A Wells Fargo stagecoach near the New Mexico/Arizona desert was held up with the shotgun guard wounded. The only thing taken was a mongrel dog in a wooden cage. Jim Hardie is called in and upon talking to the driver and guard learns what was taken and who the dog, Hank, was being shipped to. He tracks down Jeff Anderson in a saloon and tells him why he is there. Jeff informs him that his brother, Ed, died in a mining accident when he fell down a shaft and the dog was his. Hardie backtracks the stage route and eventually finds the broken cage and then the dog who is suffering in the heat but is unable to find the two robbers. He takes the dog to Santa Fe where the mine is to help find the two men. While in Ed Anderson's cabin, Sally Hill enters. Hardie introduces himself to the pretty girl who says she sent the dog to Jeff because that was what Ed wanted but she wants to know where his collar is. She was engaged to Ed but is sure his death was an accident. Ed had sold the mine to her father, Seth Hill, an attorney. Hardie then talks to her father who says he bought the mine but most of the deal was an oral agreement. Hardie suspects the collar held something worth murdering Ed over.
—Anonymous