The Missing Link

In Short

Set in late nineteenth-century Australia, this picaresque comic novel follows Nicholas Crips—known to his urban companions as "Nickie the Kid"—a smooth-talking vagabond who lives entirely by his wits. To evade the law after blundering into the scene of a high-stakes murder, Nickie hides in plain sight by donning a heavy fur suit and taking a job as "Mahdi, the Missing Link" in a traveling roadside carnival. Rich in bush humor and theatrical farce, the book has endured as a classic Australian satire of respectable society, Victorian moralism, and human gullibility.

The Story

Nicholas "Nickie the Kid" Crips is an unrepentant Australian deadbeat whose primary trade is soft-soaping housewives, selling bogus quack remedies to gullible country farmers, and assuming whatever identity best serves his immediate comfort. When a young clergyman named James Nippit corners him and attempts to forcibly reform his soul by employing him as a house-servant, Nickie plays along just long enough to secure free meals. However, his easy life takes a dark turn in Melbourne when he stumbles directly into a murder scene inside Biggs’s Buildings. A woman in a mask ball costume has just slain her associate; recognizing Nickie in his clerical disguise, she hands him a leather pouch containing what she claims is five thousand pounds in stolen diamonds before fleeing into the night.

Realizing that the police will inevitably connect him to the crime scene, Nickie flees the city. Desperate for a disguise that offers total anonymity, he strikes a bargain with Professor Thunder, the blustering proprietor of a traveling "Museum of Marvels." Nickie laces himself into a tight, smelly, monkey-skin costume to perform as "Mahdi, the Missing Link"—the main attraction in a traveling menagerie alongside a living skeleton, a fortune-teller, and a real gorilla named Ammonia.

What follows is a episodic romp across the Australian bush. Nickie’s simian career is plagued by professional rivalries, drunken escapades, and narrow escapes. Ammonia the gorilla loathes his fake counterpart and tears Nickie's suit open during a live performance, nearly exposing the hoax to a visiting girls' school. In another township, a drunken night out ends with Nickie wandering the streets in full ape costume, smashing mirrors, and fighting off confused locals. Yet Nickie also uses his ape persona to pull off bizarre feats of heroism, rescuing a baby from a rooftop and disarming a bush outlaw named Dan Heeley.

Through every town—from Bullfrog to Rabbit to Winyip—Nickie manages to keep one step ahead of a former flame seeking marriage, suspicious constables, and his employer's volatile temper. When a romantic entanglement with the Professor's wife results in Nickie being kicked out of the show, he finally sheds the fur skin for good. Returning to Melbourne with his hidden stash of jewels, he researches the murder in back issues of the local newspaper. To his utter chagrin, he learns that the murder victim routinely carried a decoy bag filled with worthless paste brilliants to fool robbers, while the real diamonds were carried elsewhere. The killer had outsmarted him entirely. Realizing the mock stones are useless and the police are still searching for the killer, Nickie tosses his fake fortune into the Yarra River from Prince's Bridge and boards an outbound steamer, leaving Australia—and the shadow of the gallows—behind him forever.

How It Unfolds

The art of the scamp Nickie the Kid makes his living scamming rural townships with all-in-one quack medicines before vanishing into the bush just as the locals realize they have been duped.

An unwanted reformation Caught in a lie by the Reverend James Nippit, Nickie is given an ultimatum between reformatory labor at the parsonage or immediate arrest, choosing temporary domestic service over a jail cell.

The body in Biggs’s Buildings While lurking in clerical garb, Nickie stumbles upon a freshly murdered man and receives a pouch of supposed diamonds from a fleeing killer desperate to buy his silence.

Life in the skin Fleeing the police, Nickie hired himself out to Professor Thunder’s Museum of Marvels, enduring a suffocating fur suit to pose as a captive evolutionary anomaly.

A simian rampage After sneaking out of his cage and drinking the Professor's private brandy, Nickie wanders the city streets in full ape guise, terrorizing passersby and smashing up a wine shop.

Bitten and exposed During a show, Ammonia the gorilla attacks Nickie in a fit of jealousy, tearing the disguise open and revealing a human face to a terrified audience of schoolgirls.

Heroics on the roof Nickie redeems his reputation by climbing a rooftop in character to rescue a baby from a wild animal, earning the cheers of an entire township.

The final shedding After an altercation with Professor Thunder over an illicit kiss, Nickie is ejected from the company, shedding his ape persona to return to Melbourne to claim his fortune.

A sparkling delusion Studying old news reports, Nickie discovers that his prized diamonds are worthless paste decoys left behind by the real murderer, forcing him to flee the country penniless.

The People

• Nicholas "Nickie the Kid" Crips: A resourceful, light-fingered Australian deadbeat who wants comfort without honest labor. What stands in his way is his own taste for alcohol and the law, but after hiding inside an ape skin and losing his promised fortune, he ends up wiser, broke, and fleeing the continent.
• Professor Thunder: An audacious, theatrical showman who wants to line his pockets through carnival hoaxes. His primary obstacles are his unruly exhibits and his fiery temper, but he successfully exploits Nickie's performance to keep his museum solvent across the bush circuits.
• Rev. James Nippit: An earnest young clergyman who wants to prove that every scoundrel can be rehabilitated through discipline. His naive idealism is stymied by Nickie's absolute lack of moral ambition, leaving him outwitted by his own house-guest.
• Madame Marve: The Professor’s plump, fortune-telling wife who wants ease and a bit of flirtatious entertainment. Her flirtations with Nickie provoke her husband's rage, directly causing the destruction of Nickie's job as the Missing Link.
• Ammonia: A vicious, jealous gorilla who wants to be the unchallenged star of the Museum of Marvels. His hatred for his human rival leads him to shred Nickie's costume, repeatedly threatening to expose the entire scam.

In Its Own Voice

"The smallest excitement, the slightest strain, and my life goes out like that."

Nickie explains his tragic "heart condition" to a sympathetic housewife to avoid any possibility of physical labor.

"Your intentions are good, but mine are not, and it takes two to make a bargain."

Facing a compulsory moral reformation, Nickie candidly warns his clerical host about the limits of human redemption.

"I got the paste brilliants. She got the real diamonds... Lord, what a mug I was!"

Nickie realizes in the quiet of the public library that the murderess had outsmarted him from the very beginning.

What It's Really About

Beneath its slapstick humor and theatrical farces, the novel satirizes Victorian notions of moral uplift, social respectability, and evolutionary science. Nickie’s seamless transitions between a clergyman’s assistant, a Shakespearean actor, and a caged ape suggest that civilized identity is merely a costume easily donned or discarded. The book mocks the gullibility of both rural folks seduced by quack remedies and high-minded reformers who believe virtue can be enforced. Ultimately, it celebrates the cynical, improvisational survival instincts of the bush underdog against an unforgiving social order.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy classical picaresque tales, Australian bush humor, and comedic rogues will find a delight in this overlooked Victorian-era satire. The narrative moves at a brisk pace, filled with broad visual comedy, theatrical banter, and clever turns of plot.

The primary challenge for modern readers lies in the heavy use of period Australian slang, phonetic representations of nineteenth-century dialects, and dated cultural tropes common to early colonial fiction. The humor relies heavily on theatrical stereotypes of the era. However, for those interested in historical Australian literature, the book offers an exceptionally entertaining glimpse into the world of traveling side-shows, bush townships, and urban underworlds. Nickie's unflagging charm and absolute refusal to be reformed make him an unusually engaging antihero whose misadventures remain genuinely funny.

<ElicitationsGroup message="Where would you like to go next with this book?">

<Elicitation label="Read a literary comparison with other Australian bush satires" query="Compare Edward Dyson's 'The Missing Link' with other late 19th-century Australian bush satires and picaresque literature."/>

<Elicitation label="Explore the historical context of traveling shows in Australia" query="Provide historical background on 19th-century traveling carnivals and 'Museums of Marvels' in colonial Australia."/>

<Elicitation label="Analyze the character of Nickie the Kid as an archetype" query="Analyze Nickie the Kid as an example of the 'larrikin' archetype in early Australian literature."/>

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