Judith is duly charged with having murdered them. Her defence counsel urges her to plead ‘temporary insanity’, but she refuses. Mainly due to the fact that she insists on telling the truth, she is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

In prison, she is subjected to the most unspeakable indignities. Gradually she hardens. After three years having learnt to hold her own with the dregs of humanity, she is visited by Edmund Paradise, a top notch lawyer who tells her he has been retained by newspaper magnate Rothwell Merrington to look into the case, with a view to launching an appeal against Judith’s conviction. Paradise makes it clear to Judith at the outset that he believes she is guilty; but he tells her if she acts in accordance with his instructions, he will get her off. She agrees.

Paradise then proceeds to trump up a case for her – based on lies, ‘bought’ witnesses and bribed officials. He proves as good as his word. The appeal is upheld, and Judith is released. Determined to prove to Paradise, with whom she has fallen in love, that she is, in fact, innocent, she sets about investigating the murders she was unjustly convicted of, prepared to go to any lengths or sink to any level to get to the truth.

In the belief that the newspaper czar Merrington, who put up the money for the appeal, knows the identity of the real murderer, she becomes involved with him – and is ultminately moved to the conclusion that the murders were committed by Merrington’s son. Subsequently – events show that she is mistaken – and, in a horrifying denouncement, she stumbles on the truth that she has sought for so long.

Cynthia admits to Jeff she was involved in the robbery and threatens to implicate Jeff if he calls the police. Soon after, the police arrive and place the pair of them under arrest. Cynthia believes Jeff has betrayed her and does everything in her power to shift the blame to him. The charges against Jeff are dropped and he is called to give evidence for the State.

During the period preceding the trial, Jeff meets Sue Jordan. On the rebound, he becomes involved with her and, following his graduation they are married. At the wedding a telegram arrives – from Cynthia, ostensibly to wish him well, but clearly intimating that he has not heard the last of her.

Jeff and Sue move to another State, where he sets up in practice. One day some time later, out of the blue, Cynthia walks into his Surgery and states she intends to have her revenge. She will destroy him, but the process will be slow, because first she will destroy each member of the family.

Cynthia uses the law to serve her own ends. She contrives to have Jeff barred from practising medicine, reduces Sue to an alcoholic wreck and terrorises their children. It is only when she stands poised to make the final kill – that Cynthia is ensnared in her own trap.

Since her husband’s death, Ruth has been compelled to live on an allowance.  Ruth knows that if Greg Mallory inherits the estae he’ll sell and she’ll be forced to find somewhere else to live.

After the arrival of the man who calls himself Bart Barnett, Greg Mallory does all he can to prove the man is an imposter.  Bart’s mother, Ruth, claims he is not.  Bart’s claim is investigated even to the extent of having a court case concerning it.  For a time it looks as though Bart might be delcared an imposter but when Anita and Timothy arrive, Bart introduces them as his wife and son.  Timothy’s resemblance to the real Bart as a child and to his grandfather is so marked that it is finally accepted that his man is Bart Barnett.

Greg Mallory is still not satisfied.  He proposes to Jane Eaton and at the same time, seizes an opportunity to get Jane a position taking care of Ruth, who has had an operation, and helping with Timothy.  He persuades Jane to take the job in order to spy on Bart and Anita while he travels to the Pacific Islands to trace this man’s history.

The consequences are drastic. He loses not only his job but the girl he was engaged to marry. Bitter and disillusioned he leaves Sefton Ridge, sets out for New York with little but his pride intact.

Fifteen years later, famed novelist Garvin Wales sits on the forlorn beach at Tamburlaine Island, off Sefton Ridge, trying to write despite the fac that he is nearly blind. His wife, Lucy Wales, with whom he lives in complete seclusion on the island, hands him a letter to sign. He refuses. Lucy is furious. She has found that $1,000 a year for 20 years has been with-held from her husband’s royalties and sees no reason not to collect it. The letter to Wales’ New York publishers threatens to sue unless the money is repaid. She sends it off under her own signature despite her husband’s objections……..

Just when the business has begun to prosper, Linc is sent for by his Uncle Clive, who informs him that the Merritt Engineering Corporation is in serious trouble due to a leakage of top secret material that has cost the company tens of millions in contracts.  As a favour to his uncle, Linc agrees to return to the company as Executive Vice-President – second in authority only to Clive – but only until such time as he has traced the source of the leak and identified the culprit.  He takes Lucille with him as his personal secretary.

Next to Clive Merritt, and possibly one or two of the directors, the most powerful force in the company is Dinah Hendrix, Clive’s secretary, a beautiful black-eyed bitch, who has a dossier on every employee from the top down – and woe betide those who incur her displeasure.  She surprises Linc by offering him an alliance – an offer he is quick to accept because of her knowledge of the company and everything to do with it.

Everyone of authority in the company, with access to secret material, comes under Linc’s microsope.  One of them has to be the guilty party.  But which?  He narrows the fields of suspects down to a dozen or so – including department heads and board members.

Meanwhile, Clive Merritt recovers from his heart attack and insists on resuming control – to the profound relief of Linc, who, though he fears for his uncle’s health, finds the responsibilities that have been heaped on him too much to cope with.  By this time he suspects that Dinah Hendrix has designs on taking over the company herself – the more so, when, at Clive’s instigation, she is appointed to the board, and by devious means, obtains a large block of shares in the Merritt Corporation.  Despite this, Linc finds himself increasingly attracted to her  – an attraction that she goes out of her way to magnify – much to the horror of Lucille, who does everything possible to keep Linc from her clutches.

When Clive Merritt suffers a fatal heart attack which turns out to be murder, Linc is on his own – torn by the conflicting forces of big business, by the connivings of those who seek to usurp his throne, and the wiles of an elusive industrial spy, who may well be his uncle’s murderer – ready and waiting to strike again.

We meet Petrina, Curtis Barron’s daughter, whose love for her father turned to a deadly hatred – a hatred that was to poison the lives of them both.

Then, there is Greg Raymond – a hero in the eyes of the world, but whose greed and ambition bring disaster to the town of Midway.

We are also introduced to many other colourful characters who close their ears to the ugly rumours – rumours which would tell them that their peaceful little town was Midway to Hell.

As Ben lies ill in hospital, the friends and family who visit him cause him to recall events out of his past: these events woven together make up the story of Cattleman.

He is a typical kind of outback Australian in his generosity and his contempt for authority and affectation. Even his cattle duffing seems to be more an endearing failing than a serious crime. His life history, covering pioneering, marriage and war-time service is a prototype of his generation’s ideal Australian.