LITERARY STUNTING

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1926, Page 21

LITERARY STUNTING

BTJCHAN, TOO, IS AMONG THE PROFITS. "The Dancing Floor." By John Buchan. London: - Hodder and Stoughton. Buchan would have been better employed if he had remained enamoured of that adventurous! gentleman, Bichard Hannay,'but he is not the.only.modern author trying to blow psychic bubbles for material results. To attempt, by some manipulation of psychic phenomena, to inveigle the sober twentieth century into Greek mythology, and to have even a long-suffering public remain credulous, is as absurd as it is preposterous. Once abandon all sense of the critical, however, and give oneself up to the charm of this tale, one is assured of a really thrilling yarn. "Each year the something came a room nearer and was even now but 12 rooms off. In 12 years his own door would open and then . . ." Those who demand thrills and respond to an improbable atmosphere of ancient mysteries will certainly find them in ('The Dancing Floor,'' which opens on a most intriguing note. The tale is narrated by Sir Edward Leithen, ox-soldier, lawyer, gentleman adventurer, and incidentally the most convincing character in the book. He meets Vernon Millbourne, the improbable hero, at a ball, and is struck by something unusual about him. Investigation proves, however, that he is the average Oxford undergraduate, with a tasto for medieval Greek, and is something of an athlete. Which two accomplishments later play tfreir appointed part in Fate's web of circumstance. Chance throws Loithen upon Vernon's hospitality, and tho two becoming friendly, Leithen learns of a curious dream which has obsessed Vernon since childhood. Ecgularly, it seems, on the night of the first Monday in April, he dreams that ho is in a room, consciously unknown to him, "a room smelling strangely of woodsmoke and furnished with two doors. Beyond was a third chamber, and so on. Somewhere, far away in one of the rooms, was a terror waiting for him, or as ho feared coming towards him.''

In after years Vernon and L.eithon venture on a yachting cruise, landing somewhere in Greece. They are, in fact, on the island of Plakos, where they come upon a curious houso whose whole atmosphere exudes mystery, and a menacing evil. Leithcn is urged to run away, but Vernon strangely enough is fascinated by the place, ivith which he^ feels curiously familiar. Tho time being April, tho dream has recurred, but now with a subtle difference. Ho has tho impression of the decks being cleared for action, while he finds that he has lpst his old terror and looks on

the approaching "something" as a privilege rather than an incubus. Ino ordinary course of events aro now interrupted by the war, and both Vcnion and Leithen have their hands fully occupied. After the war they dntt more or less apart, though they meet at a house-party which ihclufles Oorrie Arabin—a modern girl who offends tno sensitive Vernon's aesthetic sense. Her face is overloaded with paint and Iyer dress is more or less conspicuous for,its absence. With tho words "there was an absurd innocence about the raddled and half-clad girl" we aro acquainted that the • apparently necessary element of romance is now to bo added. Corrie (christened Kori) has been broughl up on the island of Plakos, and is the owner of the strange house bofore mentioned. Her father, according to the family lawyer, was not so much of a blackguard as "a student of evil. He had excellent brains and learning, and he devoted it all to researches in devilry." In the midst of this hell his daughter is supposed to remain unsmirched, "a Muse, a grace, a nympn among satyrs." When tho father dios he leaves behind him as legacy to Corrio a memory so evil and so ardent _ a lust for revenge' that it seems certain that she must expatiate his crimes, "with a wealth of medieval detail, unless a miracle intervenes. While she remains in England all is well, but with the obstinacy of her sex she refuses to do the obvious thing. She feels that in all honour she must return and face the music, of whose true nature she is unaware. Documents relating to her estate come into Leithen's hands professionally, and he consults Vernon into the meaning of the medieval Greek. It appears that at a place called Kynaetho certain rites have boon performed in medieval days. At the spring festival the "Queen" was welcomed with rites such as they used in the Mysteries. There is a sacred place, "The Dancing Floor," from which all but the purified are excluded. In times of trouble the ceremonial was considerably amplified, and included the preparation of youth and a virgin as human sacrifices, etc. ' On such a structure of ancient tirecic ritual and the evil follies of Shelley Arabin, with more than a touch of the psychic, Buchan has built an improbable but-highly thrilling romantic adventure, He is too much the artist to mishandle his subject, which is a masterpiece of construction and whicn win surely be read without pause.