They took hold of each other, and every now and then went to the kitchen door that the old woman might be comforted by their presence, but they had no consolation to offer each other.

The silence of the bush, and the feeling of great distances, and the dread of calamity almost crushed them.

At last there was a distant sound of horse's feet.

"I hear him," said Mrs.Heathcote, rushing forward toward the outer gate of the horse paddock, followed by her sister.
Her ears were true, but she was doomed to disappointment.

The horseman was only a messenger from her husband--Mickey O'Dowd, the Irish boundary rider.
He had great tidings to tell, and was so long telling them that we will not attempt to give them in his own words.