In 1869, aged fourteen, Kelly met Irish-born Harry Power (alias of Henry Johnson), a transported convict who turned to bushranging in North-Eastern Victoria after escaping Melbourne's Pentridge Prison. The Kellys formed part of his network of sympathisers, and by May 1869, Ned had become his bushranging protégé. At the end of the month, they attempted to steal horses from the Mansfield property of squatter John Rower as part of a plan to rob the Woods Point–Mansfield gold escort. They abandoned the idea and fled back into the bush after Rower shot at them, and Kelly temporarily broke off his association with Power.