STIRRING SEA STORIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19240, 2 August 1924, Page 4

STIRRING SEA STORIES.

AUSTRALIAN AND CANADIAN AUTHORS, By Constant Reader. I.—DALE COLLINS'S “ORDEAL.” It has been confidently declared that Australia to-day is producing no novelists of the first rank, and that it has been left to Mr D. BL Lawrence, on the strength of u comparatively brief sojourn in tho suburbs of Sydney, to write in “Kangaroo” a real Australian story, faithfully picturing tho landscape, creating the correct atmosphere. and abounding in clever characterisation. This may be, and is probably true of tho “land” novel, but no one would expect Mr Lawrence, with all his brilliance of description and psychological insight, to be tho author of a see* story. It has been left for Mr Dale Colline to emulate Joseph Conrad, and in “Ordeal” to write a novel which comes into tho same class a.s "Tho Nigger of the Narcissus” and “Typhoon.” Like Conrad. Mr Collins models his fiction upon first-hand fact. In a previous book “The Seatnicfcs of the Specjacks,” ho gave an apeount of a cruise in a motor boat undertaken by a party of well-to-do amateurs. While on this cruise Mr Collins evidently went to musing, and while bo mused tho plot and motive of “Ordeal” gradually formed itself in his mind; the motor boat became a yacht, tho cruise extended to. a voyage across tho Pacific, the wealthy passengers, men and women, were supplemented by a rascally crow, and the situation dominated by Ted, tho steward. Ted. the steward, is an extraordinary psychological study; ho ia introduced on the first page in the_ act of striking a match, which, throbbing for a moment, throw his features into relief and then was blotted out: — The memory of his face remained impressed upon the gloom like the head of Ctesar on a coin; tho sharp nose hooked down above the bitter lips, tho eyes dark beneath dark brows, the chin long and blue. Across those cruel and arrogant lines, however, was smuggled the cringe of his trade, and deep in tho bold eyes cowardice dwelt, while the _ sleek black hair—emphasised by the skin’s pallor—suggested obsequious bowings. Clearer than all else in the imprint was the fact that the left ear had been sliced oft' neatly, leaving a small round hole, suggestive of nudity in its pink revelation of the machinery of hearing. Torn thus abruptly from tho night, his face betrayed him as a bully who had sulked through years of servitude, and whining bitterly the while, had ground hate to a razor-edge on the wheel of circumstance. His strength had turned to acid and the manner of his life had mutilated hia aonl, even as his head had hfon made a horror by the lopping of the ear. He was of mongrel blood, mid an Armenian strain darkened his mind with the shadow of centuries of persecution. The story opens with Ted, the steward, in colloquy with Petefsen, the Scandinavian cook, another admirably drawn character, and in contrast to Ted “a dull-child, a blue-eyed child of sleepy blind giants.” Ted confided to Peterson, his opinion of the owner of tho schooner and its passengers. ‘They’re parasites. They grind down our faces so’s they can play bridge. . . . And yet there’s no gettm’ away from them for us that’s gob no money, no power, and no chance. What can we ever do to get even with them—everythin’ ■on their side.” This ia the burden of Ted's thoughts, the motive of all his scheming, to get even, and at tho back of his mind, all tho time, a desire to possess Dorothy Daley, one of tho two women passengers and niece of the deaf Lady Daley. Ted confided to Peterson. “This here’s goin’ to be a long run. might bo becalmed here a month. . . . Plenty of time. . . . Wouldn’t take much doin’ that—to set ’em at each other’s throats, and make' ’em fightin’ mad. . . . Split ’em up, put one against the other. , . . Good fun. . . . Might be done. . . . They’re frightened of me, see.” The schooner Spray. bound for Panama, from Honolulu, is owned by Thorpe, a wealthy professional' man of Now York, ordered a sea voyage by a doctor. In Japan ho met Vazcy Howard, a nice lad, and an old acquaintance; and on tho voyage across liiwly Daley and her niece Dorothy became friends, and they all travelled together to Honolulu. Here a polite Japanese accosted them: He had a schooner for sale, and he sought Thorpe out because he was American and rich. This polite Japanese detained them by the way and explained with hissingly indrawn breath how easy Und how romantic it would be to sail home to New York by way of Panama. There bad been plans_ and drinks and so on, and the proposition seemed quite reasonable. This wonld be a sea voyage such as the doctor had desired, and Viola (Thorpe’s wife) had been wildly pleased nt the prospect. They had all been wildly pleased. The idea had taken root and grown tall—tho masts tapering to the stars showed how tall it had grown. Sprung from nowhere, then, , the little Jap.—courteous and eager to assist in every way so that they reap all the joy and suffer no trouble—had deflected their paths. And her® they were now prisoned m a foreign environment, the sea their gaoler. In his sea prison, becalmed in the Tropica, Thorpe became increasingly uneasy. • Tho schooner was undermanned, and owner and passengers took thoir turn at the wheel. Ted, recognising his opportunity, pursued his policy of dropping a hint, there and a word there, until lie h<od them all by ears, crow and passengers alike. And as trouble grew and fermented so did his power increase, until ho inspired universal fear. In his plotting and planning ho was aided by the elements, first thid tropical heat and absence of rain, then fcbb incessant thunder which frazzled their nerves, and finally a terrible storm which left tho schooner a helpless derelict. Mr (J01U1.3 is at his psychological beet as he pictures all on hoard little by little shedding' the cloak of civilisation until only some ragged remnants are left, while primitive passions begin to gain tho ascendancy, an<J ah this aided by tho narrow confines of the boat and tho impossibility of escape. As; the others decreased and dwindled so do(fs Ted's dominance increase until tho imminent arrives when Dorothy Daley ia at hi sc mercy seemingly without a hope of deliverance. Tho device by which Tod falls prey to tho shark which for weeks hud been following the boat, and the part played by Lady Daley in averting tho imminent tragedy must be read to bo thoroughly appreciated. It is most realistically described. Another strong point is tho rapidity with which when rescued and safe on board a liner tho castaways resume their usual mode of life,, and adapt themselves to convention, only too glad to forget tho realities they had passed through. “Ordeal” is_ a notable navel ; it .holds the attention in a tremendous grip so that tho reader is able to imagine the sensations of the characters, following no less the working of the mind of Ted the steward and tho. wiles of Viola in her endeavour to entrap Howard. The tensity of the situations can scarcely be described, and tho-; story from beginning to end has no foregone conclusion. If Mr Dale Collins can keep up to this standard ho ha.s a great, future before him; his novel bids fair to bo talked about and. discussed for many months to come. H—GEORGE ALLAN ENGLAND’S “THE WHITE WILDERNESS.” Tho interst of "Ordeal” centres around the story. Mr Dale Collins’s background is entirely subsidiary, although absolutely essential. With “The White Wilderness” it is different; tho interest of Mr George Allan England’s novel is mainly that of the sub-title, “A Story of the Great Newfoundland Seal-Hunt; of Arctic Eloes; of Perils and Adventures Manifold.” The story is machine-made, but tho backgrounds are the real thing. there are moving descriptions of tho slaughter of tho defenceless seals for tho sake of securing the skins, descriptions enough to make every woman foreswear a fur-coat of any kind. There are details of tho,gross, degrading existence of the* men on board the sealers and of tho terrible hard and debasing life led by those simple yet savage sailors, children easily led and governed at one time, yet boxaharously cruel when roused to passion There are insights into the inadequate equipment of the ships engaged in tho seating industry, and in Captain Azariah there is & portrait of the typical sealing skipper whose one thought it is to till his ship with skins at any post.

The star/ in oatline is simple. Spenser Harrod, son of a millionaire American shipowner, and who has had experience in hying during the war, undertakes, in the absence of too usual airman, to carry the Labrador mail. He takes a passenger, Blanche Cameron, an English girl, who had boon nursing in Dr Grenfell’s hospital. Caught in a blizzard and carried out to sea, the plane crashes on the ice, and when nigh unto death the adventurous pair are sighted by Captain Azariah and carried on board the Vigilant, “black as the Pit, carvel-built, a hundred and ninety feet over all, three-masted, and of four hundred tons, with a crew of 160 men.” Everything in the way of misfortune that could possibly overtake a sealer happens to the Vigilant after Sponsor Harrod and Blanche Cameron coma on board. Spenser finds the name of his father execrated by the sealers, and ho is looked upon as a Jonah. The ship takes fire, is shattered by a storm; there fallows mutiny and murder and all manner of horrors before deliverance comes. Moreover, there is no end to the story, it seems to call for a sequel. Tho charm of the story, once the difficulty ia overcome of accustoming one’s sob to the vernacular used by the sailors, lias in the picture of the Arctic scenery of tho coast of Labrador. Tho situations created are indubitably powerful, and tho book grips in more ways than one.