We always thought it would have been better for him to move in, but he had put it off, and now the fire had taken us by surprise.
I rode away, dead-up wind.

Our station had a few large trees about it, and then all was clear plain and short grass for two miles; after that came scrubby ranges, in an open glade of which the Morgans' hut stood.
I feared, from the density of the smoke, that the fire had reached them already, but I thought it my duty to go and see, for I might meet them fleeing, and help them with the children.
I had seen many bush-fires, but never such a one as this.

The wind was blowing a hurricane, and, when I had ridden about two miles into scrub, high enough to brush my horse's belly, I began to get frightened.

Still I persevered, against hope; the heat grew more fearful every moment; but I reflected that I had often ridden up close to a bush-fire, turned when I began to see the flame through the smoke, and cantered away from it easily.
Then it struck me that I had never yet seen a bushfire in such a hurricane as this.

Then I remembered stories of men riding for their lives, and others of burnt horses and men found in the bush.