THE LITERARY

Southland Times, Issue 20201, 11 June 1927, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE LITERARY

ROLLEO BY

IOTA

THE TRAGEDY OF AGE.—It is not love that brings about the failure of Govett Bradier when he returns to the scenes of his triumphs in the oil fields of tropical Mexico; he is the victim of age and misplaced self-confidence, Joseph Hergesheimer more than once has seen life as an adventure in which the passing of the years robs men of their satisfaction, and leaves them disillusioned. Becoming the prey of doubts, they discover themselves to be no longer capable of the last ounce, the last brutal effort that snatches victory from the teeth of defeat. A man may plan but unless he is young and vigorous enough to control events he will find the results of his labour working to an unexpected end in which defeat has a salty flavour. This is what happens to Govett Bradier, the unscrupulous oil man who was powerful enough to make everybody. everything serve him. He met his enemies and overthrew them, bandits or rival oil exploiters, by direct action, and when malaria finally brought his activities to a stop his name was feared and respected all over the countryside. Just before he left Mexico to enjoy the calm of New York while he was recuperating, he met with Vida Corew, the wife of Presby Corew who had been placed in charge of the sea terminal, Bradier’s last great work, at Chorrcras and they fell in love with each other—Bradier the strong, brave brutal man and Vida, who had grown to hate her impeccably devoted husband with his unassailable integrity and inability to bend. It is to Vida that Bradier is proceeding when I Hergesheimer opens the first page of his latest novel “Tampico." Bradier the strong) is no longer an officer of the company, he , has retired, and in the scene of his former triumphs he comes up against an atmosphere ; entirely new to him. His first meeting with I Lentz leaves him a trifle disturbed, but the j uncertainty brooding over the scene comes 1 from curiosity, the suspicion roused by his visit, since he discloses no explanation of • it. He cannot do this because he has * returned to take Vida away from Chorreras. Before he can achieve this, however, he has discovered that all is not well at the sea terminal, and he sets out to discover the influences working against the interests of the company and his masterwork. Corew blames Bradier for having sent him to Chorreras so that the place could break him, but Bradier realises that the faults lie with Corew, $Gt with himself. The bandit chief, Melchior Royon, a picturesque devil, is being paid to harry the company’s officials, Corew especially, and Bradier, the old courage sustaining him, goes straight to the Mexican's lair to learn the truth, i He fails, but he finds enough to convince ' him that Lentz, his own successor as chief representative in the field is involved in treachery to the company. Bradier’s love affairs must wait on the crushing of this plot. Back he goes to Tampico, the old mastery in him, and he discovers everything. But Lentz, though a coward is no | fool and he is the man in control. Bradier, 1 meeting again the youthful worshipping' Teresita discovers that he is no longer in \ love with Vida, that he is incapable of returning Teresita’s love—he is too old, rhe ardour he thought he could command slips . away from him and while he can dodge Teresita’s knife when it comes leaping from her garter, he has no effective guard against Vida’s vengeful tongue, which openly charges him wfith the murder of her husband. Bradier convinced of Lentz’s guilt, ready to expose and dethrone him, is stricken again with malaria and when his foe appears before him finds to his surprise that he cannot pull the trigger of his automatic on his cringing figure. The years have robbed Bradier of more than he suspects, and he cannot achieve victory even when Right is so magnificently on his side: there is a new cunning which he cannot defeat. And so Bradier leaves ' Mexico with none of what he had come to do accomplished; he had lost Vida anti! Presby was dead; Presby' killed in the i monte and George K. Lentz successful ■ .... for a little while yet. Lentz was a public and honoured figure in Mexico, and he, Govett Bradier, was leaving like a thief. But he is glad to be alone and to realise the insignificance of men and their years among the myriads of stars and the im- ; mensity of Time. This sombre tragic idea 1 moves majestically against a background ! rioting with colour, filled with quick death | and the hot-blooded adventure of the oil- i fields, where the stakes are high and the ! rules elastic. “Tampico” is simpler in de- • sign than “Balisand” and hardly so magnificent. but it is a masterly piece of portraiture, I and Govett Bradied is a splendid, tragic I figure. “Tampico” is published by Johnathan Cape, London. THE HONEST ROGUE.—Steve Train, like lightning on the draw and superbly accurate, was a tough gentleman who had peculiar ideas about honesty, but when he was engaged by a simple old chap to take fifty thousand dollars to James Nair Cart- 1 wnght, believed to be identical with James Nair, bandit, he decides to play straight. < At once the powers of evil combine to 1 thwart him. This is the story of “Train’s . Trust” by George Owen Baxter, who has a gaudy hero for his exciting yarn. Jim Nair, the bandit, is a man dangerous to approach, but Train at the same time is pursued by an old partner peeking to double-cross him and a vengeful employer who thinks he has been deceived by this 1 debonair gun-man. Train carries his mis- 1 sion through many dangers and some brilliant gunplay and the story reaches a satis- : factory finale, but though it is exciting ( and gaudily coloured, both these qualities i pale preceptibly when one has just read “Tampico”. If you have read the Hergesheimer story, however, “Train’s Trust” will | 1 rank high as a Western adventure. It is ■ published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, my copy from the publishers. FOSTER ON CONTRACT BRIDGE.— 1 The vital difference between Auction and Contract Bridge is that in the latter game ' the declarer can only score below the line 1 the tricks he has bid. In Auction the ( main idea is to secure contract as cheaply as possible because all extra tricks count below the line; but in Contract Bridge a . bid of one limits the score to one trick in the - count for game, the over tricks scoring above the line. This changes the bidding a , great deal, because the object of the players ' is to raise the bid until it can enable the ! declaring side to go game. R. F. Foster, 1 one of the authorities on Auction has written j a useful explanatory work on Contract . Bridge, explaining the guiding principles of ■ the game and the variants Dummy-Up and 1 “Mayonnaise and Goulish.” The rules of J Contract Bridge are included in this very - useful and interesting book, an Australian 1 edition of which is published by the Corn- ■ stalk Publishing Co., my copy through - Messrs Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1

THE INNOCENT AlD.—Miss Maliy Lee was extremely fortunate, although at the time she did not think so. Engaged to Roger Mooring, rich and of a "family,” Maliy wanted to continue working until the day of her marriage and she took a position as governess in the household of Sir George Peterson, a wealthy ship-owner, whose chief anxiety seemed to be to keep his little daughter from drawing. Maliy found the post quite congenial until Paul Craddock, the secretary, tried to kiss her. Then events moved rapidly. She was accused of stealing a diamond brooch and a paper containing some of Sir George’s valu- | able memoranda on it and as sue Knew sae had done neither, MaUy and the reader be- ' come aware of something sinister behind the ' Peterson household. The diamond is found hidden in Maliy’s clothing and everything looks black, but the paper cannot be found. At this stage Maliy escapes from the house and reaches the country by secreting herself in a waiting motor-car. Pursued by Sir George’s detectives, she doubles to and fro meeting with many new people during the chase and certainly providing the reader with a generous portion of excitement. This chase leads to a conclusion that convinces Maliy of her good fortune and so ■‘Hue and Cry,” in which Patricia Wentworth has told this excellent mystery story, finishes to the satisfaction of everybody. It is a first-rate yarn, told by a writer who has already demonstrated her capacity in the “mystery” field with such novels as "The Amazing Chance” and "The Black Cabinet.” “Hue and Cry” is published by ) Hodder and Stoughton, London, whence I j comes my copy. A STRONG SILENT MAN.—Men of this ■ type are always sure-fire hero.es for any j i novelist to launch with the certainty that ' : he will not lack a gratifying audience, i Placed on one of the glamorous isles of ■ the Pacific, with an untaithiui wife to set 1 sterner lines about his mouth, Keith Frensham, last of a long line of Frenshams who . had proved themselves invaluable to Eng- j land could not help cutting a fascinating figure. But the author of “Extreme Occasion” set olf with the obvious intention of writing something more than a •pot-boiler,” with the result that his thinlipped hero had rather a precarious existence at his hands. The story opens with a description of Buialang, an island in the north-western Pacific. It branches into a tirade against the world in general, against Englishmen in particular, who “are fools enough for anything.” This serves as an I excellent opportunity for dragging in the ■ war, out of the aftermath of which, “lilylike from the dunghill of conflict arose the League of Nations.” All this of course j is working up into a suitable though seemj ingly unnecessary introduction to Buialang, • where Frensham was ordered from a Government department at Shanghai. He was ! I sent to Buialang as administrator to do the ! work of Empire repairing, as far as he i i knew the only white man on the island. ! His way with the natives was remarkable, ! and if it hadn’t been for the inevitable j flotsam of the white race which drifted I there, he showed every sign of completing his task in line style, and the fact that Lisa Moon found her way to the island with her brother was quite extraordinarily fortunate, considering that Frensham had glimpsed her only once before, and realised that this was the Extreme Occasion of which friend once warned him. Of course being a married man, he attempted to stifle his delirious thoughts of her, and ' plunged into his work with renewed energy, t his outline may sound somewhat hazy, but 1 book is like that, and one wonders whether it is part of the atmosphere Alec. Dixon set out to create. One realises, too, what a small world it is, after all, when I*°P* pop into the story at all sorts of unexpected times and in all sorts of un- I ■ expected places—especially at Buialang. Despite one’s scepticism, however, “Extreme Occasion” provides plenty of thrills and excitement, and will, no doubt, earn quite enviable interest for itself and its author. It is published by Hodder and Stoughton ■ FIREFLIES.— If I were asked to state Jn a word what was my most exciting experience in America on my last visit, I should reply: Fireflies. I had never seen a firefly , until, one hot, still, murky night in Wash- ! ington, I saw them i.ashing among the I trees beside the long lake which ends at I the beautiful Lincoln Memorial. What I could those fugitive embers be ? I wondered, I as I watch them sparkling here and there, | kindling mysteriously in the void and as ’ I mysteriously extinguishing. Later during my visit I was to sit in gardens with the miracle going on all around me, and later still, a small boy brought me a bottle with . some specimens in it, poor, dull insects, as i unlike these glowing particles as coal at i the pit’s mouth is unlike the cordial hearth. . . . The serene whiteness of the Lincoln Memorial and its sublime isolation make it the most impressive and memorable build- i j ing of its kind. In spite of its classic sever- i ity, the only structure with which I can ’ compare it, in its effect, is the Taj Mahal. ; That miracle of design is, of course, sensu- : ous, Oriental and romantic, and yet the two 1 have much in common.—E. V. Lucas, in ] “Events and Embroideries.” < £ SAWDUST.—Lady Oxford’s new book. | - “Undelivered Addresses,” was announced i for appearance with Thornton Butterworth ] tow’ards the end of May. Lady Seton is the author of a “book by i a town gardener for the town gardener,” ] entitled “My Town Garden,” which Nisbet 1 publishes. i A volume on “Communism,” by Professor < J. H. Laski, is to appear in the “Home [University Library,” published by Williams I and Norgate. The Oxford Press announces for immedi- i ate appearance the poems, English, Latin, I and Greek, of Richard Crashaw, one of the 1 seventeenth-century “Metaphysicals.” Mrs Gertrude Atherton has written j another novel, "The Immortal Marriage,” ] published by John Murray. Sir Rider Haggard’s posthumous Allan j Quatermain story, “Allan and the Ice ] Gods,” is published by Hutchinson. ( Silas K. Hocking has a story entitled j “Miss Ann’s Lodger” in the spring list of , Sampson Low. Michael Arlen’s new novel, on which he j has spent much time, was announced to < appear at the end of April. He had sev- j . eral titles in mind for it, just as there are I 5 many characters of modern society in it, I , but he eventually decided on “Young Men , ] In Love.” ’ The Hutchinsons will publish ] the novel, and they announce these further t stories by other well-known writers:—“The Allinghams,” by May Sinclair; “The Jury,” j by Eden Phillpotts; “The Ordeal of Monica t Mary,” by W. L. George; “Nine Little j Novels,” by Philip Gibbs; “The Watch Dog” i by Robert Hi'ihens. »;