SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 312, 21 September 1918, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION.

"Down Under Donovan," Life at ilonte Carlo and scenes on tlie Kiiglisl:. turf figure largely in Mr. Edgar Wallace's story, "iJown Under Donovan" (Ward. Lock and Co.; per Whilconibe and Tombs). The .story takes its title from a racehorse, owned by an elderly Australian, who in earlier life had been a convict, but who, later on, had discovered a valuable secret in connection with .glass making. A Russian speculator is anxious to secure possession of the formula, which has been stolen from its owner by a rascal who had been a fclloiv-cnn'vict with the inventor. The formula is purchased by iliu .Russian from the thief, but tho papers am stolen from the purchaser,/in'liis way I'roni Monte Carlo to Paris, by a gang of adventurers, headed by a scoundrelly British baronet. Unfortunately for these worthies, just as the prize falls into their hands it again mysteriously disappears, and each of the disapopinted rascals suspects his comrades in crime of having cheated him. There is a battle-royal of wits in the search for the missing documents, and a secondary sensation is provided in a cun-ningly-devised scheme to,win the Derby with an Argentine-bred horse, wliieii is substituted for.an English outsider. In the long run, as the experienced novel reader has seen all along, the Australian ex-convict is proved to have been a ■ much-injured man, and both the Russian speculator and the wicked baronet aro outwitted, and the clever young gentleman who exposes their rascality duly marries the Australian's lovely and devoted daughter... Both Mr. Le Queux and -Mr. Nut Could must look to their laurels if Mr. AVallacc permanently devotes his energies, .to this class of fiction. "The Heart of Virginia Keep." "The Heart of Virginia Keep," by Edwin JJnird (Ward, Lock and 'Co.-; per uluteombe and Tombs), has for its background an American citv, in which tho heroine's father, a wealthy' merchant and financier, occupies all honoured commercial and social position. Suddenly he disappears, only to be arrested in another city, and charged with and found, guilty of a double "manslaughter' committed when he was : a young-man "out West." His daughter laces her altered position very hnwely, and is befriended, by a young millionaire, who masquerades as a reporter on tho city's leading newspaper, tho ownership of which ho has inherited, the heroine devotes-her life to. proving her father's 'innocence, -which is eventually established hv tho confession of the real * criminal, the merchant's wastrel brother. Tho amateur journalist is a decidedly original and annising character, and tho story of his love for the much-harassed' Virginia, . and of the many ingenious devices he employs in assisting her whilst not exposing' his true position as a wealthy man and tho real owner of the paper on which'tho heroine linds. employment, is told-in u pleasantly vivacious and engaging way. Two of the minor characters', <he heroine's stepmother and a hard-headed old Scot, the editor-manager, who rinds his young proprietor's caprices somewhat embarrassing, are .exceptionally well drawn. A very readable story.

There is a good story' of tho two Sheridaiis'in Sir Arthur Helps's recently published "Corrospoii'deiieo": "I must tell you a story which Coxon told me about Sheridan. Thero were several reports of .old Sherry's death-be-fore he himself had'made up his mind to depart. A friend of young Sheridan's met him, and began to condole with him on tho death "of his father, 'i am' very much obliged to you,' .said tho young man, 'but you are 'mistaken. 1 saw him myselF this morning, and ho said he was alive and well—but really, he is such a. d d liar there is no knowing.'"

The war German is a beast. Of that we are all convinced. But it is unite a popular error to imagine that in'previous wars he was not a beast. "Plus coin change, plus e'est la memo chose." The Hun was always not only a Least, hut a subtle-minded, destructive beast. As witness the following passage from the "Life 'of Pasteur," apropos to the way the Prussians behaved in JS7O:

Hesnault hail left his laboratory ntonfils in his rooms at tlie Sevres porcelain manufactory of which hi; y.tu manager. \ Prussian, evidently an exnert, lnul been there. iVotluiig seemed diaiigeil in that abode of science, and yel. everything was destroyed; the glass-tubes of liarometci'B, etc., were broken; scales and other, iii.itrument.s had.been carefully knocked. out of ahapo with a- hammer. In a- corner were a heap of ashes; they were tlie registers, notes, manuscripts, all liegnault's work of the last ten years. . "Such cruelty is unexampled in history," writes J. B. Dumas. ''The lloinan soldier who butchered Archimedes iii the lieat of the onslaught may lie excused—but- with what sacrilegious li'cauiiiK could this work of cold destruction be accomplished!"