LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18673, 30 September 1922, Page 16

LITERATURE.

A MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN,* THE ASSAULT ON MOUNT EVEREST. % & ' Br Constant Readeb. ! Mystery exerts a strange fascination and yields a most potent influence. It was 3olingbroke who, writing to Swift, exslaimod, “Plain truth will influence half i score men at most in a nation, or'an ige, while mystery will lead millions by he nose.” A mysterious mountain,- set, n a mysterious land—suph: vhich led to the assault oh Mount Everest, in assault which, three times attempted vilhin the last few months, has so far alien short of its objective. General Bruce, ho leader of the expedition, has declared hat ho believes Everest to bo climbablc, md has said' “it is practically certain that i well-chosen team of climbers could ichieve, without oxygen, a greater height ;han that achieved last year.” All this lends unique interest to a handsome volume entitled “Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance, 1921,” which, besides in introduction by Sir Francis Youngvusband, president of the Royal Geographical Society, contains “The Narrative of ho Enterprise,” by Lieutenant-colonel (1. £. Howard Bury, D. 5.0.; “The Eeconlaissance of the Mountain.” by George jl. joigh-Mallory; “Natural History,” by A. ?. R. Wollaston; and “An Appreciation if the Reconnaissance, ’ by Professor Noinan Collie, president of the Alpine Club, rheso narratives, together with several yaluible appendices, are enhanced with a series if magnificent photographs which, along fith a number of maps, combine in i book replete with interest to all who nake a hobbv of mountaineering. The qualities and characteristics that go ■o the making of a successful climber are mlarged upon by Sir Francis Younghusjand out of the depths of a long and varied ixperience. Starting with the axiom that ‘men simply cannot resist exercising and stretching to their fullest tether the families and aptitudes with which they each wppen to be „pceiallv endowed,” Sir j, ranis says: “Fortunately all men aro not Jom with the saipo aptitudes. We do not ill want to sing or all want to orate, rr ill want to paint. Some few want to limb mountains. These men love to pit themselves against what most others would lOnsider an insuperable obstacle.” Even in dimbers there are differences and a contrast is drawn between the Duke of the ibruzzi. whose ruling passion is a love ‘of pitting himself against a great mournain and feeling that ho was being forced ;o exert himself to the full,” and General Bruce, who climbs “from sheer exuberance if spirits.” To such men as the Duke ,‘a tussle with a mountain is a real tonic—something bracing and refreshing. And wen if they are laid out flat by the mounain instead of standing triumphant on its ummit thev have enjoyed the struggle'and ’ould go back for another if they ever Had the chance.” “Blessed with boundless IHergy,” the men of the Bruce type revel HH the_ exercise. “It is only on the monnHjn side, breathing its pure air, buffeting Hpinst its storms, testing their nerves, rnnHkg hair-breadth risks exercising their inHBigence and judgment, feeling their manMod and looking on Nature face to face Hd with open heart and mind that they Hfo truly happy. For these men days on Be mountain are days when they really Be. And as the cobwebs in their brains Ret blown away, as the blood begins to curse refreshingly through their veins, rs Jl their, faculties become tuned up and heir whole being becomes more sensitive, hey detect appeals from Nature they had lever-heard before and see beauties which re revealed only to those who won them.” Sir Francis insists that, because a mounain has so much to give and yields up its reasure so lavishly to those willing to Trestle with it for victory, the climber oves the mountain, and, going back again nd again, never rests satisfied until he ias gained the summit. His comments on his point are of singular interest in view if the recent attempts to conquer Mount Everest : Naturally the mountains reserve their choicest gifts for those who stand upon their summits. The climber’s vision is then ny '.onger confined and enclosed. He can see now all round. _ His wealth of outlook is enlarged to its full extremity. He sees in every direction. He. has a. sense of being raised above the world and being proudly conscious that ho has Ufaised-himself there by his own exertions, ,he has a peculiar satisfaction, and for the time forgets all facts and worries in the serener atmosphere in which he bow for a moment dwells.

And it is only for a moment that he can dwell there. For men cannot always live on the heights. They must come down to the plains again and engage in the practical life of the world. But the vision from the heights never leaves them. They want to return there. They want to reach a higher height. Their standard of achievement rises. And so it has come about that mountaineers when they had climbed the highest heights m Europe went off to the Caucasus, to the Andes, and eventually to tho Himalaya to climb something higher still. Fresh“field conquered the Caucasus, Whymper and Conway the Andes, and the assault upon the Himalaya, is now in full swing. It is therefore only in (ho natural course of things that men should want to climb the highest summit of tho Himalaya. And though those who set out to climb Mount Everest will probably think little of tho eventual x-esults, being perfectly satisfied in their own minds, without any elaborate reasoning that what they arc- attempting is something supremely worth while, yet it is easy for lookers on to sec that much unexpected good will, result from their activities. The climbers will be actuated by sheer love of mountaineering, and that- is enough for them. But climbing Mount Everest is no futile and useless performance of no satisfaction tb anyone but the climbers. Results will follow from it of the highest value to mankind at large. For the climbers are unwittingly carrying out an experiment of momentous consequences to mankind. They are testing the capacity of the human race to stand the highest altitudes on this earth which is its home. No scientific man, no physiologist or physician, can now say,for certain whether or not a human body can reach a height of 23.000 feet above tho sea. We know that in an aeroplane bo can be carried up to a much greater height. But we do not know whether h« can climb on his own feet such an altitude. That knowledge of men’s capacity can only be acquired by practical experiment in the field. Sir Francis Younghusband argues that, by isting vheir capacities for climbing, men Jtually increase that capacity. He points at that a hundred years ago the ascent of fount Blanc_ appeared to be the limit of urran capacity. To-day it is an average imb. From the Alps to the Caucasus, ad on to the Andes and the Himalaya, rgher and l higher altitudes have been sacked —Conway 23,000 feet, Kellas 23.186 set, Longstaff 23,360 feet, Dr Workman 1.000 feet. Kellas and Meade 23.600 feet, id the Duke of the Abruzzi 24,600 feet, ow. General Bruce has proved that nights :e endurable at 25,500 feet without tho use : oxygen. Ine ascent of Mount Everest has been sjitemplated for the last 30 or 40 years, ouglas Freshfield, Lord Curzon, Bruce, angstaff, Mumm, Rowling, and other exorers were all anxious, had circumstances :rmitted,-=to make the- necessary prclimi-n-y reconnaissance. The first man to proxse a definite expedition to Everest was eneral —then Captain—Bruce, when Sir ranois Younghusband and he were in hitral in 1893, and ho has held to the ea ever since. But it was not. until two i:irs ago that the Dalai Lama of Tibet ’anted the necessary permission for an ;pedition. When early in January, 1921, te preparations were entered upon, it as found that General Bruce was not •ailable. and Colonel Howard-Bury was ipointed leader of tho expedition, with x George Leigh Mallory a s first Hcunant. It was decided that a whole season .ould be devoted to a thorough reconi.issance of the mountain with a view to iding not only a feasible route to the irnmit. but what was without any doubt ic most feasible route, and it is with a ?;:cript,ion of that reconnaissance that the 'esent volume is concerned. It was early in May, 1921, before the embers of the Everest Expedition had scmbled at Darjeeling, and the first busies was to collect as many of the right irt of coolies ns possible. “They were an pecially hardy type of coolie.” says olonel Howard-Bury. “accustomed to livig in a cold climate and at great heights, hey were Buddhists by religion, and thereto had no caste prejudices about food, id could eat anything. They proved at

times quarrelsome and rather fond of strong drum; they turned out, however, to be a useful ana capable type of man, easily trained in snow ana ice work, and not afraid of the snow.” The chief transport of the Expedition consisted of a hundred mules, and it was divided into two parties with 50 mules and 20 coolies in each party. The leaders of the first party were Colonel Howard-Bury, who. though not a mountaineer in the strict sense of the word, was deeply interested in the Mount Everest project; Major Wheeler, of the Indian Survey .Department; Mr Leigh-Mallory, a wollIcfiown .Alpine climber- and Mr Wollaston, medical officer and naturalist. The. second party had as its leaders Mr Harold Raeburn’, an experienced member of the Alpine Club; Dr Kolias, who had made several climbing expeditions in the Himalaya and had in 1920 ascended Mount Kamel (o a height of 23,400 ft; Mr Bullock, of the Consular service; and Dr Heron, of the ifnaian Geological Survey. In the middle of May the two parties left Darjeeling, and travelled through Sikkim into Tibet. After traversing the Cliumba Valley and emerging on the Tibetan plateau, the expedition suffered a severe loss in the death of Dr Kellas. “The change in the climate and the bad cooking,” writes Colonel Moward-Bury “had' affected the stomachs of all the members of the expedition, and none of us was feeling very well. Dr Kellas was the worst, and as soon as he arrived at Phari he retired to -bed.” A day or two later "a man came running up to us very excitedly to say that Dr Kellas had suddenly died on the way. We could hardly believe this as he was apparently gradually getting better; but Wollaston at once rode off to see if it was true, and unfortunately found that there was no doubt about it.” Colonel Howard-Bury continues:— . / It was a case of sudden failure of the heart, due to his weak condition, while being carried over the high pass. His death meant a very great loss to the expedition in every way, as he alone was qualified to carry out the experiments in oxygen and blood pressure which would have been so valuable to the expedition, and on which subject he was so great an expert. His very keenness had been the cause of his illness, for he had tried his constitution too severely in the early months of that year by expeditions into the heart of the Himalayas to see if he could get fresh photographs from other angles of Mount, Everest. The following day we buried him on the slopes of the hill to the south of Khamba Dzong, on a site unsurpassed for beauty that looks across the broad plains of Tibet to the mighty chain of the Himalayas, out of which rose up the three great peaks of Pawhunri, Kanchenjhow, and Chomiomo, which he alone had climbed. From the same spot, far away to the westmore than a hundred miles away —could he seen the snowy crest of Mount Everest towering far above all the other mountains. He lies, therefore, within sight of his greatest feats of climbing and within view of the mountain that he had longed for,so many years to approach—a fitting resting place for a great mountaineer.

In an “Appreciation of the Reconnaissance,” Professor Norman Collie, president of tho Alpine Club, usefully summarises the chief points elaborated with so much wealth of detail by Colonel Howard-Bury and Mr G. H. Leigh-Mallory. Not only did the expedition in 1921 discover a reasonable route to the summit of Mount Everest, but it brought back a magnificent series of photographs, a large number of which are excellently reproduced in the ■ present volume. Professor Collie says: Mount Everest consists of a huge pyramid, having three main routes, the west, the south-east, and the north-east. It is the last, tho north-east arete, that is obviously the easiest, being snow-covered along most of its length. Nowhere is it excessively steep,, and nowhere are there precipices of rock to stop the climber. We now know that it can he reached, fcv means of a subsidiary ridge, from a col 23,000 ft, the Changa-La, that lies to the north cf tho north-east arete. This col was the highest point on Mount Everest reached by the expedition, and had it not been for savage weather a considerably higher altitude would have been attained: far above the, col for several thousand feet lay an unbroken snow slope.' Mr Leigh-Mallory records the fact that by an irony of fate the explorers, on the day after Dr Kollas’s death, “experienced tho strange elation of seeing Everest for the first time.” The impression thus made is picturesquely described:—

Considered as a structure, Mount Everest is seen from the Rcnkhuk Valley to achieve height with amazing simplicity. . . We do not see jagged crests and a multitude of pinnacles, and, beautiful as such ornament may be, we do not miss it. The outline is ' comparatively smooth, because the stratification is horizontal, a circumstance which seems again to give strength, emphasising the broad foundations. And yet Everest is a rugged giant. It has not the smooth undulations of a snow mountain with white snow cap and glaciated flanks. It is rather a great rock mass, coated often with a thin layer of white powder, which is blown about its sides, and leaving perennial snow only on the gentler ledges and on several wide faces less steep than the rest. One such place is the long arm of the north-west arete, which, with its slightly articulated' buttress, is like the nave of a vast cathedral roofed with snow. I was, in fact, reminded often by this northern view of Winchester Cathedral, with its long, high nave and low, square tower; it is *only at a considerable distance that one appreciates the great of this building and the strength which seems capable of supporting' a far taller tower. Similarly with Everest; the summit lies so far along the immense aretes that, big as it always appears, one required a distant view to realise its height; and it has no spire, though it might easily bear one; 1 have thought sometimes that a Matterhorn might be piled on the top of Everest and the gigantic structure would support the added weight iu stable equanimity. The greatest enemy of the explorers was not the deep powdery snow, but, incredible as it may appear, the heat. “In the glacier furnace the thin mist became steam, it enveloped us with a clinging garment from which no escape was possible, and far from being protected by it from the sun’s fierce heat, we seemed to be scorched all ,tlie more because of it. The atmosphere was enervating to the last degree; to halt even for a few minutes was to be almost overwhelmed by inertia, so difficult it seemed, once the machinery had_ stopped and lost momentum, to heave it into motion again. And yet we must go on in one direction or the other or else succumb to sheer lassitude and overpowering drowsiness.” Mr Leigh-Mallory is emphatic on the point that “so far as the temperature of the air was concerned, we experienced no severe cold and suffered no hardships from first to last.” “I do not mean to affim,” ho adds, “that it. was always warm. One night, so early as July 18, in a, camp above 19.000 ft, was exceptionally cold. At our two last camps in September the thermometer went down to two or throe degrees below zero, and the wind at our final camo made it more difficult to keep warm.” Most imeortant was the practice of breathing hard and deeply. “Probably no one who has not tried,” says Mr LeighMallory, “would guess_ how difficult it is to acquire an unconscious habit of deep breathing.” The phenomena of fatigue were most curious. “Often,” says Mr Leigh-Mallory, “I wok e from some day dream with a feeling of undue fatigue, to find the cause of my lassitude only in the lungs’ laziness. The best chance of keeping them np to their work, 1 found, was to impose a rhvthm primarily upon the lungs and swing the legs in time with it.” The pages of the volume arc full of fascination to every mountain climber, besides holding an intense interest for readers who love a story of high adventure and dauntless daring such as this narrative presents. Again, we must emphasise the fact that the illustrations in themselves are inspiring iir their grandeur. As to the future conquest of this mountain of mystery, Professor Collie's closing words are apt enough:— The'ascent from the north col, ChangaI,a. 23,0C0ft, to the summit of Mount Everest, 29.000 ft, is only 6000 ft, and the distance to traverse is about two miles. As far as can be judged from the numerous photographs of Mount Everest, the climbin" h straightforward, with no insurmountable obstacles in the form of steep rook precipices. There will be no glaciers overhanging the route which might send down avalanches and no excessively steep ice-slopes. But the final ascent will test the endurance of the climber to the utmost.. Many people have found the last 1000 ft of Ml. Blanc more than they could accomplish. The last 1000 ft of Mount Everest will only he conquered by men whose physique is perfect and who are trained and acclimatised to the last possible limit agid

.who have the determination to struggle on when every iibro of their body is calling out: Hold ! enough ! The struggle will be a great one, but it will be worth the while. To do some new thing beyond anything that has been previously accomplished, and not to be dominated by his environment, has made man what he is and has raised him above the beasts. Ho always has been seeking new worlds to conquer. He has penetrated into the forbidding ico-w T orlds at the two Poles, and many are the secrets lie has wrested from nature, There rc- ■ mains yet the highest spot on the world’s surface. No doubt he will win there also and in the winning will add one more victory over the guarded-secrets of things as they are. FOR THE NOVEL READER NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. I.—THREE AMERICANS. Mr diaries G. Norris will be remembered as the author of a story called “Salt, or the Education of Griffith Adams,” a realistic picture of American university life, which attracted a good deal of attention on both sides of the world. His latest novel ‘‘Brass (London : William Hoinemann. Dunedin : Whitcombe and Tombs) is frankly a study of modern marriage conditions, the author a standpoint being that of the lines of Robert Browning set on the title page as explanatory of the book: —

Annul a marriage? ’Tis impossible Though ring about your neck be brass not gold, Needs must it clasp, gangrene you all the same. “Brass” is a big book, mostly concerned with the exploits and experiments in marriage and divorce of Philip Baldwin, son of judge Simon Baldwin; of Vacaville, California. It was the sheer accident of proximity which caused Philip to fall in love with, and marry, Marjorie Jones and go to live and work in San B’rancisco, instead of marrying his first love Rosemary, and settling down on a fruit farm at Vacaville. Thus the story resolves itself into a contract between the ups and downs and ins and outs of Philip’s life in San Francisco, and tile steady but slow progress made by his brother Harry, who married Rosemary, and reared a large family in the country. Philip was in turn divorced from Marjorie, entangled by Mrs Grotenberg (a woman separated from her husband), in love with Mary Rowland (who refused to marry a divorced man because of her Roman Catholic beliefs), and married again to Leila. Incidentally there is interwoven the marriage of Lucy, Philip’s sister, to Wilbur Lansing, Philip’s partner. vVilbur deserts- Lucy, and leaves Philip and San Francisco for South America, taking with him a married woman with whom ho has become infatuated—a slop which lands Philip, who is partner in a speculative real estate business, in bankruptcy. The story closes with Philip and Marjorie discussing what might have been. Hie book gives a good insight, into life on the Californian frnitlands and into business and society hto in San Francisco. The characters are well drawn, and as a reflection of America today the story could not bo bettered. The attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards divorce is interestingly discussed, and, as with all American stories of this calibre, the craftmanship is clever and complete. An effective comparison may readily be instituted between the attitude and ideals of t,he average Englishman and American in the matter of marriage and_ business by a study of “Brass” side by side with “Tins Freedom.” Curiously enough the moral of both stories is virtually the same. “The Million Dollar Suit Case,” by Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry (London and Melbourne; Hutchinson and Co., Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs) embodies a unique mystery. That it should be possible for a bank teller to walk out of the front door of the bank carrying a suit case containing a million dollars, the properly of the bank, and get clean away without leaving a clue to his whereabouts passes comprehension. It is just such a situation as Mr Chesterton revels in when engaged with Father Brown. Captain Worth Gilbert, just home from the war, and interested ( in the affairs of the bank—situated, by the way, in San Francisco—offers to buy the missing suit case for 800,000 dollars, and take the risk of recovery, an offer which is ultimately accepted. This launches Gilbert in company with his friend Boyne, a detective, in a series of amazing adventures, the nature and the sequel of which may not b-i disclosed for fear of spoiling the story. “The Million Dollar Suit Case” is as exciting as it is interesting, and it will make an entertaining yarn for a week-end. One critic has recently remarked that the prohibition regime in America is already stamping itself on {lie fiction of that land, ui that tiie dire and dreadful results of drink aro increasingly in evidence. “The Wolf of Purple Canyon,” by Ch'arles Kenmore Ulrich (London and Melbourne. Hutchinson and Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs) may be designated a story of this sort, since the hero, known as “The Wolf,” the son of a railway magnate, is cursed by an inherited taste for strong drink. Well set on his downward career, he is arrested by the remembrance of his mother and her prayers. The story is crudely told, melodramatic, and sentimental to a degree, and even the description of the denizens of Faro Jenn’s Red Eye saloon in the desert town of Purple Canyon scarcely rings true. There is so much genuine backblock fiction that spurious stuff cannot hope to pass muster. “The Wolf of Purple Canyon” may be written down “a dud.” lI.—SAVAGES AND WITCHES. “Savages,” by Gordon Ray (London : Jonathan Cape. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs) is well named. A powerful story (of the South Sea Islands, it depicts the 1 primitive forces of passion and hatred both on the part of the natives of these regions and on the part of white men relapsed into savagery, the latter state being worse than the first. At the same time_ the sympathies of the reader will be irresistibly drawn out towards “Hurricane Williams,” outcast and pirate, with a price on his head. The stern and terrible conflict between Williams and Winston Wilberly, “The King of the South Seas,” is effectively staged right to its dramatic denouement. There are grisly things in this story, but the atmosphere is right and the native life and character are faithfully etched in. “Savages” is not a pretty story. There is love in it, but, of a stern and stormy sort, and there aro undeniable horrors. Its attraction is in its power to arrest attention, and the pictures are stamped on the mind. Mr Gordon Ray Young is to be congratulated on having done a new thing in the South Seas. _ The masterly way in which Hurricane Williams, running up the American flag, checkmated Friedrich Heinrich von Diedricb, captain of the German gunboat “Prinz,” will be much enjoyed. ( “Witch-Dociors.” by Charles Beadle (London : Jonathan Cape. Dunedin : Whitcombe and Tombs) is another weird and wonderful story of savage life, the scone of which is sot in the African jungle. At the station ’of Nyanza. in the south eastern corner of the Victoria Nyanza, there reigned supreme the Komrnandant. Herr OberLicutonanl Hermann von Schnitzler and Zu Pforffor. and it was the ambition of Zu Pffcrffer to extend the territory of German South Africa in the interests of his beloved master, the Kaiser. The fly in the ointment, so far as the German was concerned. was the presence in that regidn ot Binder, an American traveller and scientist, who, scenting Zu Pferffer’s aims, decided to attempt to frustrate them. The battle of wits is fought out against a background of African jungle whore superstitious fears,■ witchcraft, and the like aro played upon to the full. The interest of the story centres in the native atmosphere; it is grim and grisly'and full of horror, but the hook is a strong one. Weak-rcived people and all inclined to stay awake at night are warned off ‘‘Witch Doctors,” but. readers who enjoy horrors will be able to feast to the full'in Mr Beadle's pages. III—SOUTH SEA ROMANCES. Mr A. Safroni-Middlelnn. sailor, gold digger, sheep shearer, nut-planter, and boundary rider, has specialised in the South Seas, having- fiddled his way—ho is- a violinist of parts—from Fiji to the Salomon Islands and away to the remote Marquesas Group. Ho Inis selected Taiohao in the Marquesas Isles as the scene of his latest story. “A Child of the Forest.”' (London; John Long), and here lives Adrienne Ralli, the 17-ycav-clcl wife of Xicolo Ralli, a whi'o settlor ar.d astronomer.. Adrienne has as maid and companion, Moc. a native girl and princess in her own right; and Adrienne, piqued at (ho neglect of Nicolo, who is twice her ago, indulges in an intrigue. with Rajah Rabindralh Ahmed, a Malay travelling mendicant. Another pictnresnie figure is Bilbao, a beach comber, who wains Adrienne of the. folly of compromising herself with a native. The story is told amid the glamour of the South Seas “where palms whisper across silver sands to star reflecting lagoons and brown and white men and women are swayed by the same primitive passions” The style of writing in the novel is not quite up In Mr Middleton's usual standard; it. is slipshod and shows signs of haste, but. nevertheless it will pass muster. “The Marooned Lovers,” by Godfrey Dean (London: John Long), is of the type mado familiar by stories like “The Blue

Lagoon.” A shipwreck in the Western Pacific leaves a man ami a maid (lie sole survivors on an island. The Eden-liko idyll is interrupted by the appearance of a serpent. and of course the serpent is eventually defeated. Mr Dean is a Fleet-street 'journalist and ha has made the most of his sojourn in the Fast, where he served in the cavalry during the war on five or six fronts. The novel is quite readable... .

IV. AFRICA AND JAPAN. The charm of “Many Altars” (London:, John Long), lies in its South African atmosphere, the secret being that M4ud; a ,L Nisbet was married and for a while made her homo in }Jie Transvaal, accompanying her husband on long expeditions into Swaziland and Portuguese South Africa. She has the ability not onlv to describe the country she knows so well, but she has also the story-teller's gift and knows how lo handle a situation. The theme of her novel is the marriage of a blind man to a woman he has never seen, and the resultant complications when, after a while, ho regains his. sight. The account of the search for a gold reef is one of the best things in the book, which is full of local colour. “Sunny-San.” by Onoto Watanna (London and Melbourne: Hutchinson and Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs) relates the history of the Sunny Syndicate, Limited, with a capital of 10,000 dollars, of which Professor Timothy Barrows was president, and his four students. Jinx Bobs, Monty, and Jerry, were members. The four young men touring Japan with their professor rescued a, little dancer. Sunny San. by name, from the clutches of a cruel taskmaster and formed a syndicate to provide for her education. Sunny, who is a fascinating little figure, proves to be the daughter of a Japanese mother and an American father, and the discovery of the latter is one of the purposes of the story. Under the care of a missionary and his wife, -S'mny progresses to womanhood and eventually finds happiness as wife to one of the members of th© syndicate. ‘‘Sunny San” is a dainty story, pleasingly told. V. INDIAN STORIES. ' India has ever been a fertile field for the novelist', and recent events have tended to give the people of that land much prominence in the public eye. Mr Max Joseph Pemberton is a practised hand, and in “Hindoo Khan” (London: Mills and Boon) he . tolls the story of how an English soldier “made good” in the face of an uphill fight. “The Incendiaries.” by Lieutenantcolonel W. P. Drury (London: Mills and Boon) is a story of quite another sort. It endeavours to show the mischief done by well-meaning English men and women in stirring up strife by the encouragement of Indian nationalists and the abetting of discontent against the British Government. The story, which appeared originally as a serial in the Western Evening Herald, suffers from its evident propagandist tone and tendency, but at the present crisis in the East it possesses undoubted interest.. VI,—A COUPLE OF COMEDIES. The name of P. G. 'Wodehouse is a guarantee of genuine comedy, if at times the fun runs rather thin, and “The Girl on the Boat” (London: Herbert Jenkins) is in his usual manner. Billie Bennett, a modern American girl, yearns to meet a man “just like Sir Galahad,” and Sam Marlowe, falling in love with her. makes strenuous endeavours to live up to the ideal. Sam has a rival in Bream Mortimer, and fun, which begins on the R.M.S. Atlantic, bound from New York to Southampton, waxes fast and furious when the trio foregather at Windles, a country house in Hampshire. To whom, how, and when Billie eventually capitulates is left for the reader to discover. Mr Wodehouse. in a foreword to the story, explains a curious coincidence. ‘Both in “The Girl on the Boat” and in Mr Storer Clouston’s "The Lunatic at Large Again” the hero escapes from a tight corner by taking refuge •in a suit of armour in the hall of a country house. This is not plagiarism. The same idea struck both authors simultaneously, and that’s all there’s to it. “A Daughter in Revolt,” by Sidney Cowing (London: Herbert Jenkins) is the story of the daughter of a very reverent Viscount, and an “honourable” in her own right, who, because of having kicked over the traces, is sent to stay _ with a stern aunt. The Honourable Aimeo Scroope, however, persuades her placid cousin Georgina to.take her place and visit the austere aunt, while she, the “daughter in revolt,” mounts the machine of a stranger cyclist whom she encounters by chance on the high road. The adventures of this unconventional couple as they whisk away on a motor cycle afford Mr Cowing ample opportunity for comedy situations, and these are utilised to the uttermost. “A Daughter in Revolt” is a distinctly diverting story. HANDY REPRINTS If the old-established publishing house of John Murray desired to popularise their new fiction library they could not do better than re-issue in handy pocket reprint form the works of such standard authors as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and MiHenry Soton Merriman. The majority of noved readers will infinitely prefer the Oonan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes and of Rodney Stone and Brigadier Gerafd’Tb'tlie later Conan Doyle of spooks and fairies. And the early Conan Doyle is seen to the best advantage in a book like “ The Sign of Four.” Indeed, who that has read the book but would be willing to give a good deal to recapture the thrill of that first reading? As an example of Conan Doyle in his best romantic manner, what could be better than “ Sir Nigel a prelude to that other prime favourite, “The White Company ” ? Few modern authors are able to approach Henry Seton Merriman as a storyteller pure and simple, and “ The Isle of Unrest,” that brilliant tale of the picturesque Island of Corsica, furnishes a characteristic example of the popular novelist’s work. Since its first appearance twenty years or more ago, the book has gone into a dozen editions, and tho present reprint will add to its readers. '“Roden’s Corner’ ’ and “The Velvet Glove ” are others of Seton Merriman’s best stories which also have had a long life and are of the “everlasting” sort. All these reprints are well printed in bold type, neatly bound, and convenient for the pocket. These and the other issues in Murray’s fiction library should be in great demand during the quickly approaching holidays, i BOOKS AND AUTHORS Mr F. W. Shortland, barrister, of Tauranga, has in the press a book which has the title of “Police Court and Other Tales of Maoriland.” The stories are said to be amusing, and the book is of quite a different type from other publications by tho author, which have dealt with court practice in New Zealand and allied subjects. ■ “IE WINTER COMES.” Dear “Constant Reader,” —You will be interested, I know, to learn of the discovery I made the other day when re-read-ing “If Winter Comes.” On page 32, chapter IV, the author writes: “. . . When Sabre married tho Dean of Tidborough’s only daughter” (Mabel), and on page 234 he says: “She (Mabel) was altogether against any idea of going to be with her father at Tidborough. and, there was no cousin ‘or anybody like that’ (her two sisters were married and had homes of their own). ’ My issue is included in the twenty-seventh edition, so it would appear that the contradictory statement is going to bo perpetuated. Of course, the Dean of Tidborough’s “only” daughter may have been intended to read “only single” daughter, but it is certainly not clear ag it stands. —I am, etc., Curious.