TO WINDWARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 78

TO WINDWARD.

THF yTORI" OF A STORMY COURSE. A XOY'^L OF MODKRX XEW YORK.

By H. C. Rowland

I>rdon: David Xutt. (65.)

America produces vast crops of novels, and they are not all bad ones, either. Some cynic has &iid that "the- "United St.?te-< liis 35,000,000 inhabitants, several <;f whom have not written a book." Without doubt the jiVe is, to a certain extent, pointed, but over-production of inferior iiction is by no means, peculiar to tLo Xow and tl.sn ye may sofc-ly counL up.Mi finding a re.'l gem of stoiytelhno- shining among the heaps of comir.OiipTi'ce, and so it is in the present ir.pt nice.

'To Wind w.n d" is a racily dramatic story, which ojiens iinconventionally, and ends yo, and is rpTreshingiy unconventional tmcitL"!'out. The ehin'cter-drawing is admiiablc — the scenes md situations unhacki: -ytd. The story opei:* in some cut01 the way shorev. ard locality near "Boston. A young man, eLd in academic gown and "morcar bcrrd cop, stands uion an upturned boat, issuing sharply vigorous directions to a gang of shipyard hands engaged in. stepping the mast of a sloop. His language is not reminiscent 01 th.> groves cf Academe, but all ihe same Amos Knapp has that morning received the diploma wliish ceiti/ics him to bo a fit and proper member of the medical and surgical fraternity. Amos, Knapp, 8.A., M.D., has traversed no rosy path during the years of labour which he has devoted to gaining this first step towards a higher level of usefulness. Born the son of impoverished parents, and early left to ths unsympathetic ore of a far fiom chant-ably-indined uncle, he has had his own way to make in life. During six months of every year since being entered in thecollege becks he has wrought with vim and vigour either as sailor or shipwright, and has thus earned a master mariner's certificate as v. ell rs tho wherewithal ro carry him towards the higher goal.

"An impossible character," saj'S someone. No. csrtainly not. Just a toughfibred, healthy, hard-driving young n 'n- j heritor of solid Anglo-Sa^on heredity. To i make a good sailcrman or a good doctor, J or both in one, you do not need a genius j to start with. Given good health, ability, \ and will power, even in adverse circum- j stances, one might master either of those arts, sciences, or whatever you choose to* ' call them, or master both together, as Amos Knapp did. He was of the mind that all work that really was work was iit for a gentleman to do, but he would j do nothing of menial kind. "He might dig j a ditch, but not wait upon others of his casts. He could wash a waggon, but dishes from his —classmates' table were another matter. As a professional athlete he might black a man's eye, but his toots — never.*' Amos Knapp had his diploma, but his course in life did not become smooth andi prosperous all of a sudden because of it. Far from it, indeed, for this story is truly that of "a stormy course" from "first page to la&t. He was moneyless, and a "diplomy," as his aged friend Captain Perkins feelingly remarked, wasn't much good to anyone "without a wall to hang it on.'' Amos had no wall ; he was using the partitioned off corner of a sail loft as a lodging at the time, and Ms funds were exhausted. Save for that he was known as an indomitable worker, dauntless in. face of every difficulty, he had little to recommend him to his elder brothers of the healing profession. He had, besides, decided to give at least two years to hospital work before attempting to strike out an independent career fqr himself. Greater geniuses have been handicapped by lesser difficulties, and those which confronted Amos Knapp form the keynote of a succession of accidents and occurrences, most of them of an out-of-the-way kind, but all thrilling with wholesome human interest. The same day sees Dr Amos Knapp accepting by telegram a ballet as foreman in a small shipyard whei'3 he had worked during previous suinmeis. A few months later he b2cam.es skipper of the pleasure yacht M-eridian, owned by the father of a former classmate. The subsequent voyage is stormy, brief, and' eventful, but it gives the author a number of fine openings, of which he makes good use, for the introduction of new c-hara.c*'C<rs and incipient complications. From this point on the stcry goes fast furious. Amos is taken up j by Dr Couteau, a veteran surgeon of sfcw York. The circumstances which led to J this are connected with the accident of a , broken leg, suffered by one of the lady members of the yachting party. Amoa, incensed at Dr Couteau"s grudging acknowledgment of his services as surgeon* (jives the old veteran a line or two of }>vs mind in language of the strongest. But the ensuing friendship is listing, and the reader is quickly carried ashore and ■ introduced to the busy, battling life of a. .great New Yoik hospital. In this "great vital repair shop whose 1 doors £,r© never closed"' Amos fitids himself moie genuinely at home than even upon the hen. which lib both loved and understood. The interaction of character upon character in. the stiry proper is always deftly maintained, but there is a fascinating realism about the descriptive passages, the humorous dialogue of the out-patient department, and the inner working of tha healing institution that makes one very loth io lay down the book unfinished. The sad, sordid, and pitiful life of the slums; squalid native and alien xniseiy, embodied in forlorn derelicts, run on the bad rocks of ill chanGO; all pass in rapid review. To get these "off soundings" again, and fairly afloat on the blue water of life, was a labour that gave Amos greater scops than captaining coasters. Now, in rare intervals of leisure he becmic initiated in the ways of society, its vices and virtues, and jjrew to be a figure in the circles oq-.

o.i-ionallr giacecl liy liis pigsoiicc. The c'cmeit of love ia dVng is too huin.uilj csscptial to be ignoit 1 ]ifcs pu'se^ Lvat iiM. or.d here tho love interest, if subsidiary, lends o. chnrr.'.ng glamonr to a talc vlikli end — tragically 1 had almn-i Aviiil^n. I'-ough ih.it is just a shade too strong a teun. Hovr, fs a ies>ilt of the giadufil incr.i! clett-Hjioticn of his, brilliant fellow siu.c'.cnt, Douglas Ellswoith, Anior-i gsts diivrii to the verge of ins'inky ; nnd how, at tha end, wo fir.d him «.trugglinjv back into iife and health, with tlTs tp&k hcfoie him of re-eslablisliing Jus fair )jam» in face of a suspicion of having tried to murder hit, fn<jnd, had l: C? fc bo learnt at iL^fc hand from the book it sdf.