AustLit

'To the mud and rains of gold-rush-town Gympie (Queensland) come charming gambling-man Robert Walden, his apprehensive but loyal wife Elizabeth, and their children Edward and Sarah. Robert's sure he'll bottom out a claim in no time, but it looks like hard times. Elizabeth, however, takes courage from the friendship of Maggie Doyle, owner of the Wild Swan hotel, whose cockney accent chimes like Bow Bells–until Maggie reveals that she is in truth Lady Margaret Doyle down on her luck. There are other pleasant neighbors: Dr. Abraham Miller, brilliant and usually drunk; Bert Peters, Miller's genial partner in their apparently paid-out claim; John Trent, kind store-owner (who will fall in love with Elizabeth and urge her to leave Robert); and Jim and Molly Burton, honorable folk farming in aborigine country. But then son Edward is killed in a fall, and raging Robert blames and threatens drunken, slow Doc Miller. So when someone soon murders Miller, Robert is naturally suspected. The family is ostracized, even Elizabeth cannot quite believe in Robert's innocence, and–after threats and hurts and a close escape with the Burtons from an aborigine massacre–the principal characters meet by a flooded river bank for a harrowing show-down, ending with the confession and death of the murderer.'

Source: Kirkus Reviews.