more sense than to attempt that descent without a guide familiar with the trail.”
“We are adventuresome,” Longarm said, determined not to allow himself to be rankled. He glanced over at the partial skeleton and the newly unearthed pottery, some of which was unbroken and no doubt very valuable. “I see that you’re not leaving everything you find in that kiva.”
“We examine it and then return it!” Lucking snapped. “And anyway, what concern is it of yours?”
“None at all,” Longarm replied. “I’m all for scientific research. As long as it’s well done and for everyone’s benefit.”
The younger archaeologist said, “These ruins can be quite dangerous to the uninitiated. You could fall through rubble and be killed. My suggestion is that you both leave and perhaps return next spring with an experienced guide.”
“We don’t need a guide,” Miranda angrily retorted. “And neither do we need your advice.”
“We have important work to do,” Lucking said stiffly as he climbed back down the ladder into the kiva.
“Yes,” Barker said, “if you’ll excuse us.”
“Sure.” Longarm smiled disarmingly. “Just pretend that we aren’t even here.”
Barker gave him a cold look and then vanished, leaving Miranda and Longarm alone with the displaced artifacts.
“What now?” she whispered.
“We’ll leave in an hour or so,” Longarm told her. “I don’t know about you, but the sooner I get up on top of the mesa, the better I’ll feel.”
They left Cliff Palace a short time later, and climbed back up to the top of the mesa without incident. They cooked a long-overdue breakfast and enjoyed a pot of coffee. The sun warmed them, and after their strenuous climb, it was easy to lie back and take a nap.
“Hey!” a voice called, bringing Longarm and Miranda out of a restful sleep. “Who are you?”
Longarm sat up and looked at a pair of cowboys who were standing about fifteen feet away. They looked friendly enough, so he said, “Hello.”
“What are you and that woman doing up here?” the cowboy repeated. “There ain’t no guides around.”
“We decided to come up without one,” Longarm told them, not caring if it sounded foolish. “Who are you?”
“We work for Mountain Packers,” the cowboy answered. “And we’ve just delivered supplies for Dr. Lucking and Dr. Barker. Are they down in the cliff dwellings today?”
“As far as I know,” Longarm said, thinking what a great stroke of good luck it was to have these men here so soon. “Will you be staying a while?”
“Naw, we’re going down tomorrow,” the other cowboy said. “We work our pack string out of Durango.”
“I see.”
“Funny time to be takin’ a nap,” the taller of the pair remarked. “Why, it ain’t even noon!”
“We’re on our honeymoon,” Miranda explained, rubbing her eyes and stretching with a yawn.
The cowboys suddenly looked embarrassed, and without another word, they marched back to their pack string of mules and began to unload supplies.
“What are we going to do now?” Miranda asked.
“I’d say that we ought to follow this pair down to Durango and see who is picking up those boxes of artifacts that I inspected yesterday.”
“Good idea.”
When Barker and Lucking returned to the mesa-top late that afternoon, they were anything but sociable to Miranda and Longarm, and did not invite them into their camp. That evening, the wind began to blow and the temperature plummeted.
“I’m afraid we might be in for a snowstorm,” Longarm said, his expression grim.
“We could go back down into Cliff Palace and stay dry.”
“We might never be able to climb out again given the snow and ice that could coat the cliff face.”
“Then what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that we had better cross our fingers and pray that we can ride off this mesa first thing in the morning.”
“Maybe Lucking and Barker will have to do the same,” Miranda said.
“I expect that they will,” Longarm answered. “It appears to me like this country is going to have an early and hard winter. I also can’t imagine that they would be very happy about trying to climb up and down the face of that cliff when the toe-and handholds are filled with snow and ice. I’m sure that they’ll have to pack up everything and come on down with the gents from Mountain Packers.”
“That would work to our favor, wouldn’t it?”
“You bet it would,” Longarm said. “So let’s see if we can keep from freezing to death tonight and cross our fingers that this is just a weak, passing storm.”
Longarm moved their camp into the shelter of some rocks that offered a good deal of protection from the wind. He fed their animals grain, and made sure that they were well tied and could not break away if frightened by the storm. By the time he was finished, the snow was really starting to come down and it was very cold.
“We’ll be fine,” Miranda told him as he huddled beside their fire and tried to warm his hands. “These storms are usually fast-moving.”
“Yeah,” he said, deciding that he had better change into a dry shirt and pants before jumping into his bedroll.
Miranda had other ideas. As soon as Longarm was undressed and before he could reach for a change of dry clothing, she was kissing his chest, then rubbing his half frozen thighs. “Custis, let’s sleep together and create some good old-fashioned body heat.”