AustLit

A farmer lost his farm to a boyhood friend turned enemy through their rivalry for the same woman's affections. The farmer and his wife died soon after, leaving their son Tom to work alone. Some time later the new farm owner hanged himself and left a mysterious message in his pocket in code. Tom finds it and years later with his friend the narrator he follows its deciphered instructions and digs up a tin box with a false bottom which contains a will leaving all the suicide's money to Tom. The friend's experience includes mistaking a white cow for a ghost and falling in a ditch. (PB)