WORRALS DOWN UNDER
First Published in October 1948 - 216 pages
This story was first published when it
was serialised in the ‘Girl’s Own Paper’ in ten monthly parts between October
1946 and July 1947
The original first
edition dust jacket – showing the original book price of 7/6 – by Reginald
Heade (born Reginald Cyril Webb) 1901 – 1957
The book was later re-issued by the
publishers at the lower price of 6 shillings, they re-priced the original dust
wrappers and cut off the 7/6 from the corner!
See example below
This is confusing for collectors as everyone
would naturally assume the lower price would be the earlier edition! Johns thought the original price was too high
as it decreased sales.
Below is a later 1950 reprint – also a “6
shilling” version – some of these later editions had illustrations but the bulk
of them did not.
See my
article – Worrals and the Missing Illustrations
This example below has a band saying “First
Cheap Edition” and was for sale at 3 shillings and 6d – I suspect these were
the ones without the illustrations.
The publishers also corrected Johns’ name to “Capt. W. E. Johns”
following Johns angry letter to Lutterworths which was one of the reasons he left them.
WORRALS DOWN UNDER
CHAPTERS
Click on any chapter for a summary of the events in that chapter or
see the general story summary below
Whilst
in Sydney, Australia, Worrals and Frecks accidentally meet Janet Marlow, an old
friend from Hendon. Janet has inherited a house and land from her Aunt Mary
Carter, who has recently died. Before she died, Aunt Mary sent Janet a large
piece of opal, which she had found on her land. Janet had been to the house at
Wallabulla, in the middle of nowhere, and had been scared away from the land.
Janet agrees to return with Worrals and Frecks. After flying out to the house
in a Desoutter aircraft, our heroines find three men living there. It is later
discovered that their names are 'Manila' Joe Barola, Luke Raffety and a native
called Yoka. Worrals throws them out. The following day, Worrals flies to
Adelaide, some five hundred miles away and meets Aunt Mary's old lawyer and an
opal dealer called Felix Moran who valued some of Aunt Mary's opal. Worrals
soon finds out that Barola and Raffety work for Moran. Flying on to Oodnadatta,
Worrals meets the local police officer, Dan Terry and also picks up a dog
called Maginty who was due to be put down. That night, somebody attempts to dig
up Aunt Mary's grave (she had been buried in the grounds of her house). A
boomerang injures the person doing it. The next day, Frecks and Janet fly off
to Oodnadatta. Worrals pretends to go with them, but instead hides. She sees an
Aborigine native go into the house and then Yoka try to murder him. Worrals
intervenes and a boomerang thrown by the native kills Yoka. The native is
injured and Worrals realises that he is Charlie, Aunt Mary's faithfully servant
who had previously disappeared. At Oodnadatta, Moran arrives and takes an
opportunity of driving his car into the girls' plane. He then drives off for
Wallabulla where Worrals is. Frecks spends hours repairing the plane and flies
urgently back to Worrals only to find her missing. Meanwhile, back at
Wallabulla, the dog, Maginty, drinks some water and dies an agonising death
from poisoning. Moran, Raffety and Barola confront Worrals and she pretends
that the injured Charlie is in fact dead. Raffety goes to dig up Aunt Mary's grave,
with a view to disposing of the body because it is evidence that they poisoned
her. There is no body there, the grave is a fake. Barola drinks some water
without thinking and then realises that it is poisoned. The men leave to drive
Barola to Oodnadatta for medical help but he dies on the way. Charlie runs off
and Worrals is out looking for him when Frecks returns to an empty house. Moran
and Raffety return and demand the deeds to the estate. They give the girls the
night to think about it. In the morning, they appear to have gone, but Worrals
discovers they have put sugar in her main fuel tank. They have missed the
gravity tank, however, so she can still fly. Worrals takes off, with Frecks and
Janet and then fakes a crash, burning scrubland to assist in the rouse. Janet
is then sent on to Oodnadatta to get the police whilst Worrals and Frecks
return to the house. Moran and Raffety capture Charlie and intend to murder him
because he knows too much. Frecks intervenes to save Charlie and he escapes.
Janet returns without the police but luckily Dan Terry has come out to visit in
any event. Moran and Raffety escape in their car but Worrals overtakes them
with her plane and an ambush is set on the road ahead. In the resulting
shoot-out, both Moran and Raffety are killed. With the help of Charlie, the
whereabouts of the opal is discovered and Janet goes on to marry Dan Terry
after selling the house. Worrals and Frecks return to England by sea and muse
about the reputation of opal for bringing bad luck.
With the exception of the frontispiece (which is merely the upper
part of the cover illustration), there are no story illustrations in the FIRST
EDITION of this book, however you can
Click here to see the story illustrations from the 1950 “New Illustrated Edition” of this book
French
edition – Worrals et L’opale Noire (Worrals and the Black Opal) – There were no illustrations in this edition
Frontispiece
Click on
the picture above to see it in more detail
Worrals Down Under
Subtitle - none
Publication Details - published by Lutterworth Press