The Last of the Bushrangers: An Account of the Capture of the Kelly GangHare, Francis Augustus
History
The Last of the Bushrangers: An Account of the Capture of the Kelly Gang
Hare, Francis Augustus
Brigands and robbers -- Australia; Kelly, Ned, 1855-1880
As I was riding along I saw a newspaper a day or two old folded up
and stuck between two rocks. It had a long article abusing the police
for not capturing the Kellys, and had evidently been put there for
the outlaws' perusal. Not far from this I found a track leading up a
gully in the mountains. I looked up, and saw Lawless about 100 yards
above me, and beckoned to him to come to me, which he did. I showed him
the track into the gully. He said, "What shall we do?" I told him we
had better search it. We got off our horses, tied them to a tree, and
walked up the gully. I took one side and Lawless the other. We were not
more than eighty yards apart.
Shortly afterwards I saw Lawless trying to attract my attention; he
beckoned to me to come to him; I did so. When I got near he pointed
downwards, as if there was something beneath the rock he was standing
on. He had his rifle in position to fire at a moment's notice. I could
not understand what he meant or what he had seen. He remained where he
was, and I went round to the front of the rock he was standing on. He
said when he jumped on the rock he felt something move it, and heard a
noise as if some one was running underneath it. I went close up to the
opening, and there I saw a large wombat in the hole. I told him what
was there, and his countenance changed in a moment. When I first came
up to him his eyes were starting out of his head with excitement, and
he said, "I thought we had them at last."
We continued our search, but as usual, there was nothing to be seen. We
got on our horses and rode about the place until about five o'clock,
when we came across a nice paddock, and decided upon turning our horses
into it and camping for the night. We had fixed the different spots
for our hammocks, and were just going to our meal, when one of the
men called me, and pointed out the tracks of fresh horse foot-prints
going into the mountains from the direction of the lowlands. The tracks
appeared to be an hour or two old. We were considering what we should
do, and sat down in the usual manner away from each other with our
rifles beside us, when all of a sudden every man jumped to his feet and
called out, "Look out, sir, they are coming straight for us." I stood
up and saw four men riding towards us as hard as their horses could go.
It was the habit of the Kellys to ride like demons through the country.
My whole party rushed to a brush fence and got behind it; I followed
them, and the men came straight for us. When they were within a few
yards we all jumped up and confronted them. They were not the outlaws,
but were well-known spies of theirs. Directly we stopped them they
began to slang and chaff us. Sergeant Mayes turned upon them in the
most indignant manner, and asked if they knew who they were speaking
to. Mayes asked me if he might arrest them, as he felt sure the outlaws
were close by.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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