But there were some who had delayed--and these must fight now if they would escape.
The Happy Family, to a man, had delayed; rather they had not considered that there was any immediate danger from fire; it was too early in the season for the grass to be tinder dry, as it would become a month or six weeks later.

They were wholly unprepared for the catastrophe, so far as any expectation of it went.

But for all that they knew exactly what to do and how to go about doing it, and they did not waste a single minute in meeting the emergency.
While the Kid was riding with H.J.Owens into the hills, his friends, the bunch, were riding furiously in the opposite direction.

And that was exactly what had been planned beforehand.

There was an absolute certainty in the minds of those who planned that it would be so, Florence Grace Hallman, for instance, knew just what would furnish complete occupation for the minds and the hands of the Happy Family and of every other man in that neighborhood, that afternoon.