Cry of the Dreamer
When you're fighting for freedom and you fall in love, does freedom become the price instead of the prize? John Boyle O'Reilly, an Irish freedom fighter, is transported for life to Australia but vows to return to liberate his people. Then he falls in love with his jailer's daughter.
The voyage is not without incident and O'Reilly's conduct at the death early on in the journey of a fellow convict, from injuries inflicted by a psycopathic prison warder, gains the attention of William Woodman, the Controller of Convicts.
On arrival at Fremantle O'Reilly is assigned to work in the library. His supervisor is fellow Irishman, Father Lynch and it is through him that a transfer for O'Reilly to a road building gang in the south of the State is arranged as part of O'Reilly’s plan to escape.
But life on the road gangs is brutal and O'Reilly finds himself face to face with the murderous warder, Ridley, whom he had confronted over the death of the prisoner at sea. Ridley has vowed revenge and now is his chance to inflict it. The brutality is not just physical, it's also psychological. O'Reilly's resilience begins to crumble and he reaches his nadir when Ridley withholds a black-bordered letter from home as punishment. O'Reilly attempts suicide, but is found just in time.
He is taken to the Woodman family home and nursed back to health. He tells Woodman about the brutality and horrors of the road gangs. Woodman immediately dismisses Ridley and his men and takes control of the works himself. He offers O'Reilly the job of Convict Constable, a position of considerable trust and freedom. O'Reilly accepts with the words, '...but I don't want the cheese, Mr Woodman, I want out of the trap'. Woodman understands but warns, 'Be aware, Mr O'Reilly, if you do get out of the trap, I can be of no help to you'.
The new freedom brings O'Reilly and Woodman's young daughter, Jessica, into frequent contact. Inevitably they fall in love. But all the while O'Reilly is planning his escape on an American whaler with the help of local free settlers sympathetic to his cause. He begs Jessica to go with him. When she refuses he enters a steep downward spiral of doubt about the whole undertaking, from which he's finally rescued by the local priest.
He leaves the camp at night and makes his way down the Collie River to the port of Bunbury. But on arrival there he finds the ship has sailed without him. Now there's a life and death manhunt as O'Reilly hides out on the coast whilst his friends desperately search for another ship. Eventually, two weeks later and in a hail of police bullets, he swims out to a small fishing dory which takes him offshore to rendezvous with another Yankee whaler at the start of his journey to freedom in America.
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