it is worth at least three hundred dollars, perhaps more.”
“I don’t have anywhere near that much money to spend. Oh, I mean, I do, but not on a single artifact.”
“Of course,” Laird said, managing a tolerant smile. “Now, if you have no other questions …”
“I have a few,” Miranda said. “Why did the cliff dwellers abandon Mesa Verde?”
“That is the great question,” Laird replied. “The one that everyone asks, but which no one can really answer. Some believe that the cliff dwellers were destroyed by enemies and taken away into slavery. Others say no, disease killed off their civilization. I say that it could have been a change in the climate. Perhaps a prolonged drought that made it impossible to sustain their farming.”
“How would anyone begin to prove those theories?” Miranda asked.
“I can’t answer that. There are two excellent archaeologists up on the mesa right now, a Dr. Barker and a Dr. Lucking. They are on the faculty at Harvard, and have been sent out here to work on excavations and research.”
“Harvard, huh?” Longarm said.
“Yes. They are excellent scientists, and far more knowledgeable than I am about ancient civilizations.”
“Do you buy artifacts that they excavate?” Longarm asked.
“No, of course not!” Laird did not even attempt to hide his irritation at this question. “I’ve already told you where I get my collection. From locals and from what I actually purchased or else found for myself at Mesa Verde.”
“I was only curious because my wife and I were sort of hoping to find a few things for ourselves. It would be more fun than buying them.”
“I understand that. But the main cliff dwellings have all been thoroughly examined and excavated. You see, most of the artifacts found in them were buried in their trash piles.”
“Is that a fact?” Longarm asked.
“It is,” Laird replied. “This skull and some of its body bones which I have in the storeroom were excavated from a trash heap in the very back of Cliff Palace.”
“They buried their dead in with their trash?” Miranda asked, looking appalled.
“Only in the wintertime when the ground up on the mesa was frozen and burial anywhere else would have been impossible,” Laird explained. “We are very sure that was the reason why we find skeletons in their trash heaps. And because those trash heaps were often located very far back under the lip of the limestone caverns, the skeletons never were subject to the elements. That is why they are in such remarkably good condition.”
“Isn’t that something,” Longarm said, shaking his head as if in wonder.
“Yes, it is,” Laird agreed. “And we also find buried dogs and many turkey bones.”
“Those people raised turkeys?”
“Oh, yes!” Laird came to his feet and went out into his displayed collection, beckoning Longarm and Miranda to follow and examine a ratty-looking robe.
“This is an ancient robe of the kind that we think were quite typical,” Laird said, his long, slender fingers stroking the robe’s fur. “As you can plainly see, the robe is made of woven strips of leather and turkey feathers. It would have been very, very warm in the winter.”
“Amazing,” Miranda said, stroking the robe. “It must have taken a great deal of time, effort, and patience for their women to have made these robes.”
“Exactly so!” Laird agreed. “But their lives would have depended upon keeping warm during the wintertime.
“Didn’t they keep big fires going in the caves?” Longarm asked.
“Oh, certainly! You can see the smoke stains and smudge all over the roofs of those cliff caverns, but the heat would have risen, and I doubt it would have offered any warmth at all to a person who was not sitting directly beside the fire. You see, the roofs are quite high, and since we all know that heat rises, it would have dissipated quickly.”
“You sound extremely knowledgeable about the cliff dwellers yourself,” Longarm said. “I have made them a lifetime study,” Laird admitted. “And although I do not have a formal academic background in archaeology or anthropology, I daresay that I am quite a recognized expert on the Anasazi and that the two scientists currently working up there depend on me for the answers to certain mysteries.”
“I’m sure that they do,” Longarm said. Then, turning to Miranda. “We had better go now and leave this man to his work, my dear.”
“Oh, no,” Laird protested. “Stay as long as you wish and ask whatever questions you want. I may not be able to answer them, but I’ll try.”
“You’re very kind,” Miranda said sweetly. Laird actually blushed.
Longarm took Miranda’s arm and steered her toward the doorway, saying, “We’ll probably be back.”
“Good!”
When they were outside and walking back toward the hotel, Miranda said, “Why were you in such a big hurry to leave that museum? There were so many things that I didn’t have time to see or questions that you never gave me a chance to ask.”
“Good,” Longarm told her, “because I want to come back several times without arousing the man’s suspicion. Did you notice how defensive he became when I asked him about the source of his collection?”
“No.”
