“I sure hope so,” Miranda said. “And after what they’ve done to us, I’d prefer to kill them all myself!”
“I’m afraid that you’ll have to wait in line, darling.”
By `@364’ mid-morning, the wind was fierce and the tracks they had been following had been wiped away. With their coat collars pulled up under their chins and with the snow biting at their eyes, they had a brief discussion and decided to head for Cortez, simply because it was closer and they were getting weak from the cold and the effort it took to buck the bitter head wind.
At noon, Longarm unpacked the burro, fed it the last of their oats, then lifted Miranda up on its back and said, “You just hang on tight and enjoy the ride.”
She was so weary that she could hardly force a smile.
“We haven’t all that much farther to go, have we?”
“Just a few more miles and we’ll be in Cortez, and then we’ll get a room and have a hot bath and supper with whiskey and wine. How does that sound?”
“Heavenly. But what about-“
“We’ll worry about catching up with them tomorrow morning,” Longarm told her. “No one is going anywhere in this stormy weather, so we might as well enjoy ourselves for at least this evening.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Longarm had hoped that they might meet a wagon or perhaps even a stagecoach that would bring them the last few miles of their exhausting journey down from Mesa Verde, but they had no such luck. And it was a good bit farther to town than he’d been willing to admit to himself, and so they didn’t reach Cortez until just before nightfall. By then, Longarm was staggering and the damned wind hadn’t let up at all.
They left the burro in a stall at the livery, which was now being run by a townsman, who had temporarily replaced Joe Horn, and hurried to the Concord Hotel. Jenny McAllister had a fit when she saw what poor shape they were in.
“My God!” she cried. “What happened!”
“It’s a long story, ma’am. Could you have a steaming bath brought up to our room and later a good hot meal?”
“Why, of course! You both look like death warmed over.”
“I’m sure we do,” Longarm said, feeling his lips crack as he tried to smile and show that he was still game. “But we’ll be much better by morning.”
“Did you walk all the way down from the mesa?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“In this terrible weather?”
“Wasn’t any choice, ma’am. No choice at all.”
“Let’s get you upstairs to a room and we’ll have that hot bath ready in no time.”
“Thank you,” Miranda said, her voice thin and trembling with weariness.
“my land,” the woman said, “I sure wouldn’t be going anywhere else with this fool!”
Longarm might have thought the remark somewhat humorous had he been in his normal good spirits. But as it was, he found himself entirely lacking in humor as he took Miranda’s arm and steered her toward the stairs.
They soaked long and ate well that night, then slept like the dead, and did not awaken until almost ten o’clock the following morning.
“I’m feeling a lot better,” Miranda told Longarm as he dressed and checked his weapons. “And I’d like to go out with you this morning.”
“I’d prefer that you stayed in bed and rested,” he said. “I doubt that our friends are in town anyway.”
“But you said it was just as likely they’d head for Laird’s museum as for Durango.”
“Well,” Longarm said, not wanting to place Miranda in any danger, “I changed my mind. I’m quite sure that they’ve gone to Durango.”
“Then what-“
“I want to go to the telegraph office and see if I’ve heard back from Billy Vail on those two archaeologists,” Longarm explained. “My guess is that Harvard University has never heard of either man.”
“And then what?”
“I’ll go pay a visit to Laird and ask him a few more questions.”
“Will you arrest him?”
“Not yet,” Longarm told her. “Not until we first arrest Lucking and Barker. Laird can wait a while longer. I’m sure that he isn’t the leader of this bunch, and I don’t want to spook them into hiding.”
“Be careful,” Miranda pleaded. “And if I can-“
“You can’t,” Longarm said. “Just stay here and rest up. We’ll be heading for Durango the minute I can find a way to get there safely.”
“All right.”
Longarm went downstairs. He would have loved to have breakfast and hot coffee, but he felt compelled to seek out Laird and perhaps, if his hunches were correct, even catch Lucking and Barker at the museum unloading their last shipment of Anasazi artifacts before the pair headed east into a winter hiding.
