Remember Ronald Ryan Read Online Free PDF Page A

Wangaratta Warragul Morwell Sommerville Korumburra South Gippsland Highway Bairnsdale on Mitchell’s Bridge Cann River on River Bridge. From Swan Hill on roadblocks at Nyah and one at Toolibuc.
    RYAN : Why do you like me, Mrs Hurley? If that’s not a rude question.
    MRS HURLEY : You give life.
    RYAN : I’ll remember you said that.
    The mates awake in the middle of the night. They are sweating.
    POLICE RADIO : To cancel these roadblocks ring Swan Hill 21180. 1868 hours to all regional stations. To press liaison office for publicity, body at City Mortuary. Notice to all suburban trains. Message from man (hung up) Ryan may go to 3 Hunter Street Hawthorn. 1534 hours check address of George Gardiner of 14 Raglan Street Port Melbourne. Check address of Mr X and Mr X had a telephone call to the effect that he has informed on Ryan. I have arranged to guard his present address. I believe escapees may be at 38 Dryer Street South Melbourne.
    RYAN : Fuck, it’s hotter than one with the lot.
    WALKER : Let’s bail out. It might be a trap.
    RYAN : Back on the frog.
    WALKER : Back on the frog.
    RYAN : You are my load. My lovely load.
    They crash to sleep in their makeshift home. They talk to one another as if boys.
    What would you like to be remembered for, Peter?
    WALKER : That I won the Stawell Gift. On one leg.
    RYAN : Do you know how I’d like to be remembered?
    WALKER : No.
    RYAN : The Man who Loved his Wife and Family.
    POLICE RADIO : To Victoria Dock check Princess of Tasmania . Walker friendly with a man at Cobram. 1618 hours Walker possible in second-last car on train due at Malvern. Smithfield Road near abattoirs men seen changing clothes in a Vanguard. No sign of Vanguard. No sign in Smithfield Road when we passed there. Checking racecourse area. 1637 hours interstate message to Sydney and Adelaide from Civic Taxi driver got it from an interstate truck driver who saw the Vanguard twenty minutes ago. Check Footscray Flemington area. A-1 and A-2 both have gas and carbines on board.
    RYAN and WALKER excitedly chat about their past lives, trying to settle down for the night.
    WALKER : Are you awake?
    RYAN : Awake-up to you.
    WALKER : What are you thinking about?
    RYAN : The mighty Murrumbidgee.
    WALKER : You’re kidding.
    RYAN : I lived there after the Boys Home. It’s funny how things come back.
    WALKER : When you never expect them to.
    RYAN : Everything’s been so hectic lately.
    WALKER : You’re not wrong, Ron.
    RYAN : We’ve both crossed over the line.
    WALKER : It was inevitable, what happened.
    RYAN : I suppose we’ll both hang.
    RYAN : Three years I lived there, on the banks of the Mighty Murrumbidgee. Balranald, funny name. When I politely vanished from the Boys Home I met Mr Smith, of Balranald.
    WALKER : Anyone else would believe you, Ron.
    RYAN : I heard there was work.
    WALKER : That’s not like you.
    They laugh.
    RYAN : Work cutting sleepers for the New South railways. Ron and George Smith took me in, for a time. I boarded with old Sam. Good people they are, probably still living up there. Sleeping among the red gums like kids. George showed me how to hit the wedges in. You had to split them in two. You looked at a tree to see how many you could get out of it. We ate bunnies and sipped a single shandy—at the end of the week. I suppose there was something noble in slave labour like that. I got around with Wingy.
    WALKER : Who was Wingy?
    RYAN : My half-brother with half a body. He lost an arm, run over by a tram as a child. Christ, he was strong though, he worked harder than most of them, good with the axe was Wingy, he used to sip grog like this.
    He shows the drinking style of Wingy.
    I used to take their pay from them after work. Poker. Aces from the bottom of the deck. Like taking milk off a baby.
    WALKER : You’ll have me crying in a minute.
    RYAN : My first job was at Balranald. I cased the Commercial Bank. Hit the boss over the noggin with my rifle and