Cirrus@Austlit

An old lady's death very soon after making a new will directing her jewels to be broken up and sold over the years to provide for her pauper grand-daughters, Ruby and Grace. The murder of the lawyer to whom she had just entrusted them and the theft of the jewels involves Detectives Sinclair and Jackson in an investigation in Flemington and Collins Street, Melbourne. Blackmail of the lawyer's clerk over a forged gambling cheque by the iniquitous English imposter Perceval Coverdale - who had been courting Ruby Hulton in the hope of her inheritance - lead the trail of suspicion to his door. Though uninterested because of her poverty, Perceival pretends to elope with Ruby via Adelaide to cover his true reasons for leaving Melbourne - but he dumps her at Portland where he persuades a fisherman to help him escape ... nightmares; suicide; lost jewels; ruined reputation follows. (PB)