Leaping from their saddles, Nort and Dick hurried to the side of
their cousin, chum and partner in the ranch venture. Eagerly they
looked over his shoulder while he examined the strange object he
had picked up, almost at the very door leading into the
mysterious tunnel.

The instrument--for such it seemed to be--consisted of a shiny,
nickeled part, which was what had reflected the moonlight, thus
attracting Bud's attention to it. In addition there were two
flexible tubes, of soft rubber, joining into one where they met
the shiny metal.

The two tubes each terminated in hard rubber ends, pierced with a
tiny hole, and on the end of the single tube was a bright metal
disk. The whole formed a strange object, picked up as it was from
the ground, and especially when the boy ranchers feared they had
some cause for alarm.

"What in the world is it?" asked Bud, as he dangled it in front
of his cousins. "I never saw anything like it before. Wait! I
have it! Yellin' Kid said he was going to send to Kansas City for
a flute he could play on. This must be part of it! He dropped it
here; though that couldn't 'a' been him sneaking around the
tunnel. 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 from
Bud's hand.