Cirrus@Austlit

Australian tale of an ex-convict turned farmer whose love for his daughter is threatened by a fellow convict from his past. The man threatens to reveal the father's murder of a convict overseas if he does not give him his daughter for his wife. She loves another and hates the blackmailer so her father chooses to die, killing his fellow ex-felon rather than give her away or spoil her memory of her father. The bodies are found in a prospector's mine shaft at Swampy Hollow, and the daughter marries her true love. Convict years are carefully shown to be due to participation in a rebellion for political independence [Scotland? Ireland?] not as a result of crime. Still important to maintain distinctions around convict origins even though some appear to be no longer shameful. (PB)