Sydney Morning Herald (38)
The station master said:— "Ned Kelly, speaking to Hart, said, "Watch his countenance, and if he gives any signal shoot him." There were about seventeen persons imprisoned. Reardon's family, the Ryan family, Cameron (son of the gatekeeper on the other line), Sullivan, line repairer, and others whom I do not remember. We were locked up all day on Sunday, and were only allowed out under surveillance. The women were permitted to go to Jones' Hotel about 5 o'clock , and shortly afterwards all the men but me and my family went away. Steve Hart stopped with us, and during the night Dan Kelly relieved Hart, and he was afterwards relieved by Byrne. Just before the special train arrived I was ordered to the hotel by Hart, who was on and off duty all the time, to follow him to Jones', and not to signal the train. I went into the back kitchen, where Mrs Jones and daughter, aged aged about fourteen, and two younger children were. There was also a man named Neil M'Kew."
Meanwhile, information had been sent to Melbourne , and a special train of police (preceded by a pilot engine for safety) picking up Lieutenant O'Connor and the black trackers at Essendon, went to Glenrowan. The engineer of the pilot-engine learned, when a mile off, that the line had been pulled up. When the police arrived they found that several individuals had been gathered together and placed in Jones' hotel, by the bushrangers. Superintendent Hare reporting says:—"Constable Bracken rushed up, saying he had escaped from Jones' public house, and for God's sake go quickly, or they will get away. I then ran with two or three men following me, and I went up towards Jones', and when I got within fifty or eighty yards a shot was fired from the house, and struck me in the left wrist. I immediately got the house surrounded by all the men I had." The assault on the house then followed, and a tedious interval intervened, during which Mr. Stainstreet, station-master, left the hotel, where he had been kept prisoner, and had a narrow escape of being shot by the police, but he saved himself by proclaiming he was the station-master. He then reported that the gang were in the house, and that the shots of the police had struck the daughter of Mrs Jones, a girl fourteen years of age, on the head, whilst the son, John Jones, a boy of nine years, was wounded in the hip.
Very soon after this, painful hysterical screams of terror were heard from Mrs Jones and a Mrs Reardon, who were in the house. The police frequently called upon the women to come away, but they hesitated. During this firing more police arrived, but the bushrangers could not be dislodged: and, what was more perplexing the prisoners inside could not be persuaded to leave, although the police repeatedly called upon them to do so. At 12 o'clock those inside suddenly rushed out carrying their hands aloft. The police told them to advance, but many were so terror-stricken that they ran hither and thither screaming for mercy, afterwards approaching the police, throwing themselves upon their faces. One by one they were called, and, being minutely searched, were dispatched to the station. When the turn of the two youths named M'Auliffe came, Superintendent Sadlier directed constable Bracken to arrest them as “Kelly sympathisers." They were accordingly handcuffed.
During those proceedings Ned Kelly, the leader of the gang, managed to leave the hotel, but returned. And this is how his return and capture may be surmised :—He shot Superintendent Hare in the wrist, and got away. Knowing that three of his companions were in Jones's Hotel he returned towards that place subsequently. The report says that when he first showed at the rear of the police, surrounding the house, they thought he was a blackfellow, and walked coolly and slowly among the police.
When within easy distance of senior-constable Kelly, who was watching him, he fired. The police then knew who he was, and sergeant Steele, senior-constable Kelly, with Mr. Dowsett (a railway guard), fired on the ruffian. The contest became one which was surprising. The police fired point blank at Kelly; but although it was apparent that many of the shots hit him in consequence of the way in which he staggered, yet he always recovered, and tapping his breast, laughed derisively as he coolly returned the fire, fighting only with a revolver. For half an hour this contest was carried on, and then sergeant Steele closed in on him, and when within ten yards fired two shots into his legs, and this brought the outlaw down.
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