Longarm 155 - Longarm and the Grave Robbers by Tabor Evans

Author:Tabor Evans [Evans, Tabor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780515123920
Google: C6EEAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0745145612
Publisher: Jove Books
Published: 1993-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The little ranching and mining town of Mancos proved itself hospitable enough, and they got an early start for Cortez the next day. The southern Colorado mountain country was quite beautiful, and when they rode down into the high desert country that surrounded Cortez, Longarm was surprised to see how much it had grown since he’d passed through a few years earlier.

“This is mostly a ranching town, although there is some mining activity,” Longarm explained. “And you can see that there are several outfits that take tour groups up to the cliff dwellings.”

“I can hardly wait to see them,” Miranda said. “Why don’t we talk to a few of these tour groups after we board the horses and get a hotel room.”

“I’ll probably be needing a day or two before we leave to investigate,” Longarm told her. “After all, I really don’t expect to catch the Anasazi grave robbers in the act.”

“Custis, you might get lucky and do exactly that.” But Longarm didn’t think so. If the gang had any common sense at all, they would be excavating during the off-season when there was very little likelihood of discovery. This country could get very cold in the winter, and deep snows were not uncommon. Longarm was quite sure that if you were caught up on Mesa Verde unprepared, you could freeze to death.

“Let’s take care of these horses and just see how it goes,” Longarm said. “That livery over there looks good to me.”

The OK Livery was just about what you would expect in a town as small as Cortez. It had one large and drafty barn with private stalls inside and a tack room as well as a loft crammed with fresh summer hay. Outside were two or three corrals and several dozen wagons in various states of decay and disrepair. There was also a blacksmith’s forge and anvil, which told Longarm that the liveryman was also a farrier.

“Howdy,” a short and powerful man about Longarm’s age called as he came to greet them. He was wearing a red flannel shirt and smoking a corncob pipe. “You be needing to put your horses and that ugly little burro up for a while?”

“He’s not ugly,” Miranda argued.

“Sorry, ma’am! Didn’t mean for you to take it personal. Why, you’re right! He is an uncommonly handsome little critter, given the state of his race.”

Longarm quickly came to terms about the price of boarding. After helping to unsaddle and then unload their supplies and belongings, he said, “What hotel would you recommend for me and my wife?”

“There ain’t but two, and one of them isn’t fit for a lady,” the liveryman said. “So that just leaves you with the Concord Hotel. It ain’t nothin’ to brag about, but it serves all the tourists and the food is pretty good. It’s run by a spunky old widow woman named Mrs. McAllister. Yes, sir! Jenny McAllister is a real corker!”

“What does that mean?” Longarm asked.

“It means that if she likes you, you couldn’t ask for a better friend.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.