CHAPTER II
A CURIOUS INSTRUMENT
"What's the matter, Bud?" asked Dick, as he urged his animalforward in a jump, until he was beside his cousin.
"Some one's up there around the tunnel entrance," responded BudMerkel. "I saw 'em dodge back out of the light." Then, raisinghis voice, he cried: "Come on, now! None of your tricks! I've gotyou covered!"
"I don't see any one," spoke Nort.
"They're there, all right," asserted Bud. "Come on, fellows," heexclaimed, "we'll have to look into this. There was troubleenough with getting water to stay in Happy Valley, withoutletting some Greaser in to queer the works again! Come on!"
He and his cousins rode their horses up the rather steep andwinding trail that led from the bottom of the reservoir to thetop, where a big iron pipe, sticking out under the mountain likethe head of some great serpent, brought from the distant PocutRiver a stream, without which it would have been impossible toraise cattle in the valley the boy ranchers claimed as particularlytheir own.
"Who you reckon it is?" asked Nort, as his pony scrambled upbetween the animals of Dick and Bud.
"Oh, some prowler that may have been rustling our grub while wewere over at the round-up," was the answer.
"They couldn't get any cattle, for there aren't any to get,"observed Dick. This was true, as all the animals had been drivenfrom Happy Valley over to Diamond X. Later such as were notshipped away, and many of the calves and mavericks would bereturned to fatten up and grow in readiness for the springtallying.
"I don't just like this!" murmured Bud, as he again urged hispony forward. "Have your guns ready, fellows!"
And while they are thus riding toward the place where a strangetunnel pierced Snake Mountain, I shall take this opportunity topresent, more formally than I have yet had a chance to do, my newreaders to the boy ranchers. For that is what Bud Merkel, andNort and Dick Shannon called themselves, being that, in fact.
Bud was a western lad, the son of Henry Merkel, who had been aranchman all his mature years. He lived at Diamond X ranch, withhis wife and daughter Nell. Some time before this present storyopens Bud's cousins from the east had come to spend the summerwith him, while their father and his wife made a trip to SouthAmerica.
Nort and Dick, though "tenderfeet" at the beginning, had quicklyfallen into the ways of the west, and in the first volume of thisseries, "The Boy Ranchers," I was privileged to tell you how theyhelped solve a mystery that revolved around Diamond X.
This mystery had to do with two college professors, and astrange, ancient animal. But it would not be fair to my newreaders to disclose, here, all the secrets of that book.
So successful was the first summer which Nort and Dick spent attheir uncle's ranch, that they were allowed to repeat it thefollowing season. But this time there was a change. As related inthe second volume, "The Boy Ranchers in Camp," Mr. Merkel had, byutilizing an ancient underground water-course beneath SnakeMountain, and by making a dam in Pocut River, brought water to adistant valley he owned.
This valley was originally called Buffalo Wallow, the source ofthe name being obvious. But once water was brought through theunderground course, and piped to a reservoir, whence it could bedistributed to drinking troughs for the cattle, and also used toirrigate the land, it enabled a fine crop of fodder to be grown.With the bringing of the water to Buffalo Wallow, or FlumeValley, as Bud called the place, it was possible to do what hadnever been done before--raise cattle there. Bud's father let himtake this valley ranch as his own, and Nort and Dick were boypartners associated with their western cousin, Mr. Shannonputting up part of the needed capital to make the start for hissons.
All would have gone well except for the mysterious stoppage ofthe flow of water, which stoppage, if continued, would meandisaster.
How the water fight at Diamond X Second (as the valley ranch wassometimes called) ended, and how the strange mystery was solved,is the story in the second volume, and I absolutely refuse to gointo more details about it here. It would not be playing the gamesquare.
At any rate the water was finally turned back into theunderground tunnel, and then, in order to better guard this vitalnecessity, Mr. Merkel had the entrance to the tunnel boardedup--egress being possible only when heavy doors, at either end, wereunlocked.
I might say that while the tunnel was the old water-course of avanished river, the shaft under the mountain appeared, in.ancient times, to have been used by the Aztecs, or some Mexicantribes, for hiding their store of gold away from the Spaniards.There were secret passages and rooms in the tunnel, to saynothing of hidden water gates.
Who had constructed these, and what actual use had been made ofthem was, of course, lost in the dim and ancient past. But thatit was the Aztecs, or some allied race, was the statement oflearned men who examined the tunnel.
After the water fight at Diamond X Second had terminated in favorof the boy ranchers, and great copper levers that operated thehidden water gates had been removed, the tunnel was boarded up,and was now seldom entered.
But now, as Bud and his cousins rode back from the big round-up,and the western lad had, as he thought, seen some one sneakingabout the forbidden gate, there was a feeling of apprehension inthe hearts of himself and cousins.
They had now reached the top level of the reservoir which held astorage supply of water. The reservoir was a great semi-circularbank of earth and atones, wide enough on top for two to rideabreast.
"I don't see any one," remarked Nort, straining his eyes topierce the gloom and shadows into which the face of the tunneland the locked gate were thrown by the moonlight and clouds.
"Nor I," added Dick.
"Well, I saw some one!" insisted Bud. "It was a man, as sure assnakes, and he seemed to be trying to open the big gate."
This gate was made of heavy bolted planks and was set on hingesin a jamb of other planks and boards that closed the reservoirend of the tunnel water-course. A similar barrier and big doorwas at the Pocut River end.
"Well, if he was here, he seems to be gone," observed Nort "Maybeit was a sheep herder, Bud."
"Well, if any of that gentry think they can drive their flockover here, and water their woolies at my expense, they'remistaken," declared Bud with emphasis. "Sheep men have to be, Ireckon, but they're out of place in a cow country. Hello, there!"he called, loudly. "Come on out and show yourself!"
But there was no answer, and the only sound, aside from thecreaking of the damp saddle leathers, was the splashing of wateras it flowed from the big pipe and into the reservoir.
"Guess he lit out," observed Bud, thrusting his gun back into theholster.
"Or else you didn't see him," chuckled Nort. "Maybe your eyes arefull of dust, same as mine are, from that round-up."
"Oh, I saw somebody all right!" declared Bud. "Might 'a' been oneof Buck Tooth's Indian friends making a call, but--"
He suddenly ceased speaking and leaned over in his saddle to gazeearnestly at something on the ground. It was something thatglittered and shone in the mystic moonlight as Nort and Dickcould see. "What's that?" inquired the latter.
In answer Bud slipped from his saddle and picked up the objectwhich the moonlight had revealed.
"What in the world is this?" asked the boy rancher, as he held upa curious instrument. "Is this the start of another mystery!"