Ned Kelly a True Story (2)
The police camp at Stringybark Creek was only two kilometres away, and the brothers soon found it. They hid behind the trees and watched. They saw the four policemen, and their guns - two big heavy guns and four smaller guns.
Later, back at Bullock Creek, Joe and Steve listened to the news about the guns.
'We've only got two guns. What can we do?' said Joe.
'They want to kill us,' said Dan. 'They're going to shoot to kill. Isn't that right, Ned?'
'Yes, that's right,' said Ned. 'So, we can stay here and wait for them - or we can go down there and take their guns and horses. What do you say?'
It was an easy answer. The Kelly Gang got ready, left Bullock Creek, and went quietly through the trees.
When they arrived at the police camp, only Lonigan and McIntyre were there. Lonigan sat on a tree, reading a newspaper, and McIntyre watched the camp fire. Then, from behind a tree, Ned Kelly called out.
'Put your hands up!'
McIntyre had no gun, so he sat still and put his hands up, but Lonigan ran. Then he got down behind a fallen tree, took out his gun, and put his head up.
He was a fool. A bullet from Ned's gun hit him in the head, and he died at once.
Ned ran to McIntyre. 'Don't move!' he said. 'We don't want to kill you, we just want the guns and horses.'
But before the gang could find the guns and leave, they heard a noise in the trees.
'Ned!' called Steve. 'The other two policemen are coming back!'
'Sit on this tree,' Ned said to McIntyre. 'And when you see your friends, call out to them. Say, "Don't shoot - put your guns on the ground." We don't want to kill them, or you.'
Seconds later, Kennedy and Scanlon rode into the camp. McIntyre stood up and said, 'Get off your horses and put your hands up - there are men with guns here.'
'Oh yes?' said Kennedy. He laughed at McIntyre. 'What men? What guns?'
At once the Kelly Gang came out of the trees and Ned called, 'Put your hands up!'
Everything happened very quickly. A bullet from Ned's gun hit Scanlon, and he fell from his horse. Kennedy jumped off his horse and fired at Dan. Dan fired back, and Kennedy ran back into the trees.
McIntyre could not shoot because he did not have his gun with him. But there in front of him was Kennedy's horse. He jumped on it and rode into the trees.
Kennedy tried to get away too. He went quietly through the trees, but suddenly he saw Ned in front of him. The two men fired - and Kennedy fell down. Soon he was dead.
'He was a brave man, but it was him or me,' said Ned. 'I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to kill any of them.'
The gang put coats over the three dead bodies, took the horses, guns and food, and rode away.
'They came to kill us, boys,' said Ned, 'but we killed them. What could we do? Now we must go - and we're not coming back.'
The Kelly Gang rode away to the north.
*
The next day, tired and dirty, McIntyre arrived back in Mansfield. Soon every town and village and farm in the north-east knew about the killing of the three policemen at Stringybark Creek.
'The Kelly Gang are killers,' said the police. 'These men are now outlaws, and we must catch them, dead or alive. When you see them, tell us. We are giving 500 pounds reward for news of every man in the gang - 2000 pounds for all four of them.'
It was a lot of money. More policemen came to the north-east, with more guns, more horses.
Ned and the gang stayed in the north-east. They tried to get away to the north, but there was a lot of water in the Murray River, and they couldn't get across it. They got help from their friends and moved from place to place all the time. One week they rode more than three hundred kilometres.
Thirty policemen rode through the hills for a month and looked for the outlaws night and day. But they never found them, and in December Ned and the gang moved on to the Warby Hills. It was a hard, wild life, and the outlaws were tired, hungry, and angry men.
CHAPTER FOUR
Two Visits to the Bank
DECEMBER, 1878. The Kelly Gang have many friends, but they have no money. So they rob the bank in the little town of Euroa. They speak nicely to the people in the town, and do not fire their guns. They leave Euroa with 2260 pounds. But they give a lot of the money to their friends, the poor farmers of the north-east, to buy food, clothes, and land. The police reward goes up to 2500 pounds.
*
The police tried hard to catch the Kelly Gang, but the outlaws had help from their friends. They were always miles away when the police came to look for them. So the police put many of their friends in prison.
Ned was very angry about this. 'It isn't right!' he said. 'Why do the police do this? Because our friends are poor farmers, not rich ones, and because they help us. We must stop the police!'
'But how?' said Steve. 'What can we do?'
'Two things,' said Ned. 'First, we need more money, so we must visit a bank. And second, we tell everybody in Australia about the police here in Victoria.'
'Rob another bank?' Dan said. 'But the police are watching all the banks now.'
'Yes, in Victoria,' said Ned. 'But not in New South Wales, so we're going to a bank in Jerilderie. Here's the plan. There are only two policemen in Jerilderie. We arrive at night, go to the police station, and lock the policemen in the station. Then we rob the bank, and go to the office of Jerilderie's newspaper.'
'The newspaper office?' said Dan. 'Why? What for?'
'To print this,' said Joe. 'Look. It's Ned's letter to the world. I wrote it down for him. It tells the true story about Ned and his family, about the police, about Stringybark Creek, about everything.'
'We want everybody to read this letter, but how do we give it to them?' Ned said. 'We must print it in a newspaper. It's the only way.'
*
Ned planned the Jerilderie visit very carefully. There were now more than two hundred policemen in the north-east of Victoria because of the Kelly Gang, and Ned asked his friend Aaron Sherritt for help.
So Aaron went drinking with a policeman. Money passed from one hand to another, and Aaron spoke quietly in the policeman's ear.
'Go to Corryong. The gang are planning to cross the Murray River near there very soon.'
So the police rode east to Corryong - and the Kelly Gang rode west, and crossed the river two hundred kilometres away. And late on a Saturday night in February 1879, they rode into the town of Jerilderie.
Outside the police station Ned began to shout, 'Help! Help! There's a big fight at the hotel! We need help!'
The two policemen ran out - and saw the outlaws with their guns. The gang locked the policemen in a room in the station, and took their uniforms.
For the next two days the gang lived in the police station. On Sunday Joe and Steve put on the police uniforms and walked around the town. 'We're the new policemen for Jerilderie,' they told everyone. They went past the bank and the hotel next to it, and looked carefully at all the doors, front and back.
Then, on Monday morning Dan and Steve went into the hotel next to the bank, and took out their guns. They took all the hotel workers into one room.
'Don't move,' said Dan. 'You're our hostages, but don't be afraid. We don't want to shoot anybody.'
Ned and Joe went into the bank through the back door. When they came back to the hotel, they had more hostages - two bank workers and all the people from the bank. And Ned had the bank's money - 2140 pounds.
There were now about sixty hostages in the room, and Ned began to speak to them.
'What's happening in this country? Do you know? No, you don't! So listen! Poor men get poorer, and rich men get richer. The police help the rich farmers, and put the poor farmers in prison. Why? For nothing! Do you call this justice? There is no justice in Australia!
'The police say we are killers. But I say the police are killers! I'm going to tell you about Stringybark Creek - the true story, not the police story.'
Ned began to read to the hostages from his letter. It was a long letter, 56 pages and more than 75,000 words. After a few pages he stopped.
'Where's the newspaper office in this town?' he said. 'I want to print this letter. Then everybody can read it.'
Edwin Living, one of the bank workers, answered.
'Mr Gill is the editor of the newspaper,' he said. 'I know his house. I can take you there.'
'Come on, then,' Ned said.
But Mr Gill was not at home. He was at a farm ten kilometres away. When he heard the Kelly Gang were in town, he ran away, because he was afraid of them.
At the house Mrs Gill opened the door.
'Where's your husband?' Ned asked.
'I - I don't know. He's - he's away,' Mrs Gill said.
Ned looked at her angrily, and took out his letter. 'I want him to print this in his newspaper,' he said.
'Give it to me,' said Edwin Living. 'I can give it to Mr Gill when he gets back.'
'He must print it,' said Ned. 'It's about my life, and I want the world to read it.'
'Yes,' said Edwin. 'Everybody must read it. And Mr Gill's going to print it - for sure, Mr Kelly.'
'He must,' Ned said. 'All right, you give it to him. But do it! Or the next time I come to Jerilderie...'
They went back to the hotel, and Ned had a drink with the hostages. Then the four outlaws rode out of town, back to the Murray River, and across into Victoria and the hills in the north-east.
*
The police looked everywhere. They made the reward 8,000 pounds, but nobody came to get it. Nobody wanted to help them. In Jerilderie, people laughed about the visit of the Kelly Gang. In April, Ned's friends came out of prison and went back to their farms. And for sixteen months, the police heard nothing of the Kelly Gang.
And Ned's letter - the famous 'Jerilderie Letter'?
Edwin Living did not give it to Mr Gill. He went down to Melbourne and gave it to the police.
Nobody saw the letter again for fifty years.
CHAPTER FIVE
Alive or Dead at Glenrowan
JUNE, 1880. The Kelly Gang are living in the hills. Their friends bring them food, but life is hard, and the police are still making trouble. They don't put the Kellys' friends in prison now, but they stop them buying land. And why? Because they are friends of the Kelly Gang...
*
'We must do something,' Ned said, 'to help our friends. We need a new country - a country for poor people, with good police, and good judges. But it's not going to happen easily. We must fight for it!'
'We need money for that,' said Joe. 'A lot of money. And there's a policeman with a gun at every bank now.'
'We need armour, to go over our heads and bodies,' Ned said. 'Bullets can't get through armour.'
'How are we going to get armour?' asked Dan.
'We can make it,' said Ned.
And they did. With help from their friends, they made four suits of armour from old farm machinery. Then they began to plan their fight.
