The state license number was gone, and the serial number on the engine had been hammered into illegibility.

What tracks there were had been blown nearly full of the white sand of that particular locality There was nothing to be learned there, except the very patent fact that the machine bad been abandoned for some reason.
Luck took a look at the engine and saw nothing wrong with it.

There was oil and there was "gas"-- a whole tank full.

Andy and Miguel, riding an ever-widening circle around the machine while Luck was looking for evidence of a breakdown, ran across a lot of hoofprints that seemed to head straight away past the rim-rock and on to the hills.
They picked up the trail of the hoofprints and followed it.

When they returned to the others they found the boys all mounted and waiting impatiently like hounds on the leash eager to get away on the chase.