Tale of young penniless Ned Lyttleton of good English family and a trooper in the Victorian police force. His first country posting is near friends of his family whose daughter he falls in love with. His rival, the dark-skinned St Roche, tries to scare him with a deathstone from a South Pacific island but is himself killed by a kanaka pursuing him truly with a deathstone for seducing his sister - who makes a dusky appearance too. Concluded by Mark Sinclair in his addenda. (PB)