Bob's men, I think, were doing their best; but they were certainly making very bad practice. It did not seem to me that during the first twenty minutes they hit a single living thing except the four dragoon horses. The walls of the houses on both sides of the street were filled with bullet marks. A curious kind of shallow furrow appeared about halfway down the street. At first it seemed a mere line drawn on the ground. Then it deepened into a little trench with a ridge of dust beyond it. "There must be a ton or two of good bullets buried there," said Bland. "They haven't sighted for the distance." "I don't blame the volunteers," I said, "but the soldiers really ought to shoot better. A lot of money is spent on that army every year, and if they can't hit a single enemy at that distance--" "I rather think," said Bland, "that the soldiers are firing up into the air on purpose. That bullet which came through our window is the only one which hit anything. It's shocking waste of ammunition." The door of the reading-room opened behind me. I turned and saw Sir Samuel Clithering. He staggered into the room and looked deadly white. For a moment I thought he must be blind. He plunged straight into a table which stood in the middle of the room in front of him. "My God! My God!" he cried. Then he was violently sick. He must have got into the club somehow from the back. I went over to him, intending to get him out of the room before he was sick again. He clutched my arm and held me tight. "Stop it," he said. "Stop it. Promise them anything, anything at all; only get them to stop." I did not quite know what Clithering wanted me to do. It seemed absurd to go down to Bob Power and offer, on behalf of the Government, to introduce amendments into the Home Rule Bill. Yet something of the sort must have been in Clithering's mind when he urged me to promise anything. He probably had some vague idea of consulting the wishes of the electorate. That is the sort of thing Clithering would think of doing in an emergency. "It's horrible, too horrible," he said. "Oh God! Bloodshed! Bloodshed!" "Cheer up," I said, "I don't think a single man on either side has been hit yet." "I say," said Bland from the window, "did the soldiers get orders to fire over the people's heads?" "Yes," said Clithering. "Strict orders. The Cabinet was unanimous. The Prime Minister telegraphed this morning." "Rather rough on the peaceable inhabitants of the town," said Bland, "the men who have kept out of the battle. I suppose you forgot that bullets come down again somewhere." "I was in one of the back streets," wailed Clithering, "far away--" "Exactly," said Bland, "it's just in back streets that those things happen." "It was a woman," said Clithering, "a girl with a baby in her arms. I did not know what had happened. I ran over to her. She and the baby--both of them. I shall never forget it. Oh!"