226 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



miles, a large number of people were passed on the road, not one 

 of the victims dared to indicate their plight by the slightest sign. 

 After partaking of a hearty meal at the station, and waiting for 

 dusk, Kelly made a boastful speech to his prisoners about what he 

 intended to do with the police generally, and wound up by warning 

 them that if any one attempted to leave for three hours after his 

 departure he would infallibly be shot. In the gathering gloom of 

 the evening the gang, mounted on four good horses, rode off singing, 

 in the direction of the Strathbogie Ranges. 



When the news reached Melbourne it was scarcely credited. 

 That a township with over 300 inhabitants, on a main line of rail- 

 way, with a police station, should be dominated by four men in 

 open day men for whom the police were believed to be indus 

 triously hunting could not be believed. Captain Standish, the 

 Chief Commissioner of Police, started at once for Euroa to investi- 

 gate the matter on the spot. When there he despatched a number 

 of his best men, with a contingent of black trackers to pick up 

 the trail. But the quest was utterly futile. There were scores of 

 confederates in all the rangey country who gave the police false 

 information, and at the same time kept their friends fully advised. 



Two months later, while the police in Victoria were tumbling 

 over each other to earn the 4,000 reward, the daring quartette 

 suddenly descended upon the township of Jerilderie, on the New 

 South Wales side of the Murray, about 120 miles from the place 

 where they were being sought. At midnight on Saturday, 9th 

 February, 1879, they went to the police station, and by a ruse made 

 the two constables prisoners, and established themselves in these 

 unlikely quarters. On the Sunday two of them donned the uniform 

 of their captives and calmly inspected the town, telling the people 

 that they were relieving officers sent up from Sydney. They even 

 had the audacity to take one of the local constables round with 

 them as a guide, compelling him by his silence to apparently con- 

 cur in their statements. On Monday morning they boldly took 

 possession of the principal hotel in the town, telling the landlord 

 who they were and promising that nobody should be hurt if they 

 offered no resistance. The landlord, his family, servants and all 

 lodgers qn the premises were ordered into the dining-hall and 



