The String of Pearls (1850), p. 632

CHAPTER CXLVIII.
SHOWS HOW TODD HAD A VERY NARROW ESCAPE INDEED.

There was something in the tone of Crotchet that made the magistrate confident he suspected something very peculiar, and he followed him without a word.
The track or trail upon the ground was very peculiar. It was broad and defined, and had turned in the direction that it went every little weed or blade of grass that was within its boundaries. A number of decayed leaves from the forest trees had likewise been swept along it; and the more any one might look at it the more they must feel convinced that something heavy had been dragged along it.
What that something heavy was, Mr. Crotchet had his suspicions, and they were right.
"This way, your worship," he said, "this way it goes right into this hedge as nicely as possible, though the branches of these bushes are placed all smooth again."
As he spoke, Crotchet began to beat the obstructing branches of a wild nut tree and a blackberry-bush, that seemed, by their entwining arms, to have struck up a very close sort of acquaintance with each other; and then he suddenly cried out—
"Here it is, sir."
" What, Crotchet?"
"The dead 'un."
"Dead! You don't mean to say that one such is here, and that the dead body of Todd is in the thicket?"
"Come on, sir. I don't think it is him. It don't seem long enough; but here's somebody, as safe as possible, sir, fur all that. Push your way through
sir: it's only prickles."
The magistrate did push his way through, despite the vigorous opposition of the blackberry-bush; and then—lying upon its face—he saw the dead body of
a man.
The readers of this narrative could have told Sir Richard Blunt what that body had been named while the breath of life was in it; but neither he nor Crotchet could at first make up their minds upon the subject.
"Do you know him?" said Sir Richard.
"I guess only."
"Yes, and you guess as I do. This is Lupin, Todd's prison companion, and the companion in his escape."
Crotchet nodded.
"I went to Newgate," he said, "And had a good look at him, so that I should know him, sir, dead or alive; so I'll just turn him over and have a good look at his face."
With this, Crotchet carefully—by the aid of his foot—turned over the body, and the first glance he got at the dead face satisfied him.
"Yes, your worship," he said, "Lupin it is, and Todd has killed him. You may take your oath of that."
"Not a doubt of it: such is the result of the association of such men. Todd has found him, or fancied he should find him, an encumbrance in the way of his
own escape, and has sought this wood to take his life."
"That's about it, sir."
"And now, Crotchet, we may make certain of one thing, and that is, that Todd is not in this wood, nor in this neighbourhood either. I should say, that after this deed, the first thing he would do would be to fly from this spot."
"Not a doubt of that, your worship; but the deuce of it is to find out which way he has gone."
"We must be guided in that by the same mode of inquiry, Crotchet, that