The "woods," as the big clump of trees was called by the punchers, were some distance away from the ranch buildings, and it took the boys an appreciable length of time to draw near Mrs. Wallace and Minnie. "I was right," Frank kept telling himself, as he noted the looks of both Mrs. Wallace and the girl. "Something dreadful has certainly happened to make them act that way! Mrs. Wallace seems ready to drop, and Minnie, too, is as pale as a ghost. But, anyway, they are safe enough, and not caught in that fire-trap!" Now they reached the pair, and Lanky threw his arm around his mother. "Oh, what a scare we've had!" he told her. "We believed you had both been caught in the burning barn. But Charlie Gin Sing gave us the right stuff when he said he had seen you come out and head for the woods." "But we have been in danger, after all," said his mother, in quivering tones. "I shall never, never want to visit those awful woods again. Only for Minnie's presence of mind I might have lost my life!" "Why, what happened?" asked the astounded and anxious Lanky. "Snakes--rattlesnakes! A whole den of them!" gasped the still shuddering Mrs. Wallace. CHAPTER V A RATTLESNAKE ROUND-UP Frank Allen could see now where Lanky got his horror of snakes, since his mother seemed to have the same detestation and fear of them. He looked at Minnie, as though wondering whether she would back the older lady up in that astounding assertion. One prairie rattler would be bad enough, but to speak of a whole den, and so close to the ranch house as that, seemed a bit as though Mrs. Wallace unconsciously magnified things. But to his surprise Minnie immediately nodded her head. "Yes, there were ever so many of the nasty wriggling things, Frank," she assured him in her convincing way. "Some were monsters, and others teenty little bits of snakes, but full of fight just the same, big or little." Frank could suspect there might be a story connected with their adventure in which Minnie had played the part of heroine. He realized, however, he must depend on Lanky's mother to tell the facts, for Minnie had never been one to boast of anything she did. "What happened to stir them up so, do you know?" he asked Mrs. Wallace. "Oh! it was my ignorance--foolishness I'd better call it," she told him frankly. "I certainly did think it was a locust buzzing, and stepped over to see the little drummer, when--I almost stood on a bunch of curled-up baby snakes. Why, Frank, there was a dreadful monster all coiled with its head drawn back, ready to strike at me and that buzzing sound going harder than ever." She shut her eyes as though once again seeing the fear-inspiring sight. "But--it didn't strike you Mom?" asked Lanky weakly. "No," replied Mrs. Wallace, turning a fond look on her companion. "Just in the nick of time this brave girl snatched me back, exactly as if she had all the strength of Lige Smith in her arm!"