I was aroused by feeling a hand on my shoulder, and looking up, I saw Mr Tidey by the light of a lamp which burned on the table. "It will soon be dawn," he said; "the troopers are preparing to set off. But you are knocked up, Mike, and had better sleep on. I should have let you do so, but I did not like to set off without telling you that I was going. I hope, however, that we shall soon meet our friends, and find them all safe and sound." "I must go!" I cried, jumping up; "the commandant will lend me a horse, as my own is not likely to be of much use, even if the poor brute is still alive." Notwithstanding the Dominie's expostulations, I was quickly ready. The commandant was on foot. Sympathising with my anxiety, he at once ordered a horse to be saddled for me. The eight troopers who were to accompany us mounted, and directly afterwards a half-breed guide made his appearance. "He will conduct your train, wherever you may fall in with it, to the nearest stream or water-hole," observed the commandant. "I cannot promise you that your friends have not been attacked, as the Indians are certainly in the neighbourhood, and have carried off some of our cattle; but I trust that, should such be the case, they will hold out until you arrive." This remark increased my anxiety, and made me more eager than ever to be off. I was looking out for Dio, and was inquiring for him, when he appeared mounted on a little mustang, with a brace of pistols in his belt, a soldier's carbine slung over his back, and a sword by his side. "Dey no want me to go," he said, "but I say I fight as well as dey."