They found fourteen or fifteen of the neighbouring settlers gathered there.

They came out as the sound of the trampling of the horses was heard.

Several of them were known to Reuben, from his having stopped at their stations.
"Glad to see you, captain, but I am afraid you are too late," said Dick Caister, a young settler whose station lay about twelve miles away.
"That remains to be proved," Reuben replied, as he dismounted.
"Oh, they have got twenty-four hours' start, and it's too late to do anything tonight.

They must be thirty miles away in the bush, already." "If they were a hundred, I would follow them," Reuben said.
There was an exclamation of surprise, and something like a cheer, on the part of some of the younger men.
"The difficulties are very great," one of the elder settlers said.
"There is neither food nor water to be found in the bush." "I know it's not an easy business," Reuben said quietly.

"But as to food, we can carry it with us; as to water, there must be water in places, for the natives can no more go without drinking than we can.