now. He ain't down--"

"There's old Buck, over there by the creek," Pink announced. "I'd know
him far as I could see him. Let's ride around that way. There's sure
to be a trail down." He started off, and they followed him
dispiritedly, for the heat was something to remember afterwards with a
shudder.

"Here's the place," Pink called back to them, after some minutes of
riding. "Andy's horse is down there, too, but I don't see Andy--"

"Chances is--" began Happy Jack, but found no one listening.

It would be impossible to ride down, so they dismounted and prepared
for the scramble. They could see Buck, packed as if for the homeward
trail, and they could see Andy's horse, saddled and feeding with reins
dragging. He looked up at them and whinnied, and the sound but
accentuated the loneliness of the place. Buck, too, saw them and came
toward them, whinnying wistfully; but, though they strained eyes in
every direction, they could see nothing of the man they sought.

It was significant of their apprehension that not even Happy Jack made
open comment upon the strangeness of it. Instead, they dug bootheels
deep where the slope was loose gravel, and watched that their horses
did not slide down upon them; climbed over rocks where the way was
barred, and prayed that horse and man might not break a leg. They had
been over rough spots, and had climbed in and out of deep coulees, but
never had they travelled a rougher trail than that.

"My God! boys, look down there!" Pink cried, when yet fifty
perpendicular feet lay between them and the level below.

They looked, and drew breath sharply. Huddled at the very foot of the
last and worst slope lay Andy, and they needed no words to explain
what had happened. It was evident that he had started to climb the
bluff and had slipped and fallen to the bottom, And from the way he
was lying--The Happy Family shut out the horror of the thought and
hurried recklessly to the place.

It was Pink who, with a last slide and a stumbling recovery at the
bottom, reached him first. It was Jack Bates who came a close second
and helped to turn him--for he had fallen partly on his face. From the
way one arm was crumpled back under him, they knew it to be broken.
Further than that they could only guess and hope. While they were
feeling for heart-beats, the others came down and crowded close. Pink
looked up at them strainedly.

"Oh, for God's sake, some of yuh get water," he cried sharply. "What
good