plane was cracked up pretty badly,
but the weird part of it was the fact that the bodies of the crew had
broken into pieces, as though they had been made of glass. Arms and legs
were detached from the torsos and lying at a distance. There was no sign
of blood on the ground. We saw all this with our naked eyes from close
at hand and verified it by observations through binoculars from a
greater height.

"When we had made our observations and marked the location of the wreck
as closely as we could, we headed east until we found a landing place
near Fallon. Hughes dropped me here and went on to Reno, or to San
Francisco if necessary, to report the accident and get more planes to
aid in the search. I was wholly at sea, but it seemed to be in your line
and as I knew that you were at the St. Francis, I called you up."

* * * * *

"What are your plans?"

"I made none until I talked with you. The country where the wreck
occurred is unbelievably wild and we can't get near it with any
transportation other than burros. The only thing that I can see to do is
to gather together what transportation I can and head for the wreck on
foot to rescue the packets and to bring out the bodies. Can you suggest
anything better?"

"When do you expect to start?"

"As soon as I can get my pack train together. Possibly in three or four
hours."

"Carnes, are you sure that those bodies were broken into bits? An arm or
a leg might easily be torn off in a complete crash."

"They were smashed into bits as nearly as I could tell, Doctor. Hughes
is an old flier and he has seen plenty of crashes but he never saw
anything like this. It beats anything that I ever saw."

"If your observations were accurate, there could be only one cause and
that one is a patent impossibility. I haven't a bit of equipment
here, but I expect that I can get most of the stuff I want from the
University of California across the bay at Berkeley. I can get a
plane at Crissy Field. I'll tell you what to do, Carnes. Get your burro
train together and start as soon as you can, but leave me half a
dozen burros and a guide at Fallon. I'll get up there as soon as I can
and I'll try to overtake you before you get to the wreck. If I don't,
don't disturb anything any more than you can help until my arrival. Do
you understand?"

"I thought that you were on your vacation, Doctor."

"Oh shut up! Like most of my vacations, this one will have to be
post