And see, get me a
pinch or two of that thistle-down, d'ye see?'

And with the help of this improvised test he proceeded to try whether he
was still breathing. But there was a little air stirring, and they could
not manage it.

'Well!' said Toole, standing this time quite erect, 'I--I think there's
life there still. And now, boys, d'ye see? lift him very carefully, d'ye
mind? Gently, very gently, for I tell you, if this haemorrhage begins
again, he'll not last twenty seconds.'

So on a cloak they lifted him softly and deftly to the bier, and laid
covering over him; and having received Toole's last injunctions, and
especially a direction to Mrs. Sturk to place him in a well-warmed bed,
and introduce a few spoonfuls of warm port wine negus into his mouth,
and if he swallowed, to continue to administer it from time to time,
Sergeant Bligh and his men commenced their funereal march toward Sturk's
house.

'And now, Mr. Adjutant,' said Lowe, 'had not we best examine the ground,
and make a search for anything that may lead to a conviction?'

Well, a ticket was found trod into the bloody mud, scarcely legible, and
Sturk's cocked hat, the leaf and crown cut through with a blow of some
blunt instrument. His sword they had found by his side not drawn.

'See! here's a foot-print, too,' said Lowe; 'don't move!'

It was remarkable. They pinned together the backs of two letters, and
Toole, with his surgical scissors, cut the pattern to fit exactly into
the impression; and he and Lowe, with great care, pencilled in the
well-defined marks of the great hob-nails, and a sort of seam or scar
across the heel.

[Illustration: Footprint.]

'Twas pretty much after this fashion. It was in a slight dip in the
ground where the soil continued soft. They found it in two other places
coming up to the fatal spot, from the direction of the Magazine. And it
was traceable on for some twenty yards more faintly; then, again, very
distinctly, where--a sort of ditch interposing--a jump had been made,
and here it turned down towards the park wall and the Chapelizod road,
still, however, slanting in the Dublin direction.

In the hollow by the park wall it appeared again, distinctly; and here
it was plain the transit of the wall had been made, for the traces of
the mud were evident enough upon its surface, and the mortar at top was
displaced, and a little tuft of grass in the mud, left by the clodded
shoesole. Here the fellow had got over.

They f