THE MURDER OF AARON SHERRITT.

        As I have already intimated, the outlaws had by some means become suspicious of Sherritt, and as soon as they had made sure of the fact that their former sympathiser had sold himself to the police for the purpose of selling them, they proceeded to work out a cold-blooded plan of revenge. After the discovery by Mrs. Byrne of the party of police spies in the mountains, the old lady gave Sherritt clearly to understand that his visits to the house were not welcome, and the attachment between him and Joe's sister was consequently broken off. That the thieving instinct was still strong upon Sherritt was proved by his stealing a horse from Mrs. Byrne.

        This theft took place just previous to the rupture, and through that piece of knavery his services were very nearly lost to the police. For some time after the disappointed watchers had left the mountain retreat near Mrs. Byrne's house, Sherritt remained in touch with Superintendent Hare, but that gentleman having gone to another part of the district for a time, a break was made in the connection, and before it was resumed Aaron had found another sweetheart, and had become a benedict, settling down as a married man about a mile from Mrs. Byrne's residence.

        It was still thought advisable to keep watch upon Mrs. Byrne's house, and as no more convenient place for doing this was available than Sherritt's house, the police became frequent visitors there—secret visitors, of course, although the Byrne family must have known that they were under constant surveillance, and that Aaron was lending himself to the hated members of the force. The plan adopted was for a party of three of four troopers to be hidden in Sherritt's house during the day and creep out under shelter of the darkness and watch Byrne's house from different positions during the night. But the work grew so monotonous that the police on watch grew very weary of their work, and evaded duty occasionally; and at last they made application to be allowed to visit Benalla for a time to recruit their health, the constant exposure during the wet nights having completely knocked them up. They were allowed to leave the place for a short time. They had only resumed duty a few days when they were brought into contact with the gang in a manner they had never anticipated. Whether the hour had arrived for the nightly visit to Mrs. Byrne's house or not does not appear, but it was dark and the constables were still in Sherritt's hut, when on the Saturday night about eight o'clock the inmates were visited by a "surprise party" of a very objectionable kind. Aaron, his wife, his mother-in-law, and four police were in the hut (which consisted of two rooms) at the time, the three former being in the back room and the latter in a room at the front; when suddenly a voice was heard calling from outside the back door. Sherritt asked, "Who is there?" and the reply came, "Antonio Wicks, I have lost my way," or something to that effect. Aaron recognised the voice as that of Wicks, who had a farm in the neighbourhood, and without any hesitation he opened the door and stood on the threshold to talk to the caller. There was a bright fire burning in the hut at the time, and standing as he did Aaron was in full view of anyone outside. Before he could distinguish anything in the darkness, a shot was fired and he was struck in the face. He staggered back into the centre of the room, and at once his assailant jumped to the doorway and fired a second shot, which struck him in the chest, and he fell dead upon the floor. Then one of the women in the place recognised the murderer as Joe Byrne, and shortly afterwards saw and recognised Dan Kelly standing near the doorway with his rifle on his arm. The man Wicks was standing trembling near him, securely handcuffed; and it subsequently transpired that he had been secured and forced by Byrne and Dan Kelly to go to Aaron's hut and call out to him, they knowing that when he heard Wick's voice their intended victim would not apprehend any danger of a surprise, and they would then be able to dispose of him quickly and without any trouble. The murdered man never spoke after the shots were fired.

        There was naturally great consternation in the hut when this tragedy happened. The attack completely paralysed the constables, who made no attempt to engage the men for whom they had been specially waiting for so many weary nights. They did not move from their hiding-place in the back room, and did not even fire a shot from their hiding-place, although an opportunity must have presented itself when Byrne jumped to the doorway to fire the second shot. Having finished Sherritt, the outlaws showed that they knew the police were in the house by calling upon them to come out, at the same time firing a volley into that part of the dwelling (it was a slab hut) in which they supposed the police were located. This they repeated several times, but as no answering fire was returned they threatened to burn the house down and roast the timid hunters who were there hidden. They did not carry out this threat, however, and although they stayed about the place until 6.30 next morning, giving the occupants an occasional hint that they were awake and active, they then quietly left and, as was afterwards discovered, rode off to Glenrowan to join Ned Kelly and Hart. When the constables had assured themselves that the outlaws had left the locality of Sherritt's hut, one of their number stole out and made what haste he could to Beechworth to give information to his superior officer at the station there, and thus the whole army of police was once more set in motion.

        Sherritt had very few friends to lament his death. He was known and feared by not a few of the residents of the Beechworth district, where he was looked upon as a most dangerous character, and up to the time when his treachery became known his only friends were the outlaws and their sympathisers. Naturally the latter rejoiced exceedingly that he had been so effectually "put out of the way" by Joe Byrne, for they themselves were in danger of being convicted under the Outlawry Act, should the arrest of the bushrangers remove the necessity for secret movements on Sherritt's part; and there can be no doubt that he would have "peached" upon them as readily as he had upon the Kellys if the latter had been in safe custody. And the police did not look upon him altogether with favour, as witness the following statement of Superintendent Hare:— "It was doubtless a most fortunate occurrence that Aaron was shot by the outlaws; it was impossible to have reclaimed him, and the Government of the colony would not have assisted him in any way, and he would have gone back to his old course of life, and probably have spent his days in gaol; or he might have turned bushranger himself, when he would have been quite as dangerous a man as Edward Kelly himself." And when mentioning that the Government had given the widow a comfortable allowance, the same officer laconically observed "she was much better off without him."

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