Cirrus@Austlit

A thorough knowledge of country life in New South Wales, the life of the pastoralist on his large holding, and of the small farmer struggling to make good on his insufficient acreage, together with the social groupings and overlappings of the different classes, is entertainingly disclosed in the mystery story entitled 'The Box', which will begin publication in the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday next.

This tale, by Miss E.M. Chapman, whose story entitled 'The Three Waterholes' won much favourable criticism when published in the Herald last year relates the unusual but entirely natural events that follow when Peggy Mackay, an artist's daughter, travelling in a second class railway carriage to take up a job on a station in southern New South Wales, is induced by a man, who jumps into her carriage, at a wayside stopping place, to accept the custody of a small black tin box, the contents of which are unknown, and to keep until he calls for it. It is supposed that gold has been found somewhere in the Goulburn district, and the tale unfolds the progress of the hunt for the gold and also for an illicit still for the manufacture of moonshine in the wild range country....

'Our New Serial', Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June 1932 (pg. 4)

'Our new serial story, "The Three Water Holes," by E. M. Chapman, will commence in our Issue of to-morrow, Saturday. The story deals with the adventures of a young American who, fleeing his country for urgent personal reasons, settled in Australia during the early days of colonisation.

The opening scene is set in Carolina, where the Ashley family hold many broad acres bestowed upon them by Charles II for loyalty to the Stuart cause.

A terrifying storm rages over the plantation. The negroes crouch awe-stricken with-in their cabins. Outside the wind roars in fury, howling down the chimneys and thrashing the trees to frenzy. Above the wind's roar can be heard the trembling falsetto of old Mammy Sue's voice, rising and falling as the wind varies dying as a lull occurs, to become a shriek when a gust sweeps between the crowded cabins.

"Trouble, trouble, trouble dis night comes trouble, trouble " The negroes creep closer together muttering.

"She sees, Mammy Sue sees what is coming dis night."

And trouble does come. The younger son of the House of Ashley is driven forth across the seas as the result of a duel. He leaves behind him not only his home and a noble estate but the aching heart of a charming and courageous girl. He visits England, then voyages to Australia as an immigrant. In Australia he meets with much arduous and dangerous adventure before he is able to prepare a suitable home for one whose last words to him "I will come to you though it be across the world" have always been his driving force.

E. M. Chapman has told this story well. It holds the readers' interest throughout and the action is supported by good dialogue and a power of description which lends life and vigour to the narrative.

The author has been most successful in capturing the atmosphere of the period not only in the portrayal of life in Sydney during the early days, but in the character sketching of those who journeyed inland to discover the unexplored stretches of fertile country.'

'Our New Story', The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 September, 1931 (pg. 3)