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.