Mr. Wallace was already hastening toward the approaching pair, and the three boys started on the run, Paul hobbling bravely along, although his ankle gave him frequent stabs of pain.
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.