AustLit

Apparent reminiscence of the pursuit and capture of a penal officer by escaped convicts turned bushrangers in Tasmania's early settlement times. Includes description of his flight into a vast underground warren of caves; one convict's murderous bitterness; the effective pleadings of a girl captured from her parent's farm; an old convict's mercy; and a young convict's nobility of stature and character in assisting them to escape against great opposition. Well written with a sense of 'genuine' Australian narrative missing from most of the few remaining Australian tales - largely romances imitative of the British and American tales increasingly published by the Australian Journal. (PB)