[2] Frank Keane is in love with Tess Morton but they have no money, so he decides to leave his home in Sydney and seek his fortune in the Kalgoorlie goldfields.
[3] A critic from the Advertiser compared the book to the works of Nat Gould and said it "makes no claim to any high order of merit, yet it is as readable as many sensational stories of a more pretentious character... the story is written by one who has evidently seen a good deal of the darker side of life and is well acquainted with the turf, two important qualifications for the production of a work intended only to amuse... ought to find many readers.
[8][9] The critic from The Sunday Times said that the play: Is full of local color, from the opening scene, enacted in the Domain during the Commonwealth festivities, to the running of the Sydney Cup at Randwick.
Some realistic Incidents are portrayed, including the burning of Keane's stables, and an attempt on the life of the Sydney Cup favorite: the trial of the hero on a false charge at the Central Criminal Court; a two-up school, in which the game is followed by a police raid; a house in Woolloomooloo, where Keane is imprisoned, and tho final settling at Randwick.
[10]The Sydney Morning Herald was more guarded, stating that: The production was far from well mounted, but it was well acted, and with better stage dressing would prove a decided draw.
Although occasionally one's sense of probabilities was shocked during the stage unfolding of the story, on tho whole the play proved one of coherence, reasonably dramatic situations, and humour...
The boxers gave a very poor display, devoid of cleverness, and the two-up episode and raid was a weak parody of the real thing...