Part II of yesterday's "Instrument."

Donald sighed as he put aside yet another book. This was hopeless. After 3 days in the Mexico City Explorer Society's library, Donald was pretty sure it was safe to say that there was no legend of any Aztec flute. It was foolish to keep researching it.

"This one says something about a...music god?" Huey was saying, squinting at yet another book.

Dewey groaned. "Can we stop now? This is too much like school."

"Uncle Scrooge is paying us $3.00 an hour plus expenses to Mexico to find information about this flute. The longer we look at these books, the more money we make," said Louie, on his phone and not actually doing any research.

Suddenly, they heard noises coming from outside. Tires were squealing, people were shouting-and were those gunshots?

Before Donald could stop them, his nephews rushed outside to see what the commotion was all about.

"Boys! Get back inside!" Donald said, following, but he froze when he saw what was going on.

A red rooster was riding down the road on a horse, pistols blazing, and yelling up a storm.

"Is he a bandito?" Dewey asked.

"No," said Donald, picking his jaw off the ground. He looked at Louie, who had a certain spark in his eye. "Don't get any ideas! He's not a bandito!"

"How do you know?" asked Huey.

Donald ducked as one of the guns went off in their direction. "Get back inside!" he said again, pushing the boys into the library doorway. He then turned on his heels and marched right up to the horse.

"What are you doing?" Donald screamed up at the rooster.

"Donal'! My good friend!" The rooster dismounted from the horse, holstered his pistols, and vigorously shook his hand. "It is so good to see you! How are you doing?"

"Panchito! You can't shoot your guns everywhere like that! There are kids here! People could get hurt!"

"Oh, do not worry! They are filled with blanks! Very safe!" Panchito said.

"Blanks?" Donald said, eyeing the holstered pistols suspiciously. "Still, that was a very foolish thing to do."

"But I am celebrating!" Panchito said.

"Uncle Donald?" Huey said, poking his head out the library door. "Who is that?"

"Do you know him?" asked Louie.

"You know a bandito?" Dewey said.

"He's not a bandito!" Donald said. "Boys, this is Panchito Pistoles. Panchito, these are my nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie."

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Panchito said, shaking their hands just as vigorously as he'd shaken their uncle's. "What are you all doing in Mexico?"

Donald resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Doing research for our Uncle Scrooge."

"Ah," said Panchito. "It doesn't look to be going so well, no?"

"Nope," Huey agreed.

"So what are you celebrating?" Dewey said. "Did you steal something good?"

Donald slapped his hand to his forehead. "For the last time, he is not a bandito!"

Panchito laughed. "No, little niño," he said. "I have just found the lost treasure of the explorer Don Juan Francisco Hernandez Sebastian Cortes de Vaca y Narváez."

"Treasure?" Louie said.

"Cool!" Huey said.

"You're just like Uncle Scrooge!" Dewey said.

"Eh, the only trouble is that it is buried away in his house," Panchito said. "And it's said to be haunted. I will be heading that way tomorrow."

"A haunted house?" Huey said.

"Can we go, too, Uncle Donald? Please?" Dewey asked.

Panchito's eyes lit up. "Yes! You must come with me! It'll be just like old times!" he said. "And you go treasure hunting all the time with your Tío Scrooge, no? You are already like an expert!"

Donald crossed his arms. "Well, I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert," he said. "But what the heck. It's not like we're getting anywhere here."

The boys cheered.

"Next stop, the house of Don Juan Francisco Hernandez Sebastian Cortes de Vaca y Narváez!" Panchito said. He looked at his friends critically. "But first, we must find you some transportation. I do not think that Señior Martinez can carry all five of us."

"I've got my car back at the hotel," Donald said.

"Perfect! We will take Donal's car!" Panchito declared, getting back up on his horse. "Which way is your hotel?"

"That way," Donald said, pointing.

"Can I ride with you on your horse?" Dewey said.

"Oooh! Ooooh! Can I?" Louie said.

"How about me?" said Huey.

Panchito laughed. "I do not think that Señior Martinez can carry all of you at once, but you can take turns!" he said. "You can be first." Panchito pulled Dewey up onto the horse with him.

"Yeah! Woo-hoo! Ride 'em, cowboy!" Dewey shouted as they started towards the hotel.

Donald couldn't help but crack a smile.

Author's Note: There's an episode of the original DuckTales ("Lost Crown of Genghis Khan") where Scrooge is a member of the Duckburg Explorers Society; I headcanon that the society's members pool their resources to maintain things like a library (focused on treasure-hunting-related books and texts, of course) for its members. And if Duckburg's got its own Explorers Society (and library), what's to say that other cities don't have them as well? (Also, it was a lot easier than figuring out what other library they might have gone to).

In the comics (at least the comics I've read), Scrooge paid Donald (and sometimes the boys) $0.30 an hour to do anything from accompanying him on adventures to polishing the coins in his money bin; assuming those comics took place in 1947-ish (the year that, according to Don Rosa's "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck," Scrooge rekindled his relationship with his family), that's about $3.44 adjusted for inflation. I decided to round down to give me a nice round number comparable to Scrooge's classic thirty cents an hour.