‘What can we do to help him?’ asked John.
‘Are you willing to carry out a few more robberies?’
‘I don’t know mate. I could justify getting my money back from that card cheat, but I’m not sure I could bring myself to rob innocent people.’
‘No, neither could I.’
‘So, what do you mean?’
‘I’m talking about the gold shipments.’
‘Do you think we could handle that?’
‘Sure, it’s the same as robbing a stagecoach except the stakes are higher. Plus, we’ll have three of us.’
‘Have you discussed it with George yet?’
‘No, I wanted to talk to you first. Are you in?’
‘I’m in if George agrees.’
‘All right, why don’t I arrange dinner here tomorrow night, and we can discuss it then?’
‘That sounds fine with me. What time?’
‘Let’s make it 7.30 pm. I’ll contact George and see whether he can make it. I’ll tell him 8 pm. I want him to walk in and see us both sitting at the table in our disguises.’
John smiled faintly. ‘Well, that will shock him.’
Mathew walked the mile to George’s cottage where he found his friend sitting in front of the fire, staring at the flames. ‘Hello, George how are you feeling?’
‘Not particularly good at the moment.’
‘Well, I can certainly understand that. George, I’d like you to come to my place for dinner tonight. John will be joining us.’
‘Thank you for the offer, Mathew, but I don’t feel like socialising right now.’
‘I think John and I have a solution to your problem and we’d like to discuss it with you over dinner.’
‘Well,’ allowed George, ‘that sounds promising. I suppose I’d better come.’
‘Excellent, we’ll see you there at 8 pm.’
Mathew left his friend wondering about what possible solution his two friends had devised.
The Banshees were in their full female regalia when George knocked on Mathew’s door.
‘Come in George.’
George stared at the sight before him. ‘My God, what’s going on?’
‘Do you think we look pretty, George?’
‘Bloody hell! Pretty is not a word that springs to mind.’
Mathew laughed at his expression. ‘Sit down at the table, and we’ll explain what’s going on.’
The two men explained why they were dressed as females and how they had robbed Harmsworth of all his wealth after he’d cheated John of £5,000.
‘So, George, would you care to be the third Banshee? We will only steal the gold shipments, depriving the banks and the government of their ill-gotten gains.’
‘I don’t know. It sounds risky.’
‘If done correctly the risk is minimised significantly.’
‘Well, I suppose this is my best option to get back on top. Actually, my only option.’
‘So, you are in?’
‘I’m in.’
‘Excellent! Well John, we’d better get out of these outfits before they bring in our dinner.’
Gold
It’s there for the taking
Chapter 10
The three comrades began planning their next robbery. One lesson learnt from Mathew and John’s experience of bailing up the stagecoach was they needed two guns each. This would make their appearance more intimidating and, they hoped, would deter the police from firing on them.
Mathew was able to purchase the additional weapons on the basis he needed them to protect the hotel. The pistols he chose were .31 Colt Revolvers acquired from the gun dealer; Ninnis of 82 Little Bourke Street East. He paid £15 each, a sizable sum.
George was assigned the task of observing the loading of the gold security boxes onto the coach. He discovered over a period of three weeks that the gold run was always on a Thursday departing at 3 pm. He also concluded that the weak link in the steel boxes was the Chubb padlocks.
John purchased several of the locks in Melbourne to determine how they could be broken open. He discovered that an American tomahawk would accomplish the task with relative ease. John purchased two from the local general store.
After the initial robbery, the word had spread from Ballarat to Melbourne that there were two female bushrangers calling themselves the Banshees bailing up stagecoaches along the gold route. Most of the diggers and the police were sceptical; surely, they wouldn’t strike again? After all, they were women.
April 30, 1857
The three friends met in Mathew’s suite to determine their preparedness for the next robbery.
They had made a list the previous meeting, and now it was time to tick off all the items.
Purchase four pistols ✓
Buy ammunition ✓
Determine how the strong boxes can be accessed ✓
Acquire three pack horses or mules ✓
Discover what day and what time coach departs Ballarat ✓
Fit up George for his disguise ✓
Determine bail-up point on the Melbourne Road ✓
All the points were ticked off, and they all agreed they would bail up the gold coach the following Thursday, 4 May.
May 4, 1857
The first banshee, George, rode out of town on the Melbourne Road at midday. No one paid any attention to him as he was obviously heading to Melbourne for supplies with the pack horse accompanying him. He rode for two hours until reaching the rendezvous point; a bend in the road with a large rock formation on the side giving the bushrangers significant cover.
The other advantage of this site was a large cave one mile inland where they could break open the strong boxes and distribute the gold. They would then change back to their street clothes and head back to Ballarat the following day.
The next to leave Ballarat was John who departed at 1 pm with a packhorse in tow. He arrived at the bail up point at 3 pm.
Finally, Mathew rode out at 2 pm, so all three banshees would rendezvous at 4 pm giving them ample time to get into their disguises and wait for the coach.
All were nervous, particularly Mathew. He was concerned that the coach had an escort of four police officers, making it entirely different from the first robbery.
Five pm came and went without any sign of the coach at 5.30 they were becoming concerned that it wasn’t coming at all.
‘Where is the bloody thing? it’s way overdue,’