In late March 1879, Kelly's sisters Kate and Margaret asked the captain of the "Victoria Cross" how much he would charge to take "four or five gentlemen friends" to California from Queenscliff. On 31 March, an unidentified man arranged an appointment with the captain at the General Post Office to give a definite answer for the cost. The captain contacted police, who placed a large number of detectives and plain-clothes police throughout the building, but the man failed to appear. There is no evidence that Kelly's sisters were enquiring on behalf of the gang, and was reported in the "Argus" as "without foundation".