"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!"
Frank felt prouder of Minnie than ever before—to hear how in time of an emergency she could act promptly, instead of squealing as some girls certainly would have done.
"Then I fainted from the shock," the lady continued, "but not before I saw that snake dart out of coil in the effort to reach me and, failing, draw back again on the defensive. Minnie actually dragged me, with all my weight, some distance away from the reptiles' den, and when later on I came to, there was not a single snake in sight."
"Min, you're just the finest trump ever," exclaimed Lanky. "I sure take off my hat to a girl like you. But didn't you two hear all the noise that was going on up around the ranch house?"
"Yes, I heard it, and was puzzled to know what the shouting and all that black smoke could mean," Minnie admitted. "But your mother still lay in that swoon, and my first duty was to her."
"She actually went past the den again, so as to get some cold water from the spring," explained Mrs. Wallace, turning to her husband, who arrived just then. "It was that that revived me. But I felt so weak and shaky that although both of us were greatly concerned on account of the dreadful sounds we heard and all that black smoke, we were some time in getting started for the house."
Minnie had left the group, knowing that Mrs. Wallace would be telling it all over again to her husband, and of course repeating her praise. Frank understand the modesty that could not bear to hear her own heroism praised, and he hurried after Minnie, walking with her to view the now almost gutted barn, which would soon be only a blackened pile, never to be rebuilt.
Great was the surprise of Lige Smith and the other punchers when they learned from Frank what had happened to alarm the ladies.