AustLit

A burglar returns to his home at great risk when he learns through the Agony columns of the paper that his daughter is dying. He stays until she has died even though it leads him into the hands of the police. (PB)

Set in the capital and the north of England. A Canadian Huron Indian is abandoned in England when the showman who brought him over with a group of American Indians returns to the States without him or an American Sioux Indian who has disappeared also. The Huron had tracked and killed the Sioux for stealing his wages. The detective who had recently lost his younger talented partner agrees to take the Huron on as his employee - dressing him in British clothes rather than his Canadian suit. A case of murder in the North of England calls on both their skills - and the Indian's amazing sense of smell and tracking skills find the murderer is the man who employed them - as a cover for his deed. The murderer, nearly burnt by the Indian for attempting to kill him, confesses then commits suicide. Situation/subject interesting. (PB)

Cricketing tale of father and son, narrated through the conversation of a young lady and a foolish Captain in the stands. A player for the Oxford team against Cambridge plays under a false name because of his father's vow that neither he nor his son should ever play. The father is glimpsed by his son at the match, and the youth, in his fear, is bowled out. His father's anger is not at the falsehood, which he knew about all the time, but at the poor stroke. Reveals it was all a plan to make the youth love cricket. (PB)

Literary device. Description of cycling craze in England - in rhyming prose and omitting the letters I and O throughout. (PB)

Domestic humour. Mrs W. receives a comic valentine insulting her and Mr W. asks why she can't laugh at herself. His tone changes when it appears the valentine is for him. (PB)

A telegraph linesman lets go of his mate and suffers a 40 foot fall after an accident to save him from falling too - because the mate had a family. The hero survives and goes to bring help. Unlauded virtue. (PB)

Tragic Irish legend set near Kerryhead. An Irish coastal chieftain, father of seven daughters fiercely hates the raiding Danes. A Danish ship is captured and the crew killed with the exception of the captain and his six brothers. The inevitable happens but the 14 are captured in their attempt to flee to Denmark, the chieftain ordering the death of his daughters by throwing them into a chasm into which the waves dashed like lava up a volcanic crater. (PB)

An orphaned girl spends the night alone in the house she shared with her brother - receiving his note explaining his absence too late to bank a large sum of money they were holding for a client. She wakens to the sound of someone breaking in and hides up her chimney - only to fall asleep and tumble down hours later. The thief is in fact a friend of her brother's - it is St Valentine's Day - romance follows. (PB)

A nobleman married to a laughing parson's daughter explains that he married her after his first wife overdosed on opium. This duty to carry on the line has turned to love with the birth of their son. Thinly veiled anti-opium piece. (PB)

Set in the country and New York. A youth's kindness to a young schoolgirl in protecting her from a bully is secretly remembered by her when he meets her years later in NY. Attempting to start his practice as a doctor he assists an elderly rich and returned doctor after a street accident, becomes friendly with him and his granddaughter, but ceases calling when he finds himself in love with her and poor. The grandfather encourages him, he proposes, and discovers his bride is the girl he helped years before. (PB)

A cyclist who has designed his own aluminium frame bike with non-slip tyres takes shelter from a storm late at night at a country house, invited in by two servants. He awakens in the morning to find they were thieves - but helps his host track down his goods and finds his own cycle through the tyre-print which incorporates his own name. (PB)

A ball years after a romantic parting reveals the lack of devotion of both partners. (PB)

Brodie, an old Scottish farmer, and his wife fear for their adopted niece Helen's affection for the lazy man Harry Byrne employed on the next farm. Their own servant recognises Byrne as an ex-convict, and reveals his own time in gaol to save Helen and her friend Marion Wilson (whom he loves) from Byrne. Byrne kidnaps the old farmer to get his money and King and the trooper Brown with Marion's help, find Brodie whom they had feared dead - Byrne is killed by his accomplice Wilson. W. W. mellowing, with themes of girls' friendship and the prisoner redeemed. (PB)

Frontier scene. Soldiers discover a pioneer wagon attacked by Indians, wolves, and buzzards - and some way off a young baby boy who dies just as they approach. (PB)

Naval rivalry between Dutch, French and English men-of-war via acrobatics of crew members and their respective mainmasts. An Irishman's spectacular fall and safe landing beat the others. (PB)