Cirrus@Austlit

Walter Hinton, a handsome superficial Victorian, is murdered by a stiletto in the darkness of Tasmania's Chudleigh Caves, even as he grasps the hand of the beautiful Mary to assist her across the stream. The youthful touring party is ruined, and Hinton Mary and the inquest magistrate and two friends Tom Hurston and Bert Sharp believe a friend of theirs to be innocent. Meanwhile detectives assist to prove the young accused's innocence, and suspicions fall on a foreign actress 'The Corinna' at the Princess Theatre. Hinton had been involved - and then deserted - a foreign woman. The actress is sister to the seduced woman whose husband had been killed by Hinton in a duel in Paris. Her Corsican vow of revenge is spurred on by an old Corsican servant in Melbourne - but he wrongly identifies Tom Hurston as her sister's betrayer. He and Cora (La Corinna) are falling in love, Cora and Mary become friends. Detective Friars investigates in Tasmania finding new evidence from a shearer and cave guide leading to a denoument in Deloraine. (PB)