A smashed wheel, driven into the side of a pine-tree, was the first evidence of the crash. Then a dead horse, upside down in a tangle of laurel, its harness stripped from its body. Beyond that was another horse and the wreck of the stage. It had turned over and crashed into a tree, splintering the body. There was no sign of the other two wheels. Brick and Harp stood silently, gazing at the wreckage. “Good ——, what a smash!” breathed Brick. “They must have fell two hundred feet. C’mon.” They moved down to the stage. Just beyond it, huddled in a bush, they found Baldy Malloy. His clothes were almost torn from his body, and it did not take an expert to tell that Baldy had made his last trip. “Poor ——,” said Brick sadly. “He stayed with her until they hit the tree. But where is Whizzer?” “That’s right,” nodded Harp. “The kid was with him.” They separated and began their search. Twice they combed every inch of ground between the stage and the grade. They went far down in the cañon below the stage, searching closely for any sign, but there was nothing to show that the little boy had wandered down the hill. After two hours of determined search, Brick sat down and admitted himself beaten. “He just ain’t here, Harp.” “He ain’t,” declared Harp. “By golly, we’ve sure looked over every inch of this mountain. But where in —— is he?” Brick wiped his brow and shook his head. “That’s the queer part of it, cowboy. He must be—and ain’t. We’ll pack old Baldy up to the horses and take him to town. It’s barely possible that Whizzer wasn’t hurt, and that he got back to the grade and headed for town.” “That’s right,” agreed Harp hopefully. “By jinks, that’s right.” It was a big task to get the body up to the grade, and both men were tired out, when they swung onto their horses, with the body on Brick’s saddle. They were unable to travel fast, but they did not overtake Whizzer. There were no tracks from his little feet in the dusty road, and Brick’s eyes squinted painfully as he visualized the little fellow wandering alone in that deep cañon, looking for a way out. Their arrival caused a sensation in Marlin City. Brick turned the body over to Doctor Meyers and went back to the Dollar Down saloon, where he told them about the missing boy. There were several men there who had seen the boy with Baldy that day, and in about thirty minutes a group of twelve riders, including Harp, Brick and Silent Slade, were heading back for the scene of the wreck. Several of them carried lanterns, and there were enough blankets along to wrap up a dozen children. Even Le Blanc, the blacksmith, borrowed a horse and went along. It was almost dark when they arrived, and in a short time there were lanterns bobbing around the timbered sides of Elk Cañon, as the men searched in every possible and impossible place.