Australia Revenged   By: pseud. Boomerang

Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected. A list of other changes is supplied at the end of the book

AUSTRALIA REVENGED

BY "BOOMERANG"

LONDON: REMINGTON AND COMPANY, LIMITED 15, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN AND SYDNEY 1894

All Rights Reserved

PREFACE.

Each character in this work is a type. The Australian characters may be met with every day in the Colonies. Nor are Villiers Wyckliffe and the Detlij Club distorted figments of the imagination; and the broken heart is a symbol of the aims of the one, and the object of the others, softened down so that the cheek of modesty may be spared a blush.

In those parts of the work where Colonial Governors are mentioned, they appear in a less heroic light than that in which one ordinarily sees them in print. Therefore for the further enlightenment of the reader, an appendix has been added, in which the standpoint wherefrom Young Australia views them is fully explained.

"Boomerang" is the joint nom de plume of a Young Australian and his collaborator.

B.

London, October, 1894.

CONTENTS.

I THE DETLIJ CLUB 1 II CONFIDENCES 14 III THE MIA MIA 26 IV THE BALL 38 V THE OATH 48 VI REVENGE 63 VII HAL 79 VIII ADELAIDE 94 IX MELBOURNE 114 X CABBIES 128 XI LAUNCESTON 144 XII GOODCHILD'S 156 XIII PORT ARTHUR 170 XIV EASTELLA 182 XV MAY 192 XVI HOBART 203 XVII SYDNEY 214 XVIII THE GIRLS 222 XIX HIL 232 XX BRISBANE 242 XXI TOOWOOMBA 254 XXII DALBY 269 XXIII CAMPING OUT 283 XXIV FRED PHILAMORE 294 XXV BLUE GUMS 306 XXVI MARJORIE WILLIAMSON 319 XXVII FOILED 332 XXVIII PREPARATIONS 343 XXIX EAR MARKED 354 XXX THE TRIAL 367 XXXI THE VERDICT 377 XXXII CONCLUSION 383

APPENDIX

CHAPTER I.

THE DETLIJ CLUB.

In a handsome block of buildings in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly a phrase which may embrace a considerable area, North, South, East or West is located the quarters of that small and extremely select Club, known, and known up till now only to a favoured few, as the Detlij Club. The name, like the Club itself, is an uncommon one, and is simply indicative of the sad mischance which must befal each member before he can qualify for admission. No mysterious or secret rites were shadowed in the title, and the ultra curious in search of the origin of the name, need no more overhaul their Hindu or Persian dictionaries, than they need their Liddell and Scott. A simple inversion of the letters is all that is necessary to solve the riddle, a process which discovers the word "jilted," and discloses the character of the Club.