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my
discussions with him afterwards was concerned if
it were not characterized by
any bad feeling, he had
apparently no ill will against me and as I looked upon
him as a fallen
foe fast approaching
the end of his
career it was my desire to alleviate his sufferings if
he did
suffer which was not apparent.
We
drove to Newmarket, a few miles out of Melbourne,
and waited there for the
special which was
to leave
Spencer St. about nine a.m.
On our arrival here Kelly
refused to walk from the cab to the
station, stating
that the government was rich enough to provide him with
some
means of conveyance.
Faulkiner and I put our hands together upon which he sat
and we carried him to
the platform thus quickly getting
over that difficulty. Kelly's conduct during this journey
to
Beechworth was described
by the press as outrageous.
He was a little truculent but anything that was
beyond
decorum I would
have described as bluster. During our
waiting Kelly tried to attract the
attention of some
jockeys who
were exercising some horses, and riding past
the station, he called out to them;
"Bring those horses
over here and Ned Kelly will show you how to ride them."
The boys not
knowing who it was "barracked"
him and passed
on. Whilst we were waiting for the train I said to him ,
"there have been some
extraordinary stories told about
your shooting abilities it was stated in a
paper that you
could gallop
full speed alongside a fence and put a bullet
into each post as you passed
it."
"So
I can," said he" and no man is fit for the police
force
who couldn't do the same thing."
This remark of Kelly's proved that he had , a very erroneous
idea of the police.
Until he himself compelled them to learn
shooting a trooper, who was found galloping alongside a
fence
shooting
at it with his regulation revolver, would
probably
be dismissed from the service. The Force here
was controlled
upon the conservative principles obtained from the old country.
The firearms were
more ornamental than useful; besides the
horses were and probably are, coddled
up so much
that they
are not officially, permitted to go out of a walking pace
except upon
an emergency.
Sergt. Steele remarked to this assertion of Kelly's.
"Pooh! Pooh! that is
nonsense; there was
not one of you
as good a shot as you pretended to be, and as for Hart he
was
only a boy." Kelly
who had been leaning against the
station building got into a passion at Steele's
contradicting
him;
he turned quite pale and offered to fight Steele,
stepping out on the platform
he would have fallen
had not
some of the constables present caught him.
He swore at Steele and regretted he had not
got him in
the bush When he would show him
what he would do to him.
He hated Steele before his arrest and this feeling was
intensified
by the prominent part Steele took in his capture.
Steele was unruffled and did
not make use
of his position to
be unkind to him in any way. We had not long to wait for the
train, which
contained three or four more troopers and which
we entered and proceeded at a
rapid rate
to Beechworth. We
were in the van, provided with seats, and Kelly sat most
of
the journey.
He was allowed a stimulant and he had a
bottle, from the jail,
containing some gin and water.
He was in good spirits nearly all the journey and sang several
songs about the
"Bold Kelly Gang".
One of the songs was to a well known air; one verse of which
was "We have
mates
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