Plot
A young Englishman, Harry Heathcote, had leased
120,000 acres of bush from the Australian government, on which he ran 30,000
sheep. With him at Gangoil lived his wife, two small sons and his sister-in-law
Kate Daly. Giles Medlicot was his
nearest neighbor, but the two men had not become friends. Medlicot
had purchased land that lay between Gangoil and the river for a sugar plantation
and had erected a sugar-mill. The loss of the river frontage was a serious
matter to Heathcote and he considered its acquisition
by his neighbor a personal affront. This was the more unfortunate as Kate Daly
and Medlicot had already fallen in love. Heathcote, high-tempered and imperious, had made many
enemies, not only of some of his own workers whom he had discharged, but also
of his lawless neighbors, the Brownbies, a father and six sons, whose cattle
range bordered on Gangoil. In December when the bush was very dry and fires
frequent, the Brownbies, joined by two of Harry's
discharged sheepmen since employed by Medlicot, attempted to burn out the entire range. Heathcote and his men spent day and night in the saddle and
were later joined by Medlicot - who helped him
control the fires, and to win in a pitched battle with the Brownbie
gang.
GEROULD,
WINIFRED GREGORY;
A GUIDE TO TROLLOPE.
© 1948 Princeton University Press,
1976 renewed PUP
Reprinted by permission of
Url: http://www.anthonytrollope.com/
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
©Davinia Moreno Arroyo
Universitat de Valčncia
Press
damoa2@alumni.uv.es