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thought our country was woven with police, and we might have a chance of fighting them if we had firearms.”
    Ned’s reason for attacking the police, Cameron Letter
    The Hunters Hunted
    It wasn’t hard to find the police camp. The gunshots had told the gang in which direction it lay and a huge campfire led them straight to it like a beacon. There were two policemen at the camp. They weren’t on guard, looking out for the gang. One was cooking dinner. The other was tending the horses.
    Ned and his mates were not well armed. Finding only two policemen was a stroke of luck. Ned emerged from the undergrowth and told the policemen to “Bail up”. The others came out of hiding as well, to show the policemen that they were outnumbered. McIntyre raised his hands in surrender. The other policeman, Constable Lonigan, turned and dived for the cover of a nearby log, reaching for his revolver as he did. Ned fired. Lonigan was shot.
    McIntyre stared in horror at his dead colleague. Ned questioned him while the others searched the camp. They discovered that there were two other policemen in the search party. It was late afternoon and they were due back at any moment. The Kelly Gang just had time to eat some of the food that Constable McIntyre had prepared before the other two policemen, Scanlon and Kennedy, returned.
    Death at Stringybark Creek
    McIntyre yelled out to his two colleagues that they were surrounded and they should give up their weapons. At first they didn’t take him seriously and kept riding into the camp. Then Ned came out of hiding, followed by the other three gang members, now all properly armed with police guns. The two troopers didn’t surrender though. Scanlon shot at Ned but narrowly missed him, the bullet singeing his beard. Ned shot back. He didn’t miss. Scanlon fell from his horse. Sergeant Kennedy jumped down from his horse and, using the animal as a shield, shot at the outlaws. One of his bullets grazed Dan’s shoulder. A second shot from Ned killed Scanlon.
    The horses were frightened by the gunfire and in the commotion, McIntyre leapt onto Kennedy’s rearing horse, which galloped off. At the same time, Kennedy ran into the bush for cover. Ned went after him. He followed Kennedy for some time until the policeman came out from cover and shot at Ned. Kennedy missed. Ned, his aim sure after months of target practice, shot Kennedy in the armpit. The wounded policeman turned and Ned shot him again.
    Things had not turned out the way Ned had planned. The gang had only wanted to take the policemen’s weapons. The shaken bushrangers took the dead troopers’ guns and searched the bodies for money and valuables.
    Escape
    Meanwhile, McIntyre was still clinging to Kennedy’s horse as it galloped through the bush away from the scene of the gunfight. McIntyre had no control over the panicked animal and eventually a tree branch hit him and knocked him from the horse’s back. McIntyre was terrified. At least two of his colleagues had been shot by ruthless bushrangers who, for all he knew, were right behind him with their guns aimed at him as well. As night fell, McIntyre scrambled into a wombat hole.
    The next morning, once he was sure there were no bushrangers around, McIntyre headed for home. He took off his boots so that he didn’t leave any footprints. He walked barefoot towards the town of Mansfield. It was three in the afternoon before he reached the nearest farm.
    Constable McIntyre didn’t have much of a chance to rest after his ordeal. That same evening he led a party of police back to the camp to find the bodies of their colleagues.
    The police were so ill-equipped that when the police party left Mansfield to search for the bodies of Scanlon, Kennedy and Lonigan, they had to borrow guns from the townspeople.
    Three Dead
    Once again there were different reports of what happened at Stringybark Creek. McIntyre swore that Ned shot Lonigan as he was ducking for cover. Ned said that he didn’t shoot him