The True Story of the KellyGang of Bushrangers Chapter 19 page 3

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This work was in progress when a man appeared on the platform and besought Mr Hare to go quickly to the hotel. It was Bracken, who had just escaped, and he told of the presence of the outlaws, saying unless they were attacked immediately they would be gone. Mr Hare did not hesitate for a moment. With hasty instructions to let the horses go, calling on his men to follow him, he ran towards the hotel, crossing a fence and ditches on his way. The building was in darkness, the only light coming from the moon which was low behind the house, when suddenly there were flashes of flame from four dimly-seen figures on the verandah and bullets whistled among the police. All escaped unhit except Mr Hare who led the party, and who was struck by a bullet in the left wrist. The police returned the fire, Mr Hare using a gun with his uninjured hand, and as the sound of the first volley died away, a voice from the verandah was heard calling, ‘Fire away, you -----. You can do us no harm.’ For a minute or two a sharp fusillade continued, fifty or sixty rifle or revolver shots being fired on either side, when the men on the verandah retreated into or round the hotel, and with a lull in the firing the police heard piteous screams of pain and terror issuing from the house. Up to that time there had been no suspicion that noncombatant men, women, and children were behind the walls through which the Martini bullets were crashing, and on the sound of their voices reaching him Mr Hare gave the order to cease fire. After that, telling his men to surround the house, he retired to the station, faint from his wound which was bleeding profusely, and which the pressmen at the train bound up for him. Strongly dissuaded by the ladies, who had pluckily kept their places in the railway carriage, with bullets whistling past them, Mr Hare made an effort to go back to the scene of action, but the pain and the loss of blood overcame him, and he had to retire once more and remain upon the platform until the train was ready to convey him with the ladies back to Benalla. There, before having his wound dressed, Mr Hare despatched a number of telegrams, dictating them to the stationmaster, and made arrangements for reinforcements of police being sent forward to Glenrowan.

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