HOW THE BUSHRANGERS FOOLED THE POLICE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 45, 4 February 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW THE BUSHRANGERS FOOLED THE POLICE.

A STORY OF BEN HALL’S GANG.

By Chas. White, Author of “Australian Bushranging,” “The Story of the Blacks,” etc.

<From “Young Australia”). Ben Hall’s gang of bushrangers ha< been committing robberies in th< Bathurst district, and all the police ftoin the superintendent down to Bilb Dargin and Combo, the black tracken (for the latter were joined to the force if not sworn-in members of it), wen cut searching the bush for them. Th< whole countryside was in a state oi alarm, for neither the people in th< town nor the lonely farmers in th< bush felt safe, knowing not the mo ment that the gang would swoop dowr upon them, and with the commanc “Hands up!” proceed to rob the store or the house; or take the best horses from the stables or the paddecks. Th< bushrangers were so well acquainted with the locality, knowing almost everj track and fence, and were so wel mounted, that the police had great difficulty in tracing them, greater dif. fmulty in catching up to them, and greater difficulty still in arresting 01 shooting them. Frequently, indeed, the bushrangers made the police look and feel very ridiculous. On one occasion, I remember, word had been sent in to the police station at Bathurst that the Bon Hall gang had “stuck up” several people just out side the town. “Saddle up and aftei them!” cried the officer in charge oi the barracks, and all was hurry and bustle until a posse of police, six <n seven all told, were galloping along the old Vale Road, with the always laughing Billy Dargin at their head leaning over the horse’s shoulder hall way to the ground as he galloped alonp watching the tracks and following their as surely as hounds follow tha scent oi fox in the hunting field in the old country. ‘As a rule the police were al ways glad when the tracks kept or the government road, for they didn’i relish fast riding through . ’scrub 01 among tre°s, where the shadows were deep and the paths made by the moonlight most misleading. ■ And then again, their horses were not good jumpers, and logs, and ; fences were of ton and high ; k and as ihe bush dangers would always clear these witl their fine nags, the police were at s great disadvantage. Qq this occasion the tracks did nbt'turn''from the roac until in the neighbourhood. of tin Mount, on the sides .of which wer< huge roiks and deep gullies; and ai Billy Dargin, called out: “Hold on Sergeant; big fella breakaway heregone down black gully? My word, havi to look.out now!” the police pulled* up and learned that the gang had jndeet n ade a “big’ breakaway,” and set oi at right angles in the direction of whai was known os police had, perforce, to follow, ana rot low slowlv, for the w>? was too rougl for them to do more than walk theft horses. With gun ov'r the nommel oi the saddle, or revolver m hand, readj to fire if need be. each man anxiously followed their dark-skinned guide; hw the chase proved a fruitless one. Tlw bushrangers had quietly doubled bacl after going a sort distance down tin side of the Mount, and. stopping unti the police had passed, they became th< hunters instead of the hunted, and hac the police dared to camn in the bnsh the probability is that they would havi been surprised and their - horses stolei before they could- move a hand to stoj the “rangers * 1 It. was useless to continue the searcl in the darkness, for even Billy Dargir could not see the tracks; so they re ■ turned to ■ the road and slowlv weni •in in the ‘direction of Calvola, th< bushrangers following them at a saf< distance.. Heavy rain set in during the evening, and as there was no house public or private, near in which to tak< shelter, the order was given by the ser geant to pull off into a paddock neai the side of the road and find whai shelter they could under the trees til daybreak next morning. The order wai obeyed, and the soaked and raiserabk men dismounted and sat or stood shiv enng in the cold and wet. holding theii horses by the bridles (for they dar< not unsaddle) until the morning dawn K d» when they made all haste across the paddock to a point on the roar where there was a wayside publft house. Hero they found food.' sheltei and - warmth, and during their shori stay practised firing at a mark on > distant tree, to “keep their hand in,’ in the event of meeting the bush rangers. And where were Ben Hall and higang during this time? Well, they bar camped in the same paddock as thi F>ohce, only on the other side of th< ndtre, and cAmped in the same way holding their Worses by the bridles ai 1 Gy sheltered during the darkness uu cer the tree”.. They saw the police g< down to the public-house, and witnessed their practice firing; and when tin coast was clear they also went dowi ana had breakfast, afterwards takinj. another read and sticking up a coUntri store, knowing that the officers of thi law were hunting for them in anothei direction.

finall , v won in an these ’gththP outlaws, beating them, a- the British beat the Boers, by steady pressure of numbers. But just as the uoers, because thev were better bushwen than the British soldiers, gave them man v a smart rap on the knock,«« at the beginning of the war; £,{£* bnsb ™“g«vs, in early day Aust. outbreaks, often played with the ponce. Thev wer« a s I said just now, better mounted and that is* an r h ant K PO l Dt ' Vlctorv not always u. t.ie best cause, or with the bravF®,:J 1 V i son ? p rimes it is With the 'jit, ' If ! s th 3 best hor=es. or puns. ??nrror«T P; i n<JVantafirG that the bl,shungers baa however, was their knowjX b " abcraf t. of horsemanship, of the iay of the country—m a word, they of 1 T° + l ts £ be P° boe not. Without the black trackers, the pohee would have had a still tougher