midnight
When we found that the leader of the gang was not with them , and I learned from the man we had taken prisoner that he had started to ride back here , twenty-four hours before , I was naturally very anxious about you ; knowing , as I did , what desperate actions the man was capable of . So we started at once and , after a sharp fight with the blacks , got down in the evening to the water hole , sixty miles on our way back , where we had camped the second night out . `` Of course the horse I had ridden could travel no further , but I pushed on with my black boy , on two of the horses which we had taken from the bush rangers , and which had been led so far . We made another forty miles by midnight , and then halted till daybreak , to give the horses rest ; but they were so done up , this morning , that we could not get them much beyond a foot pace . When we came to the first settlement we exchanged them for fresh ones , and galloped on ; and , thank God , we are just in time . '' The tears were standing in the girl 's eyes , and she laid her hand on his , and said quietly : `` Thank you . Then you have ridden a hundred and fifty miles since yesterday morning , besides having two fights ; and all because you were uneasy about me ? ''