A RUN FOR LIFE,

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 127, 14 July 1870, Page 7

A RUN FOR LIFE.

THE SHOOTING OF THUNDERBOLT. [" Svduey Morning Ifi-ruld."] j Fred. Ward, alias Thunderbolt, is dead. The circumstances which led to the result I will, as far as I can, briefly relate. On Wednesday, 25th May, about 2 o'clock, as Mr Blanche and his wife were returniug home from Uralla, and within about 200 yards from his own house, a man, riding one horse and leading another, rode up to him, and called out " Bail up !" stating that he was a robber, and would have no humbugging. On some silver being tendered, lie refused to have it, stating that he knew the mistress had money on her, as he was laid on to them. He also reminded Blanche that a few evenings before he (Blanche) had refused to accept a £5 order as payment for a quart of rum. Subsequently he told Blanche that he might go on to his house. On reaching there, some other men came up from Carlisle Gully way, and Ward (as we shall call him) stuck them up also, and an old man named Williamson ; and afterwards a dealer named Cappisote. After a little delay the dealer was permitted to proceed on towards Kentucky, Ward returning to Blanche's Inn, when he called upon the old man Williamson to shout, and also shouted himself, and sang and danced. Ward, it appears, also took one of the horses from a younej man he had stuck up, and was trying its speed when Senior-constable Mulhall appeared in sight galloping down the hill from Uralla. I may state that, after the hawker (Cappisote) was permitted to proceed on his journey, he went about a mile and a-half to a selector named Dorrin^ton and there taking his horse out of the cart, he put the saddle on and, by taking a wide detour from the road through the bush, managed to pass Blanche's house uuobserved, and galloped to Uralla. Senior-constable Mulhall and constable Walker, immediately on receiving information, started in pursuit. But Mulhall's horse being the fastest, he gained about half a mile on Walker. Mulhall then first arrived, and observed two men near the fence, the oldest of whom fired. Mulhall returned the shot and according to his own statement, his horse bolted at the discharge. By this time Walker was galloping down the hill when Mulhall met him and said, "There they arc — I have exchanged shots with them. Go on and shoot the wretch." Walker kept ris?ht on, when the oldest of the two endeavoured to cut into the road, but the youug man blocked him. The two then galloped down the line of fence from the road to the bush. In raising his pistol, Walker happened to discharge it accidentally, and the >hot went into the ground. Ward thereupon turned and fired, but missed his man. Ward then apparently spoke something to the young man, who turned away and left Ward alone, with Walker following him. Ward then beckoned to Walker, and cried out " Come on." to which Walker answered "All right." For a little more than half an hour they raced through timber, over gully and creek, dry ground and boggy, up hill and clown, Ward doubling like a hare, and Walker pursuing — it was a chase for life. Ward seemed to awaken to the fact that now the avenger was on his path, and, bold | rider though he was, he was at last matched. In one place they galloped over a piece of ground where the tussoks of earth and grass were standing like stumps, from Ift. 2ft. high, with a boggy waterhole about 4ft, deep, into which Ward floundered and Walker followed. Throughout the pace must have been terrific, as the tracks next morning testified. At length Ward turned up a bit of a hill, and when on the highest part turned as if to face Walker; but if so, he altered his mind, for off he went until he was pulled up by a waterhole directly in front of him and about 350 yards long. At once Ward dismounted, and too to the water, swimming over. Walker, seeing this, rode up to Ward's horse and shot it dead, and then galloped about 200 yards clown the creek to the end of the waterhole. Here Walker crossed the creek, and then saw Ward, who had swum across, divest himself of his coat and run up the creek about 150 yards, to where there was a narrow channel about 15ft. to 18ft. wide. Across this Ward dashed, and had got out on the other side when Walker arrived at the edge, and there they stood with about 15 ft. or 17ft. of a creek between them. Walker told Ward to surrender; but Ward presenting his pistol asked him who he was, and his name ; also whether he had a family. On Walker replying that he had a family, Ward told him he should think of them. " Oh" said Walker, " I thought about all that; will you surrender?' — to which Ward replied, "No, I will die first." "All right," said Walker, " you or I for it then," and immediately rushed his horse into the creek. Whether it was the sudden fall, or, as Walker supposes, his horse went on liis knees, it so happened that his horse went right under head and shoulders, and whilst in that position Ward jumped towards Walker, to receive his death wound, for Walker at once fired, the ball entering under the left collarbone near the armpit, and travelling direct downwards and backwards to about 3in. below the right shoulder blade, where it came out. Both lungs were pierced. Ward fell, but immediately rose again, and grappled at Walker, who then struck him I over the forehead with his revolver, and

again knocked him under water. Walker then turned his horse out of the sreuk, and dismounting, -\vent ii^o jtlu water, and pulled the in.vi out, | ap;>a,r 'iitly dead. Walker then, as i wa* gofcting dusk, rode back to Blanche' , and procured a horse and cart ; but though he searched for three hours j in the dark, he could not find the body. The next morning he went out again, in company with some others, and brought the body in. It was afterwards identified as that of Fred. Ward, alias Thunderbolt. In the chase and final encounter Constable Walker exhibited undaunted pluck and good riding, combined with much prudence. Few men in the excitement of a chase such as Walker rode, would have had coolness enough to stop and shoot the bushranger's horse. It not only exhibits coolness, but also determination, for by thus cutting off Ward's chance of escape, he rendered him desperate, and, of course, the more dangerous to encounter. Besides, when Walker shot the horse, he had but one charge left, the j other having been expended while chasing Waid. | It appears as if Ward finding what a sticker was after him, thought to double Walker by swimming aero, s, and then, if Walker galloped round, either entice him to follow him into the creek, or else by swimming back again, mount his horse, and thus gain a start. If such was his idea, it was frustrated by Walker's prornptitnde | in shooting the horse. Ward's action at the last encounter also showed the desperate strait into which he was \ brought, and Walker's pluck in facing ! him. With Thunderbolt it was life or \ death. With Walker it was simply j duty. Thunderbolt knew that if he ! started to run on the dry ground Walker would soon overtake him ; therefore he stood on the bank of the creek ready to avail himself of any chance which might turn up to struggle with Walker in the water, where as much might depend on accident as strength. Besides Walker, though active, is but a slight made man. All these were chances in Ward's favor if a hand-to-hand struggle took place in the water. It was, indeed, as Walker said, " you or I for it." Ward's opportunity caino when Walker's horse floundered head under. The rush was made ; but fortunately Walker had one shot left, and that, in taking Ward's life, very probably saved his own. From the direction the ball took, and also the distance it traversed, Walker must have been almost directly over Ward, and within a very short distance, when the shot was fired. Evidently Ward's motive was to pull him off the horse, and one moment later he would have had hold of Walker; but that moment sealed his doom — and Thunderbolt, the scourge of the northern dis trict, is no more. The inhabitants of Uralla, especially those who have ridden over the ground traversed in the chase and viewed the waterhole where the final encounter took place, are loud in their approbation of Walker's pluck, and a testimonial has been started (Mr. G-eorgc Weston heading it with £20) to testify in a substantial manner their appreciation of his cool bravery. Alexander Binney Walker is a young man, a native of the colony, and, like most really brave men, is a very quiet' unassuming person. The Sons of Temperance are proud of him, and says he shows that alcoholic stimulants are not required to give a man a dash and pluck. Walker belongs to the Beltnore Division, Uralla. The "Wagga Wagga Advertiser" i tells the following: — On Sunday morning (which, it will be remembered, was particularly bright and sunny), Mr F. A. Thomson, of Waterveiw, was reading in his verandah, when his attention was drawn to the gestures of a cat (a very large and powerful specimen of the feline family), who evidently contemplated an immediate spring upon something beneath Mr Thomson's chair Before that gentleman could ascertain the character of the object which provoked "Tom's pugnacity, the '•spring" was made, and there was an instant scrimmage. Mr Thomson cleared out rather smartly on finding Grimalkin engaged under his feet with a black snake. The cat a very old and valued " domestic," had lost most of his teeth, but he held the snako firmly below the head, whilst the body of the reptile was coiled round Tom's neck. The cat sprang with his prey upon the garden path, and by a vigorous use of his claws forcibly tore away the living necklace which encircled his throat, and in doing so lost his hold of the snake, which attempted to escape. The cat, however, seized him again instantly, before Mr Thomson could strike the reptile, and there was another scuffle, in which Tom was bitten three times — twice on one foreleg, and once on the lower lip. At last the snake seized the cat firmly by the upper lip and held on, Tom making good his hold about the middle of the body, and endeavoring to tear off with his claws the reptile's hold of him. This he succeeded in, and again let the snake go, when Mr Thomson despatched it. The cat bled freely from two placeß, the upper and lower lips, and it was feared an old favorite had seen his last sunrise; but beyond a little vomiting, which occurred within an hour after the struggle, no bad effects manifested themselves, and Tom has proved himself quite up to Mr Parkes' " mongoose" or ichneumon. After the reptile was dead the cat took no notice whatever of it.