WANGARATTA, TUESDAY, 11.15 PM
The account which has been obtained from Mr Nicholson shows that none of the supposed Kelly party are wounded, and that satisfactory item in past reports must be given up. Margery is a selector near the Murray . On his way backwards and forwards to the river last Tuesday he saw four men near a lagoon. He had some talk with them. They said at first they were police, and afterwards one of them stated that he was Kelly. They showed handcuffs, and he saw that they carried firearms in their swags as many shearers do. He had a long talk with them, and they got some loaves of bread and a bottle of wine from him, but made no demand for provisions, and did not stick him up. He told them that if they were the Kellys they had better clear out, as that was no place for them. They stayed some time at the lagoon, and kept him there also. Before he went up to them he had seen them on his way to the river, where he had set some fishing lines, and he passed once or twice before he had the curiosity to see who they were. The police ascertained that Margery had been drinking, but in their inquiries in the neighbourhood they found that other persons had seen the same party. This occurred on the Tuesday, and it was not until Friday night that Mr Nicolson arrived from Benalla.
On Saturday the police got on the tracks of four or five horseman. Margery had told them that they were mounted on remarkably good horses. The tracks were well defined for some distance, and at sundown they reached the place where the party had camped the previous day. The footprints were those of shod horses. Rain came on, and not only obliterated the tracks, but flooded the surface of the ground. They still kept on, but finally lost the track entirely at a reserve near Barnawartha. On entering the township they learned that a party exactly like the men they were in search of had passed through a little in advance on them. They followed on, and made up to four men. One of them was remarkably like Kelly, and the other three young men. They took them into Chiltern on Sunday at 7.00 a.m., and Margery was confronted with them, but he was sure they were not the men he had seen. Mr Nicolson, though struck with the likeness, did not for a moment suppose he had got Kelly. It was satisfactorily shown that the men were shearers, so they were at once brought before a magistrate and discharged from custody. This pursuit of a false scent lost the police a day.
The search was resumed on Monday, and soon fresh evidence of the presence of the Kelly party was met with in the neighbourhood of the Murray . It was pretty evident that attempts had been made to cross and that the party had been baffled. Some info rmation which the police don’t care to disclose at present was obtained. It was not from Margery that they heard about the brands on the horses, but from a more trustworthy source. Up to yesterday the police felt that they were still upon strong indications. Some fresh parties of troopers will be sent out from here to-morrow.
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