True History of the Kelly Gang (36 page)

One Monday morning Maggie come out of Mr Zinke’s office in Beechworth and there was waiting a hawknosed old lag with his brows pushed down hard upon his eyes he asked were she Maggie Skilling and give her the paper when she affirmed it.

Maggie soon passed the scrap to Aaron who handed it to me and the demand made of a son by them 2 words were clear. Now of course it were no single man standing in between me and my mother not only Bill Frost or George King but also the Governor the Premier & the Police Commissioner & Superintendents Nicolson & Hare and below them all the great pyramid of serfs Fitzpatrick & Hall & Flood nearly 100 of them to be defeated.

Telling Aaron to go back inside I cogitated by myself in the dank little clearing beside the King the ti tree scrub was hung with flotsam from the October floods the earth was moist with rotting bark scented with mud and eucalyptus. In that fragrant chapel with God as my witness I swore an oath that if Mr Cameron’s character were as Joe Byrne had warned and if he did not soon release my mother then I would burst the prison walls asunder and take her back myself.

As Aaron departed he done me the disservice of leaving Joe deep in useless dreams I told the boys they was to guard him and Mary and the baby while I went to find something for the dinner pot but that were not the truth I were set to devise a stratagem equal to my vow.

When I left the camp at Sandy Flat even the clouds seemed party to my confusion and for much of the day they hung low above my head the colour of dirty wool. I had not the least idea of where to look or what to do and even my horse showed pity treating me like she would a woman or a child. She were so sorry she refrained from pigrooting when I mounted.

All day we poked along through the maze of wild ridges me talking to her while her ears flicked back to listen but she had no better idea of what I should do next.

How I wished for a better man a Captain to advise me. My own father died when I were 12 yr. old the only boss I ever had were Harry Power and once I seen his feet of clay I left him far behind or so I thought. Yet as this dismal cloudy day wore on I finally understood I were still the apprentice and Harry were the master I were still following his rutted track. It were on account of him I knew this were a blind gully and that were the best spur to get me to the humpback ridge. Your Ignorance he called me when teaching me the secrets of the Strathbogies the Warbies & the Wombat Ranges. If you know the country he said then you will be a wild colonial boy forever.

This were untrue as were proved by his own arrest and incarceration in Pentridge Gaol but this were his path I loyally followed and if I pushed along the Buckland Spur till dusk why I might end up in Harry’s bolthole on the cliff above the Quinns and wake tomorrow morning with Supt Nicolson crashing on me like a grey box in a storm.

I reined in my mare but there were a patch of loose shale & she propped & slid with the crupper hard around her tail as she steadied on the ledge below. Beyond this precipice were a mighty sea now ridge after lonely ridge rolling all the way to Mount Cobbler and in this wild and roiling landscape I finally seen the truth.

The bush protected no one. It had been men who protected Harry and it were a man who betrayed him in the end. Harry always knew he must feed the poor he must poddy & flatter them he would be Rob Roy or Robin Hood he would retrieve the widow’s cattle from the pound and if the poor selectors ever suffered harassment or threats on his behalf he would make it up with a sheep or barrel of grog or fistful of sovereigns.

Harry were not captured because the traps suddenly learned his trails and hideouts he were arrested when he put a lower price on his freedom than the government were prepared to pay. The sad truth is the poor people’s love is cupboard love and all it took was £500 for the police to be led directly to his secret door.

Harry can be excused he never heard his own blood price but ours were advertised in every paper it was as well known as the price of stockmen £1 a week and drovers £40 a year the Kelly Gang were worth £800. I aint no scholar as I said but the arithmetic were simple we would muster £8,000 and scatter it around the district like water on the drought bare plains. This good news I brung back to camp but I were away too long it seemed too many hours had passed since Joe’s last smoke he now were sneezing & his nose were running and his good mood were all gone and he were once more out of temper with the world.

Kelly you are adjectival mad he cried slamming his fist onto the splintered table I will not effing do it I’m damned if I will I’ve gone too deep already.

In the silence that followed Mary quietly lit the lamp and once the yellow light washed up the cobwebbed walls it shone into Joe’s beard and I seen that flaw to his looks that harelip hidden deep in the shelter of his fair moustache. I will not rob a bank he said.

What are you frightened of asked Dan they are going to hang us anyway.

He were a brave little b––––r but I got his pimply beak and twisted him off his chair and down onto his bony knees I promise you I cried I promise all of youse that you will not be hanged.

You’ll not be hurt cried Mary she hung the lantern off the hook above the table. Not one of you brave boys will be harmed.

That’s very comforting said Joe Byrne are you a witch?

Mary put her nose against the baby’s head but her eyes never left Joe’s glare. You have my word she said.

Joe were famous as a ladies’ man in Beechworth he brought them gloves or stole them scarves there were nothing he did not know of how to make a woman happy but now he were pale and sick he had no charm. You’re barking mad he told my wife.

Shutup I told him.

You are both mad you too Ned you cannot break your mother out of Melbourne Gaol.

Well he never said he could cried Mary.

Yes but thats what he’s thinking. I know him girlie he loves his ma like nothing else.

Ned tell him you don’t think that Ned.

He couldnt do it said Joe not if he robbed 2 banks not if he had £100,000.

Don’t tell me what I’ll do Joe Byrne.

We’ve spilled their blood the only hope is California O Jesus he cried eff you Kelly just let me go.

I pursued him outside the sky were dusk white above the black umbrellas of the gums Joe Byrne had mighty thighs & calves he were noisy as a wombat crashing up the scrubby hill he were cursing eff and ess I followed him for 50 yd. the sticks was snapping like baby ribs beneath his angry boots. Then come a thick silence.

Even if you got a ship I called you’d have to grease the Captain’s palm also pay your passage Joe where else would we get the money but from a bank?

I aint afraid of dying he said at last then I made out his lumpy shape he were sitting on a stump or rock or fallen tree.

This plan don’t call for dying.

I won’t kill I have enough bad dreams already.

Or killing neither.

A long silence from us while the kookaburra gave its last call for the night.

Just let your ma serve out her term it aint so long. We both done as much time in prison and it hasnt killed us yet.

But I were not prepared to debate with him about my obligations they was no less to my mother than to him. I took a noisy step or 2 towards him and he backed away. Go back to Aaron but don’t whine like a yellow cur.

I aint leaving said the maddening b––––r don’t you know why?

I did not answer when he spoke again there were a tremor in his voice. Ned you are as good a man as I ever known. He come through the dark putting his clammy grip upon my arm. I am your mate he said thats my bad luck.

He were Aaron’s mate I thought thats worse luck still. We walked to the hut no one spoke until our eyes was naked in the candle light.

I’ll tell you what I’ll do for you he said I’ll go to Benalla and inspect the bank.

He’ll inspect some opium I thought.

You don’t have to come back Joe you could send word.

Thank you Ned he said engaging himself urgently with his tobacco pouch.

Later while he saddled his bay I stood waiting in the blue night with Steve and Dan. Joe said we soon would know how the bank were guarded and the most profitable day to rob it I did not expect nothing of him now. When he mounted he done the unusual thing of leaning down to shake my hand.

Don’t kick no one in the knees I said.

In the bawbles more like it.

I waited until the soft clomp of the hooves could be heard no more then I also parted from the youngsters it were me towards the hut Steve and Dan to keep the 1st watch of the night together.

Inside the hut I could hear George’s snotty milky breathing I were melancholy.

Dear asked Mary.

Yes?

I have been wondering if grumpy Joe is so mistaken. Why should we not all sail to America?

O Jesus Mary we have no money Mary we have to rob the bank to get the money if we are to get away.

But when we have the money dear?

Well 1st we have to rob the bank Mary there aint no avoiding it.

This were the moment our misunderstanding begun I were not ready to discuss how the money would be used I were thinking only how to rob the bank without the boys being killed. But your mother had travelled many miles beyond that place she already had the sea spray on her cheeks.

I been wondering said she exactly what experience do you have of robbing banks.

I think I know well enough how to rob a bank.

O forgive me she said I never knew it were something you done before.

You must not let Joe worry you I reckon I can rob a bank.

She come to join me at the table. I wished to hold her in my arms to run my fingers down her slender back to place my hands across the curve of her stomach.

And how would that be she asked. It were such a clear straight gaze she had.

I didnt think bank robbing were an art of much interest to women.

It is a subject that is become more than 1/2 interesting to me. For instance would you be planning to stroll in the front door?

I fancy thats as good a door as any other.

And would you rob the bank when it were locked or unlocked?

When it were unlocked.

Unlocked?

That don’t suit you Madam?

I certainly would not arrive when the bank were open said the surprising girl. I never would wish to have the difficulty of dealing with customers as well as the tellers.

O would you not now?

I would go after 3 o’clock when they were tallying the take then I would knock at the door and have a cheque with me that I needed urgent to be cashed.

Mary I said you must of robbed a bank before.

I have a baby in my womb said she that I would like the pleasure of seeing upon her father’s knee.

You understand I have an obligation to my mother?

Indeed I do and to me as well.

That I do.

You should expect the manager to have his pistol handy.

I will knock at the door and the mongrel will shoot me dead?

Well that certainly is the danger at Benalla where old Patrick McGrath will know your face don’t you think? And Philips who drank with us and Fitzy that night at the Bridge Hotel he’s still head teller but I were thinking Ned are you known at all in Euroa?

Mary it were you showed me the drawings in the papers they’ll have seen them in Euroa too.

Then the Euroa bank will be expecting the Devil not my handsome Ned. Let me trim your beard you get yourself a nice suit from Mr Gloster and anyone will see you is a darling darling man they would think you was a squatter. The tellers would have to open the door if you had a cheque to cash.

And would you not come to the door for me my Mary?

I would cross the world for you. She come around the table and then she took my scabbed and callused hands and placed them carefully upon her.

Dear daughter you know I never had no proper education at Avenel I would have to be there with my sixpence each Monday morning except when my father were in the lockup and then my mother must be granted a CERTIFICATE OF DESTITUTION. From the time we went to Greta I had no school at all so there are much better educated men than me to write the story of our robbery and you may study this account as a fair example. Yet not one of them scribes was sufficient for your mother’s taste as you will note from her comments on the sides. Heres my cutting and theres your ma she sits watch on these sentences like a steel nibbed kookaburra on the fences in the morning sun.

The
Morning
Chronicle,
December 11, 1878

The Sticking Up of Faithfull’s Creek Station

THE HOMESTEAD OF FAITHFULL’S CREEK STATION IS THREE MILES along the railway line from Euroa and only a stone’s throw from the railway line itself. Shortly after noon on Monday one of the employees of the station, a man named Fitzgerald, was sitting down to dinner in his hut when a bushman sauntered up to the door, and taking his pipe out of his mouth, inquired if Mr McCaulay, the overseer, was about. Fitzgerald replied, “No, he will be back towards evening.” The bushman said, “Oh never mind, it is of no consequence.”

Fitzgerald continued to eat his dinner, but the door of his hut was open and he had a clear view of the bushman beckoning to some persons in the distance. As Fitzgerald was finishing his dinner he saw two very rough looking characters join the bushman. They were leading four very fine horses, in splendid condition. There were four bays.

3 bays and a grey

The bushman then proceeded to the homestead.

He was very handsome, over six ft. tall, built in proportion

Mr Fitzgerald’s wife was, at that time, engaged in household duties in the homestead kitchen. The old dame was considerably surprised that a bushman would enter with no invitation, she asked him who he was and what he wanted. He said, “I’m Ned Kelly, but do not be afraid; we shall do you no harm, but you will want to give us some refreshments and food for our horses, that’s all we want.”

Mrs Fitzgerald immediately called for her husband who duly arrived. His spouse introduced him to the bushman, saying, “This is Mr Kelly, he wants some refreshments and food for his horse.” By this time Kelly had drawn his revolver and Fitzgerald, knowing him to be the Mansfield Murderer, said, “Well, of course, if the gentlemen want any refreshment they must have it.” Ned Kelly then entered into a conversation with the Fitzgeralds, making very particular enquiries about the number of people employed at the station. To all questions satisfactory answers were given.