Page 411 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue IX, 1 September 1900, Page 411

SPLENDID NEW NOVEL

BY A BRILLIANT AUTHOR. We have pleasure in giving a few particulars of a striking- NEW WORK which we have secured from the pen of Mr WILLIAM LE QUEUX, Author of “Purple and Fine Linen,** “Scribes and Pharisees,” “Whoso FindBth a Wife,” "The Day of Temptation,** "If Sinners Entice Thee,” “Of Royal Blood.” “England’s Peril,” etc., etc. IT IS ENTITLED L. ..HITE RAIMENT Mil) THE OPENING CHAPTERS WILL APPEAR IN OUR COLUMNS NEXT WEEK. Mr William Le Queux is now recognised on all hands as one of the most brilliant and powerful of living novelists. His remarkable abilities and unusually wide experience have brought him—as was inevitable—to the forefront, and he has few rivals in popularity with the fiction reading public. Probably the secret of his great hold on public favour is to be found in the: cosmopolitan character of his knowledge, and the strong imaginative sympathy which enables him to invest with reality and dramatic interest widely differing phases of life. He is at home in every country of Europe, and his mind can enter into the varying ambitions, tragedies, and hopes which characterise the various grades of society. When It is added that he possesses, in a marked degree, the power of conveying to his readers a haunting yet delicious sense of mystery; that he constructs his plots with amazing cleverness; and that his stories are full of human feeling and vibrant with human passion, it will be agreed that his right to the reputation he enjoys is based on qualities which have always won, and will always win success and fame for the serial writer. OUTLINE OF OPENING CHAPTERS. The story is told by Dr. Colkirk, a specialist who has distinguished himself whilst comparatively young. It is ths record of a series of extraordinary adventures which befel him; awesome adventures, quite inexplicable for a long time. It is, indeed, a marvellous tale that he relates, and the reader finds himself baffled again and again by the bewildering catalogue of mysteries which crowd upon his mind. In the opening chapters Dr. Colkirk tells of his being called away suddenly one morning to a dying lady. When he reaches the house her father makes an astounding proposal. He says there are important private reasons why she should marry before dying, and he promises Colkirk, who at the time is very poor, a fee of if- he will consent to marry her within an hour. After a sharp struggle with himself the doctor consents, and the two are married by Archbishop’s license, she signing herself as Beryl Wynd. Then the old gentleman informs Colkirk there Is one more condition to be fulfilled before the money can be his. The bride must die before sunset! Stung into rage by this horrible suggestion; the young doctor has a fierce altercation with the old man, but the latter is immovable, and refuses to let Colkirk go til! the woman Is dead and her husband has signed the proper certificate. During the Quarrel the man enters who had given away the bride, and he engages in pleasant conversation with the doctor. Meanwhile old Wynd escapes to his daughter’s room. Screams are soon heard and Colkirk rushes upstairs to find himself confronted with a pistol at the bedroom door. He overcomes Wynd, and bursts Open the door, to find his wife dead —murdered! Soon he feels himself lapsing into unconsciousness. He has been poisoned by a cigarette given him by the stranger downstairs. When he awakes, Colkirk is In a Bailors cabin on board a cargo ship out at sea. He can get no satisfactory explanation from the captain, and the help of the consul at the first port of call, Christiana, is unavailing. When he gets back to London he discovers that the captain had acted in good faith, and that the latter of Instructions from the shipowners was an ingenious forgery. Evidently some arch-conspirators are at work. Colkirk resumes his practice, and Is one morning startled to receive a request from a lady in Mayfair to cal! on her. She makes a pretence of nervous breakdown, but at last confesses her pretence was a ruse to get him to call. She has motives of her own. Just as he Is about.to leave a girl of 20 rushes Into the room, and is introduced as Feo Ashwlcke. She Is his wife of an hour, whom he had thought dead. READ IN WHITE RAIMENT Bv „ WILLIAM LE QUEUX. THE OPENING CHAPTERS WILL APPEAR IN OUR COLUMNS NEXT WEEK.