He felt his horse was failing under him, and his only chance was to stop me.
"I kept on till I got safe to the station.

The three men there started in different directions, to fetch assistance, and by the evening we had a score of men assembled there, and started back to our station.

We heard a cooey when we were within a mile of the place, and guessed it was a fellow on the watch.

By the time we got there they had all cleared off, but it was a close thing.
"My mother was a courageous woman, and had defended the back of the house, and my father the front.

The blacks had made several attempts to burn the place down; but the roof, like the walls, was made of solid timber; which is the only safe way to build a house, when you are exposed to attacks of the blacks.
"As long as daylight lasted the old people had done very well, and had kept the blacks at a distance; and we saw, by the marks of blood in the morning, that they must have killed or wounded eight or ten of them; but if we hadn't come up before the blacks had darkness to cover them, it would have gone hard with them.