Cirrus@Austlit

Book One - The Oath; Book Two - The First Black Hand; Book Three and Four - The Third Black Hand. The story opens on a NSW squatter's run where the family of George Maxwell, with the exception of his son George and the partly deranged Jamie dedicate themselves to revenge and follow the warriors into the bush. Descriptions of Aboriginal life are given. An Aboriginal girl becomes their ally and is the occasion for comments on the treatment of women by whites and blacks. Over the next three years, George and Jamie take their promised revenge on the warriors and their tribe, involving a sub-plot with a miller, his daughter, her lover and an ex-convict; another with Black Harry, the sawyer - a negro - his partner, Ironbark Jack near the Coal River; and with a gang of escaped convicts camped at Sugarloaf Mountain near the Hawkesbury. Themes vengeance and forgiveness. (PB)