I happen to be reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson right now, and the connections between Stevenson’s tale of a orphaned young man out seeking his fortune and getting into trouble and Ottley’s story of young Jim Grey are inescapable. Jim Grey and David Balfour are two innocents, one Australian and one Scottish, who are drawn into danger and crime through the evil machinations of a trusted mentor, yes, but also each as a result of his own foolishness and ambition.

Let’s concentrate on Jim Grey in this review. (I’ll write about Mr. Balfour in another review, when I’ve actually finished the book.) Fifteen year old Jim Grey is not an orphan, but his father has recently died, and Jim is feeling somewhat adrift. He has the advantage of a strong and loving mother and a sheep station (ranch), Moonbah, to call home. Yet Jim is restless, missing his father and wondering for the first time in his life what it would be like to travel and see the world. The adolescent Jim is easy prey for Russ Medway, a stranger who shows up at Moonbah on his way to . . . somewhere better. Russ is friendly, personable, and eager to help Jim and his mother with tasks that need to be done on the sheep station–for a little while before he moves on to greener pastures.

It’s easy for the reader to see that Jim is looking for a father figure, or at least an older brother figure, to replace his dad. Jim even tries to convince himself at one point that Russ reminds him of his father. But he has to admit to himself after only a minute’s thought, “I’m mad to think they’re alike. . . But there you are. It’s just in odd ways that Russ reminds me of Dad, I suppose. Or maybe I’m seeing’ things. Things that ain’t really there.” Indeed, in classic Eve-like innocence, Jim is drawn into listening to and following a liar and a crook instead of remembering his dad and choosing good.

The Australian setting for this story is fascinating, and the slang is not too thick for a non-Aussie to penetrate. Reginald Ottley was born in London and ran away to sea when he was fourteen, so it seems likely that some of what Jim experiences and learns comes from Ottley’s own personal experience. Ottley also worked on a cattle station in Australia, so he knew the country and its people.

This book would be such a good cautionary and adventure tale for adolescent boys. Jim, too, wants adventure and feels the pull of home duties and responsibilities against the lure of freedom and wanderlust. The story is never explicitly didactic, but it does indeed teach lessons. “Not all that glitters is gold.” “A wise son listens to his father’s advice.” “The best journey takes you home.”