The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-05-02
| CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
By ROGER POCOCK
byB MerrnC
By ROGER POCOCK

So the outlaws had broken cover
after months of hiding, and at once
Superintendent Hare brought police
they might take up the trail of their
retreat back TO the mountains. The
outlaws, foreseeing this movement,
tore up the railway track, so that the
train, with its load of police, might
be thrown into a gully, and all who
survived the wreck were to be shot
down without mercy.
This snare which they set for their
enemies was badly planned. Instead
OF tearing up the tracks themselves,
they brought men for the job from
Glenrowan station close by; and then,
to prevent their presence from being
reported, they had TO hold the village
instead of mounting guard upon the
trap. They cut the wires, secured the
station and herded all the villagers in
to the Glenrowan hotel some two hun
dred yards from the railway. Then
they had to wait for the train from
three o'clock on Monday morning all
through the long day, and the drea I
night, guarding sixty prisoners and
watching for the police. They amused
the prisoners, men, women and chill,
dren with an impromptu dance in
which they shared by turns, then with
raids upon outlying houses, and with
athletic feats, but always on the alert
lest any man escape to give the alarm.
or the police arrive upn5served. The
strain was beyond human endurance.
So Byrne, fresh from the murder Of
his chum Aaron Sheriff., relieved his
mind by getting drunk, Ned Kelly kept
up his courage by Dragging Of the
death prepared for his enemies, and,
worst break of all, the local school,
master was allowed to take his sick
wife home.
The schoolmaster had been most
sympathetic all day long, helping the
outlaws until he won their confidence !;
but now, escaped to his house, he made
haste to prepare a lantern covered
with a red shawl with which to signal
the train. He stood upon the track
waving the red light, when In the
pitchy darkness before dawn, the train
load of police came blindly straight
for the death-trap. The train slowed,
stopped and was saved.
Out Of plowshares and scrap iron,
q blacksmith had forged for each Of
the outlaws a cuirass and helmet of
plate armor, and now at the sound Of
the approaching train they dressed in
this bullet-proof harness. Ned Kelly's
suit weighed ninety-seven pounds, and
the others were similar, so clumsy
that the wearer could neither run to
attack nor mount a horse TO escape.
Moreover, with rifle at the shoulder,
it was impossible to see for taking
aim. So armed, the robbers had got
no farther than the hotel veranda when
the police charged, and fierce en-.
gagement began. The prisoners hud-
died within the house had no shelter
except frail board walls, and two Of
the children were wounded.
Byrne was drinking at the bar when
bullet struck him dead. Ned Kelly,
attempting 10 ucScIL Ills COIni duCS,
made for the yard, strolled back laugh
ing amid a storm of lead. Every bull
let striking his armor made him reel,
and he had been five times wounded,
but now he began to walk about the
yard emptying his revolvers into the
police. Then a sergeant fired at his
legs and the outlaw dropped, appeal.
ing abjectly for his life.
The escape of the panic-stricken
prisoners had been arranged, but for
hours the fight went on until toward
noon the house stood a riddled and
CHASTITY shell, with no sign of life. A
bundle of straw was lighted against
the gable end, and the building was
soon ablaze. Rumors now spread that
an old man lay wounded in the house.
and a priest CALAMITY led in rush
of police to the rescue. The old man
was saved, and under the thick smoke,
Dan Kelly and Hart were seen lying
dead upon the floor In their armor.
Ned Kelly died as he had lived, a
coward, being almost carried to the
gallows With the destruction of the
outlaws closed long period of dis
order. Except in remote regions of
the frontier, robbery under arms has
ceased forever in the Australasian
states.