Robbery Under Arms

Jim Marston

Jim is Dick Marston's younger brother, raised into the family trade of cattle-duffing and now riding with Starlight's gang. Where he was once careless and full of monkey tricks, the outlaw life has turned him brooding and withdrawn, brightening only for a letter from his wife Jeanie. His decline shadows the gang's middle chapters, a living warning of what the road is doing to them all.

Captain Starlight

Starlight commands the Marstons' gang, a polished man whose manners and education set him apart from the rough hands he rides with. He blames a refused army commission for the vanity of leadership that ruined him, and his flashness in fine company is exactly what old Marston warns will hang them. His capture and the loyalty of his henchman Warrigal drive the story's later turns.

Aileen Marston

Aileen keeps the family's home fires burning while her brothers ride with outlaws, knitting socks for men she may never see again. She flirts with Sir Ferdinand Morringer to stall his search, a small deception she manages with more courage than cunning, and afterward admits to Dick that she fears it will all end in ruin. Her divided loyalty between respectability and blood makes her the story's conscience.

Warrigal

Warrigal rides with Starlight as servant, accomplice, and something closer than either, the only human creature he loves. Volatile and watchful, he nurses old grudges against the Marstons, and a knock-down from Dick festers until he tips the police toward Willaroon. His grief over Starlight's body is the novel's most wrenching scene, and his treachery is the hinge on which the gang's fate swings.

Dan Moran

Moran rides with Wall and Hulbert, a rival crew whose paths cross Starlight's at the Knightleys' station. He has sworn to avenge Daly's death and will not be talked out of it, glaring at Starlight like a dingo ringed by dogs while the room waits on a trigger. His feud with Starlight exposes the gang's fragile discipline and the brutality lurking beneath the bushranging romance.

George Storefield

George Storefield is the Marstons' old neighbour, a plain man who made his fortune supplying horse-feed to the camps and police stations. He takes his seat beside the Commissioner at Turon, disagreeing where he knows the working men's facts better, and is welcomed by the swells without ever pushing himself. His rise is the road the Marstons might have taken, and Dick cannot look at him without measuring the distance.