Cirrus@Austlit

The tale of a passionate man, John Carwell, whose youthful wildness ends in emigrating to Melbourne and leaving his sister Mary to the care of their cold uncle Richard. He meets James Barret and they go to the diggings of gold rush Victoria (early 1850s). John falls ill and becomes friends with Clarence Campbell, a handsome gently bred man. Through Clarence, he meets and falls in love with gentle Maude Egerton who agrees to be his finacee but her father is opposed. Meanwhile, CC is implicated in the seduction years before of a dying man's sister but nothing can be proved. The murder of James Barret, then CC's digging partner; the savage exploits of Red Jack, the bushranger; a woman driven mad by love, are all alements of the plot which resolves itself in the Victorian bush. (PB)