Cirrus@Austlit

After the annexation of a small group of Pacific Islands in the name of the British Empire, British politicians look around for a British resident to set up home on one of the islands. They land on Montague Bryden, the nephew of a cabinet minister, who has so far failed to make his way in England.

The story of the Linnet, a British Admiralty vessel last heard of in Australia, but which has gone missing during patrol duty in the South Seas.

A small boat, adrift in becalmed waters, is stalked by a poisoner.

Two brothers are left destitute by the death of their father, a former soldier who, after a gambling scandal, resigned from the army and pursued a career as a mercenary. After his death, the brothers disappeared from polite society and made their livings as big-game hunters, largely in Africa, until the younger brother comes up with a scheme that he thinks will make their fortune for them, by robbing the mail steamer in mid-ocean.

Three men looking for a way to reach the new diggings in the Kimberley 'borrow' a boat in which to make the journey.

The story of a young Aboriginal girl who is adopted by a soldier, Brown, who was the white officer in charge of the squad of (exclusively Aboriginal) soldiers that massacred her entire family in front of her and intended to kill her with them, had Brown not stepped forward to adopt her. Brown intends to raise her immersed in British culture, and has her educated as a doctor, but on his death, she returns to live with her people.

Three men, trained as architects and engineers but too late to capitalise on the mining booms through which they'd hoped to make a fortune, speculate on the wreck of a German brig, breaking up on a reef, which one of the men bought at auction. They set out for the wreck in a yacht, only to find that it is more promising than they had hoped.