Cirrus@Austlit

Adventure on an Australian sheep station when, after a corroboree, blacks attack the outstation huts where the overseer, his dog Bayard (the narrator), two shepherds and the wife of one of them are sleeping. The men, assisted by the brave woman, fend off the attack with guns and Bayard is sent to the station for help. They arrive just in time to save the whites from death by violence and fire - killing the blacks and driving them off with "the wonderful coolness which white men always show in danger." Tale of bravery and loyalty of Australian-born man and dog - gentlemen of mixed pedigree both. Attitudes to Aborigines one of curiosity and impersonal opposition rather than vengefulness and hate, very patronising. Brief references to decreasing corroborees. (PB)