"At daybreak I set out, keeping myself concealed, as much as possible, behind bushes and trunks of trees, until I got back to the scene of the catastrophe.  I listened; but all was still as death.  Excepting the two or three huts around my brother-in-law's abode, the whole ground where the settlement had stood presented only black heaps of ashes, surrounded by palings and trunks of trees charred by the flames.  I could see no one moving across the river, either; and the dreadful idea seized me that the settlers who had gone in pursuit of the foe had been cut off, and that Mr Yearsley had in all likelihood shared the same fate.  Had it not been for Stephen and the children, I would have watched all day, in the hope of our friend's return; but I had promised not to be longer than I could help.