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bodies were taken to the Skillians' place at Seven Mile
Creek, and an uproarious wake held over them by friends
and relatives of the families. Seven Mile Creek would have
been an unsafe place to visit that day. "Kelly sym-
pathisers," it is reported, " who had made themselves drunk
at the wake, were bouncing about, armed and threatening
to attack the police." One man solemnly and drunkenly
swore to avenge the death of the outlaws, but nothing
came of it.

   Ned only remained; and, it must be confessed that, shorn
of his armour wherein he had trusted too much, Ned afforded
sorry spectacle. His condemnation was, of course, as
certain as well-deserved. In his prison at Melbourne his
other had an interview with him, and exhorted him to
die like a Kelly." Whether he died " like a Kelly " or not,
he certainly died miserably, so broken down with terror that
he bad to be supported to the gallows. The coroner stated
that he had never seen a man show so little pluck under
the circumstances. But it is one thing, after all, to die
fighting, and another to face the gallows in cold blood.

To the end he persisted, as far as his courage went, in
the part of the heroic outlaw. This is the best that
can be said of his last moments. He 'asserted that he had
only been captured at Glenrowan through an heroic refusal
to leave his comrades in the lurch.          "If I liked," he
declared, "I could have got away. I had a good chance,
but I wanted to see the thing end. Perhaps I would have
done better if I had cleared away with my grey mare." It
is conceivable that this version of the story was true that
Ned returned simply to "see the thing end," and aid his
comrades. It is far more probable that he returned because
he could not have got away alone.

          Thus wretchedly ended the career of the last' of the bush-
rangers; and with what shall we dismiss him ? Certainly
be has no claim to rank among heroic brigands. Perhaps,
after all, his best epitaph was furnished, in act, by his own
family. On the evening of the very day of Ned's execution
his sister Kate and his brother Jim-the latter known merely
as a horse-stealer-appeared on the boards of a Melbourne

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music-hall. For an entrance fee of one shilling the pair exhibited themselves to an admiring public. Kate held a bouquet of flowers, and bowed and smiled in the approved fashion. Thus were Ned's manes propitiated, not inappropriately.