347
sively," and coolly returning the fire. "It
appeared as if
he were a fiend with a charmed life." For half an hour this strange combat
lasted; then Sergeant Steele rushed in and shot Ned in the leg, bringing him
down, then sprang on him and caught the hand that held his revolver. " He
roared," we are told, " with savage ferocity," as he lay
struggling on the ground, pouring out curses. He had two bullet wounds in his
left arm, one in his right leg, and one in his right foot. The police managed to
get his armour off, and he at once became quiet. He was taken from the scene of
action, a prisoner at last. It seems certain that Ned had contrived to leave the
hotel, and had spent the night outside in the skirts of the bush. The marks of
his feet were found under a fallen tree, together with a quantity of
blood, and, not far off, was found a rifle with more blood near it. It appears
that, after the first brush at the hotel front, Ned had suggested that he and
Byrne should slip out and make an attack on the police from the rear which the
other two should second. But Byrne had refused to follow him, and he had gone
alone. Why he came back is not so clear. But if, as is probable, he had been
badly hurt before he got clear it must have seemed to him impossible to escape
alone through the bush, and he made his attack,
trusting to a sally from within and to his armour. But there was no such sally.
Byrne had been shot dead at about 5.30 that morning while drinking in the bar,
and Hart and Dan, deprived of their leaders, were cowed and
helpless.
The siege continued. To rush the place would have
entailed a quite unnecessary loss of life. The outlaws had hardly a chance of
escape. The women and children prisoners in the hotel came out at daybreak, and,
at about ten o'clock, the rest of the prisoners rushed out in a body, terrified
out of their wits. Some ran frantically about, screaming to the police for
mercy. Others flung themselves down on their faces in their agony of fear. Their
exeunt was dramatically appropriate to the parts they had most of them played.
All the morning, reinforcements of police were
arriving on