CHAPTER III
STARTLING NEWS
Leaping from their saddles, Nort and Dick hurried to the side oftheir cousin, chum and partner in the ranch venture. Eagerly theylooked over his shoulder while he examined the strange object hehad picked up, almost at the very door leading into themysterious tunnel.
The instrument--for such it seemed to be--consisted of a shiny,nickeled part, which was what had reflected the moonlight, thusattracting Bud's attention to it. In addition there were twoflexible tubes, of soft rubber, joining into one where they metthe shiny metal.
The two tubes each terminated in hard rubber ends, pierced with atiny hole, and on the end of the single tube was a bright metaldisk. The whole formed a strange object, picked up as it was fromthe ground, and especially when the boy ranchers feared they hadsome cause for alarm.
"What in the world is it?" asked Bud, as he dangled it in frontof his cousins. "I never saw anything like it before. Wait! Ihave it! Yellin' Kid said he was going to send to Kansas City fora flute he could play on. This must be part of it! He dropped ithere; though that couldn't 'a' been him sneaking around thetunnel. But this is Yellin' Kid's musical instrument all right!Oh, won't I rag him, though! I wonder which end you blow in?"
"That isn't a musical instrument!" declared Nort, taking it fromBud's hand.
"Not What is it then?" asked the western ranch lad.
"It's a stethoscope," declared Nort.
"Whew! x I didn't know Yellin' Kid could play one of_them_!" exclaimed Bud. "He must be more musical than any ofus thought!"
"'Tisn't musical, I tell you!" cried Nort, half laughing. "Thisis a _stethoscope_--it's what a doctor listens to your lungsor heart with when you're sick."
"He never listened to mine!" boasted Bud, "at least not since Ican remember, for I've never been sick."
"Well, I have," admitted Nort, "and so has Dick. You remember Dr.Thompson using one of these, don't you?" he asked his stoutbrother.
"Sure I do! And there's some other name for it besides plainstethoscope," declared Dick. "It's a long word--bi--di--"
"Binaural stethoscope! That's it!" broke in Nort. "I remember,now. I thought I'd never be able to say those words, but theycome back to me now. Binaural stethoscope."
"'Tisn't good to eat, or shoot with, is it!" asked Bud, as heagain took the instrument and turned it over and over in hishands.
"Eat! Shoot!" laughed Nort. "No, I tell you it's to listen toyour heart beats, or lungs. Binaural means, simply, that it'sfixed so you can listen with both ears at the same time. Andstethoscope comes from two Greek words, stethos, the breast, andskopen, to view. It means, literally, to view inside the chest,but of course the doctors who use the stethoscope don't really dothat. They only listen through the ear pieces--these," and heheld up the two rubber tubes ending in hard nipples, pierced withsmall holes.
"What's the other end for!" asked Bud, indicating the shiny diskof metal that dangled from the single tube.
"That's the part the doctor holds on your chest or over yourheart," Dick answered. "Sometimes the doctor puts it to your backto listen to your breathing from that side."
"Well, who in the world would have a--a binaural stethoscope outhere!" asked Bud. "Yon reckon Doc. Tunison dropped it!" he wenton, referring to the local veterinarian. "Shucks no! Cow doctorsdon't use 'em, not that I ever heard of," declared Nort. "ThoughDoc. Tunison is up to date."
"He sure was in discovering that it was germs which caused theepidemic outbreak in our stock last year," remarked Bud.
"Yes, we got out of that mighty lucky," chimed in Dick. "What'sbecome of Pocut Pete?" he asked, referring to a scoundrel of acowboy.
"Oh, Del Pinzo and Hank Fisher had pull enough to get him out ofjail, after he'd served only part of his term for infecting ourstock," said Bud. He had reference to something which isexplained in the volume immediately preceding this. Del Pinzo wasa notorious Mexican half-breed who, more than once, had madetrouble for the boy ranchers. Hank Fisher was the owner of DoubleZ ranch, adjoining that of Square M, one of Mr. Merkel's, andalso adjoining Happy Valley. Pocut Pete was believed to be a toolof these two unscrupulous men, and Del Pinzo had at his commandSeveral Greasers who slipped back and forth over the Mexicanborder, not far from which were located the holdings of Mr.Merkel and the boy ranchers.
"Well, this is a stethoscope all right," went on Nort, as Budturned toward his pony, with the evident intention of mounting.
"And I'd give a lot to know what it's doing here, and who droppedit," spoke Bud. "Let's look around a little more. I'm not at allsatisfied with this. I sure saw, some one here, and this provesit," and he stuffed the doctor's instrument into his pocket.
"It doesn't prove that the man you saw--or thought you justsaw--sneaking around here dropped it," spoke Nort. "We've been awayfor a week, and it may have been dropped any day within thattime."
"Yes," agreed Bud. "But who was monkeying around here as we rodeback to camp? That's what I want to know!"
However, search as the boy ranchers did, they found no midnightvisitor. All was quiet at their camp, save for the distant howlof a coyote, and the splash of the water into the reservoir. Allthe stock had been driven away from Happy Valley to the biground-up at Diamond X, but soon the fertile glade would again bedotted with hungry cattle.
"Well, I reckon we'll have to give up," said Bud, when a thoroughsearch had been made, and no one discovered.
"The tunnel door doesn't show any signs of an attempt having beenmade to bust it; does it?" asked Dick.
"Not as far as I can see, in this light," Bud replied. "We'lltake a stroll up here in the morning," he went on as he thrustthe stethoscope into his pocket. "Now for a little grub, and thento hit the hay. Oh, boy! But I to tired!"
So were the others, and after rummaging among their camp stores,and eating some crackers and canned peaches, the boys, havingpicketed their horses, turned in, rolled up in their blankets,and were asleep almost as soon as their heads were on thepillows, which were, as a matter of fact, stuffed with hay.
An examination, next morning, disclosed nothing more in theneighborhood of the tunnel entrance than their own and, theirponies' feet marks, until Bud, with an exclamation, pointed toseveral cigarette stubs on the ground, and a number of half-burnedmatches.
"Some one was here last night--or yesterday!" he declared. "Andthey stood in this one spot for some time--either resting orspying."
"What would they be spying on!" asked Dick.
"Search me!" frankly admitted Bud. "But since we had that waterfight I'm suspicious of everything. Those cigarette stubs arefresh, and were dropped last night, or yesterday. None of us use'em, and though some of our cow punchers do they haven't beenhere lately enough to have left this fresh evidence. The stubsare new ones."
"Well, maybe there was some one here last night," said Dick.
"I'm positive of it!" declared Bud. "Let's take another look atthe big door lock."
Even a close inspection, however, failed to disclose any signs ofthe great portal, or its heavy padlock having been tampered with.Nor were there any marks tending to show where an effort had beenmade to force boards off the frame in which the door was set.
"Well, we'll just have to wait," said Bud, as he turned to goback down to the tents. "Hello," he suddenly added, as he gazedoff up the valley. "Here comes somebody, riding like allpossessed, too!"
The boy ranchers watched the approach of the solitary horseman,and, as he drew nearer Bud exclaimed:
"It's Buck Tooth!"
It was, in fact, that same Zuni Indian, who had been engaged as asort of camp cook and ranch hand by Bud's father, later beingtransferred to Bud's service. Buck Tooth was devoted to the boyranchers.
"What's matter, Buck! What for you ride so _pronto_fashion!" asked Bud as the Indian, a superb horseman, drew reinclose to the boy ranchers. "You race, maybe, Buck Tooth!"
"Yep--race tell you bad news!" half-grunted the Zuni.
"Bad news!" faltered Bud. "Is it my mother--dad-
--"
"Them all well," said Buck Tooth. "But got bad news all same. Yousee anybody out here?" and he slipped from his saddle to rest hisalmost winded steed.