Cirrus@Austlit

'The plot of the play is some thing out of the common run, and the personages include Dick Rudding, a medical student; his sweetheart, Tressie Daunton, a gushing and affectionate girl whose hand is also sought for by the villain of the piece, Count Erani, whose former wife was now married the the Hon. E. Daunton -- the divorce had been obtained by perjury, which is disclosed to the husband by Norlen in a fit of very untimely paralysis. Holding this threat of disclosure over Mrs Daunton (who is Dick's sister) the Count forces her apparent support to his wooing of her step-daughter, which is favoured also by her father. Dick, with his friend Stanley go to India to hunt tigers, and there Stanley is accidentally wounded, by his own gun going off. In his agony he imposes the terrible task of shooting him to put him out of his misery on Dick, who fires in the air, but a flash of lightning considerately kills the wounded man at the same moment. Dick is accused of murder by the Count's creatures, two Indians, but to make sure evidence, the Count fires another bullet into the body. Dick, however, escapes and with the aid of a rascal of the mercenary type, gets away to England, where the Count is up to his games and apparently has the ball at his feet, when by the aid of the rascal and a philantropic [sic] detective, Veron, the innocence of Dick is made apparent, villainy is defeated, and virtue rewarded as usual.'

Source: 'His Terrible Task', Independent, 5 September 1896, p.3.