Buffalo Mesa Mummy

Chapter 16

As the three friends reentered the dark room that held the cave drawings it was easy for them to imagine inhabitants of the cliff dwellings venturing in to record some new event. They took a minute to see if they could find any hint of some impending doom that would have caused them to leave so suddenly.

“I don’t see anything, but a lot of it doesn’t make sense to me anyway. Maybe experts can find a clue, but we have another job right now.” Peter said and led his friends back to their original task.

Once back in the square room they had entered before Maria had found the ‘drawing room’, as she had dubbed it, they began to search for the way to continue on to where Samantha was waiting for them.

They walked around the room a dozen times looking for a hidden entrance of some kind.

“Maybe we took the wrong passage way back there after all. This room was obviously carved into this stone from the cliff side. Maybe it was just a storeroom or something and this is as far as it goes.” Charlie said.

Maria started to protest but then clamped her lips shut. She had felt this was the right way to go at the time, but now she wasn’t sure her hunch had been right.

Peter sat down with his back against one of the walls and idly played his light back and forth across the room. He didn’t say anything for a minute or two and then he jumped to his feet and began pacing as he spoke.

“I think Maria was right, at least it feels right to me. Now, let’s think this over for a minute. Most of the ancient cliff dwellers came and went by a series of ladders or even narrow trails that wound up the cliff face. But, not wanting to be trapped if an enemy came along or if some natural disaster took away their normal method of coming and going, it would make sense to have an alternate route. It might be even harder than the usual way, but it most likely wasn’t used except in an emergency.”

“Ok, but we got here from the mine, didn’t we? How do we know that we didn’t come down the escape route?” Charlie asked.

“Why would they seal off their only other way out by filling the tunnel with rocks? That would kind of defeat the purpose wouldn’t it? No, I have another idea. How high would you say the ceiling of this room is?” Peter asked.

“Twelve, fifteen feet I would guess. Why?” Charlie asked.

Peter shined his light across the room to the other side where the wall met the ceiling. “See that? I think there is a ledge up there.”

Peter picked up a couple of stones from the floor and tossed them one at a time at the place he had pointed out. The first couple bounced off the wall or ceiling and clattered back to the ground. The third stone just vanished when it reached its target.

“Give me a boost.” Maria said excitedly.

Charlie grabbed one leg and Peter the other and they hoisted her up to their shoulders. Maria was still far below the ceiling so they placed their hands under her feet and lifted her as high as their arms would extend.

“Good thing you are so skinny.” Charlie said as he grunted with the effort to keep his arm stretched over his head.

“I am not skinny, I am slender. Peter, do you think I am skinny or slender?” Maria asked.

“Not skinny, not skinny at all.” Peter answered through clenched teeth as his arms began to burn.

“Oh, brother.” Charlie groaned. “It would really help, oh slender sister of mine, if you would hurry.”

“Let me down. I still can’t reach the top. You guys are too short.” Maria said.

Peter and Charlie lowered Maria to their shoulders again and she nimbly jumped to the ground.