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After the defeat at Woolshed the police tried the
effect of arresting the whole of the near relations of the bushrangers. About
twenty persons were arrested at a swoop, on the charge of aiding and abetting
the Kelly gang. But absolutely no positive evidence could be obtained against
them. The magistrates did what they could, and kept remanding the prisoners from
week to week, till it became absolutely necessary to discharge them. The maneuver
had no other result than to increase the unpopularity under which the
police laboured.
It almost seems as if the outlaws might have
continued at large for an indefinitely long period had they not run their own
necks into the noose. But that they did so resulted from the very nature of the
situation in which they were placed. Their safety depended, ultimately, on their
power to purchase support, and such purchase was expensive. The proceeds of the
robberies at Euroa and Jerilderie became exhausted, and petty thefts were quite
insufficient to supply their needs. By June, 1880, the outlaws found themselves
under the necessity of attempting another grand coup. In face of the vigilance
and activity of the police the risk was enormous; but they could not help