A. E. W. Mason's Latest Novel

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

A. E. W. Mason's Latest Novel

By L. B.

WRITERS 'who feci they should sit back and rest on their laurels when they have reached the age of three stoic years or so should take heart by the example of A. E. W. Mason, who has been'writing books for the past forty years and who, at the age of seventy-three, has just published another, "The Drum." The years have not quenched his gift for telling an exciting story., and in this, his latest, there are all the thrills usually associated with life on the North-West Frontier. The drum which supplied the theme of the story was, according to the legend, a fairy drum reposing on the top of the stronghold of the Khan of Tokot and heard only when momentous things were about, to happen to him or to his line.

To secure the friendly co-operation of the Khan, Captain Frank Carruthers, Political Agent, was sertt by the Government on a political mission to Tokot, and when being welcomed by the Khan, the beating of the drum was heard. He was quick to see, however, that it was being beaten by the young son of the Khan, Shujn-ul-Miilk, instead of .by fairy invisible hands. Knowing something of the ways of the Frontier he realised the possibility that the boy might be using the legend in this way to secure the safety of his father and the continuance of his house. Unfortunately the boy was also seen by his father's worst enemy, the Wasir Dadu.

Returning to Peshawar, after having completed his mission, Carruthers was dismayed ,when: told,,by his chief that he wis to be appointed Resident Agent at Tokot. During hisf absence a rising had taken place there, the old Khan was murdered and his son Shuja-ul-Mulk had been forced to fly for his life.

It was with great reluctance that Carruthers yielded to the persuasions of his young wife and allowed her to accompany him to Tokot. True to Frontier legend intrigues, plots and counter-plots followed one another in quick succession, the climax being reached with an attempt to murder Carruthers and Marjorie, his wife, by a neighbouring chieftain, Uinra Beg. and the old Khan's younger brother, Nizam.

How thev were defeated and Carruthers and Marjorie saved at the last possible moment by young Sliuja-nl-Mulk, who thereby recovered the position held bv his father when alive and averted a serious Frontier war, forms a thrilling finale to the book.

"The Drum." A. E. W. Mason. (Rodder and Stoiigliton.)