The neighbours all thought that the body must have been burned with the house; but he would have it that there would have been some sign of her.

No one else thought so; and besides, it wasn't the custom of the blacks to carry off anyone.

The father got a party to try and follow the blacks, but of course it was no use.

They had pretty near two days' start.
"The father never took to his farm again, but hung about the out stations, doing a job here and there for his grub.

Sometimes he would be away for a bit, and when he came back, though he never talked about it, everyone knew he had been out hunting the blacks.
"I do not know how many of them he killed, but I know he never spared one, when he got him outside the settlement.