and Martin walked to Mudgee to inform the police, and Willie Cadell cantered away to perform the errand on which his mother had sent him. The coolness with which this robber had acted throughout induced the belief among the public that he was no common amateur bushranger, but a member of the Gardiner gang. In fact it was said that he was no other than Johnny Gilbert himself. The _Goulburn Chronicle_ reported about this time that Gardiner and his gang had paid a visit to the Muswellbrook district, and suggested that one of them had committed this robbery on the way back to their own district. This, however, was disproved later, and it was then believed that the robber was one of the numerous young men who "turned out" with the intention of joining the gang and endeavoured to do something on the road to prove themselves worthy of being accepted as comrades by the redoubtable bushrangers. It was the custom of the time to attribute all highway robberies to Gardiner and his gang, but it is doubtful whether any of those recorded in this chapter so far were perpetrated by actual members of the gang. It was a time of intense excitement, and many of the more or less criminally disposed among the youth of the colony felt themselves impelled to take to the road and rob somebody. Some of these were captured; others were disillusionised and went back to their farms; while others either did join the gang or continued bushranging as independent parties. The next story, published a few days later, was that of the sticking up of the Mudgee mail on the Bathurst-Sydney Road, near the Big Hill, about sixteen miles from Bowenfels. Mr. Henry Edward Kater, manager of the local branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank, was a passenger, and he had with him £5000 worth of old notes, which he was taking to Sydney to be destroyed at the head office of the bank. The bushrangers had received notice from some source that these notes were on the coach, and asked for them. Mr. Kater replied that they were valueless, as the numbers had been cancelled. "Never mind," replied the bushranger. "We can make a bonfire of them as well as you can." Mr. Kater declined to give them up, and stooped down. The bushranger immediately ordered him to "sit up straight and not try to come Robert Lowe on them," or he would be sorry for it. This, of course, was an allusion to the recent shooting of the man Heather by Mr. Lowe, as already related. Mrs. Smith, wife of a publican at Ben Bullen, who was a passenger on the coach, was very much alarmed. She was seated beside Mr. Kater, and screamed loudly. She had £200 in her pocket. The robber told her to get down and stand aside, adding, "We don't rob women." She was only too glad to obey. She sat down on a log beside the road. The other passengers were then ordered to dismount, and were eased of their valuables. When this duty had been discharged the robbers departed, one of them turning back to request Mr. Kater to ask Captain Norton