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him.
    Father had been gone for a couple of days, searching for the Kelly Gang. They were wanted for trying to kill Constable Fitzpatrick. My father said we couldn’t have that. He didn’t think much of Constable Fitzpatrick, but he said people had to respect the troopers. The troopers are the law. If they don’t respect them, they don’t respect the law and if that’s the case, no one’s safe. He went off on Monday morning and he never came back.
    I knew something was wrong when someone knocked on the front door. No one ever knocks on the front door. People who come to visit just walk round the back and sing out. It was another trooper. Mother made me go out into the garden. I wasn’t supposed to hear, but I crept round and sat under the window. I heard everything.
    “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Mrs Kennedy,” he said. “But your husband is dead. He was killed in the line of duty.”
    Ned Kelly killed my father. He shot him in the chest. He killed two other troopers too. Only one got away. That was Constable McIntyre. He found a wombat hole and hid in it all night. He was too scared to come out in case the Kellys were looking for him. My father was only doing his job. All he was trying to do was bring in the Kellys so that they could go to court. That’s a place where you go to find out if you’re guilty or not. If they were guilty of trying to kill Constable Fitzpatrick, they’d go to jail. If they weren’t guilty, then they’d be set free. That seems fair enough to me. It’s not fair that someone can be shot just for doing their job.
    Who’s going to look after Mary and Laurie and me now? Who’s going to go out and earn the money for food? Mary’s the eldest and she’s only nine. She could probably do some washing or mind a lady’s babies. I don’t think she’d earn enough to feed us all, though.
    Laurie says that when he grows up he’s going to be a trooper just like father. And if Ned Kelly is still alive then, he’ll track him down and shoot him. Laurie says I’m not allowed to tell anybody—not even mother. If the Kellys find out, they’ll come to the house and shoot him first.
    What was that? There’s something out there, I’m sure there is. Something made the stars disappear. It could have been a cloud or it might have been one of the Kelly Gang.
    “Mother, can I come and sleep in your bed? Mother!”
    Rose Kennedy, seven years old.

     
    Target Practice
    The Kelly Gang had been hiding out in the Wombat Ranges for six months, keeping themselves busy panning for gold and distilling whisky. They also spent a lot of time practising shooting. The trees around their hidden hut were marked with targets and there was evidence that they had been shot at, with increasing accuracy, many times. Ammunition was in short supply, so the bullets had all been dug out of the trees, melted down and made into new bullets.
    Some time after Mrs Kelly’s trial, the gang heard news that the police had started a campaign to capture them. There were at least two groups of police out in the trackless hills in search of them, maybe three. It was only a matter of time before the police stumbled upon their camp.
    Search Party
    One group of four policemen left the town of Mansfield with enough supplies to enable them to search for a week. On the first day out they set up camp on the banks of Stringybark Creek. Little did they know that they were less than two kilometres from the Kellys’ hideout. Constable McIntyre was given the job of cooking for the party. He thought it would be a good idea to shoot some parrots or perhaps a kangaroo so that the men could have fresh meat for their dinner.
    The gang had been alone in the hills for months. Suddenly there was the sound of gunfire ringing out around the valleys. If the police were out in force looking for them, Ned decided they needed more guns and horses. Instead of waiting for the troopers to find them, they would go out after the troopers.
    “We