Two or three still heaved,
the blood gurgling from throat and breast like water from the neck of a
bottle. Here, one had a mouth plugged with shot, and a beard as stiff as
though it were made of rope. Another that he turned over was a German he
had once heard speak at a diggers' meeting--a windy braggart of a man,
with a quaint impediment in his speech. Well, poor soul! he would never
mouth invectives or tickle the ribs of an audience again. His body was a
very colander of wounds. Some had not bled either. It looked as though
the soldiers had viciously gone on prodding and stabbing the fallen.
Stripping a corpse of its shirt, he tore off a piece of stuff to make a
bandage for a shattered leg. While he was binding the limb to a board,
young Tom ran up to say that the military, returning with carts, were
arresting every one they met in the vicinity. With others who had been
covering up and carrying away their friends, Mahony hastened down the
back of the hill towards the bush. Here was plain evidence of a
stampede. More bloodstains pointed the track, and a number of odd and
clumsy weapons had been dropped or thrown away by the diggers in their
flight.
He went home with the relatively good tidings that neither Ned nor Purdy
was to be found. Polly was up and dressed. She had also lighted the fire
and set water on to boil, "just in case." "Was there ever such a
sensible little woman?" said her husband with a kiss.
The day dragged by, flat and stale after the excitement of the morning.
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