New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-03
MYSTERIES md MOTORS.
Tales of Crime. Intrigue, LoUe and
Automobiles.


Automobiles.
THE LONG ARM. BY Samuel N. Gardenhire.
Mirn eight fulI page Illustrations. limo. PIP. si5.
THE WEIGHT OF THE CROWN. By F. NJ.
White 12mo. PIP. sls. r.. F. Fenno 6 co.
s1 fouh MksT By RTeckenEidgs Ellis With
pp. Sl5 Moffatt. Yard & Co.
BABY JULIET: THE BUBBLE OF DESTINY.
tTations 1sSo nm 9ss WIN four fu page Illus
the deus ex machina in Mr. Gardenhire's
novel The Silence of Mrs Harold" was a GER
tain semi-mysterious young man. half artist and
half amateur detective. who succeeded in un-
tanEling the entirely mysterious complications
that involved most OF the other leading charac-
ters In the present volume Mr. Gardenhire pre-
sents this Mr.. LIE Droit Corners as the prime
mover In eight short detective stories OF the
fashion set by Conan Doyle These adventures
of his are presumably intended to antedate the
period covered by the novel. and to illustrate
the methods by which he had trained himself
Tor that larger undertaking. Quite in the man
ner Of Sherlock Holmes. Mr. Conner is accom-
panied by the supposed relator of the Incidents.
q person perfectly useless as an assistant how
ever convenient he may prove suppositi-
tious Boswell. Mr.. Corners does not attribute
his success-and, Of course. he is invariably
cessful-in unravelling the tangled skeins Of cir
cumstance so much to deductive reasoning-al-
though he does not disdain TO use it--as TO an
Inherent power of intuition. The incidents Sc
lected arc sufficiently various. and some of them
exhibit high degree OF constructive ingenuity
yet only in the first one. "A Brother of the
Heart is the suspense sustained With cumu-
lative effect UP to the very last moment. Some
OF the devices employed are crude and others
"a fnO rAfry N1raI,r Co.
The author has made the mistake not of putting
his best foot forward. but Of arranging his
stories in order OF excellence. He would have
shown better Judgment If he had reserved his
second hest story for the last AS IL IS one
closes the book with the impression that Mr..
Gardenhire has worked his literary claim down
to bed rock-and included little Of the rock.
THE Weight Of the Crown is story Of so
many mysterious complications that even the
author gets tangled up in the web OF his own
continuing and tmagines that OF his char
acters has knowledge Of circumstances of which
she could not possibly have had cognizance.
The plot turns on the remarkable resemblance
between a. Bond-st shop girl and the adopted
daughter of the British Secretary Of State for
Foreign Affairs. The former impersonates the
latter at important diplomatic reception,
while the released heiress undertakes to secure
of which would involve her lover in inextricable
disgrace. The dissolute King OF a Balkan State
is involved in the intrigue. and is successfully
impersonated by his cousin long enough TO
straighten out the political difficulties in the
kingdom, and thus TO thwart an international
conspiracy. Altogether the author seems TO
have borrowed his ideas impartially from 1.-THE
Masquerader'' and 1.-The Prisoner Of Zenda," and
not without measure of success. Extravasant
as the story is. events follow fast and furt-
ous the action mostly taking place in a single
night that the reader is whirled along almost
breathlessy to the denouement. Russian spies.
of both sexes, for time exert a baleful influence
over the characters Of more heroic cast. but all
ends merrily with marriage bells The volume
abounds in typogra phical plumbers. not the least
of which is the announcement on the title page
that the book is illustrated" whereas the most
careful examination fails to reveal a single
picture fact in itself however. not necessarily
to be regretted.
There is mystery a-plenty. but with a very
different setting in Mr.. Ellis's novel, "Storks
Nest" It is a story of primitive rural Missouri
life, strong in it's character drawing end charm
ing in many of its incidents. 1t would, indeed
have been even stronger without the clement Of
mystery and some Of its crude backwoods ex-
pedients. The hero is a town-bred' boy who
ers twin brothers named StOrk. for the benefit
of the out-of-door life and exercise. He at once
Is attracted by an untaught but ambitious, naive
and beautiful girl in the neighborhood, whose
manners and lack of education repel him as
much as her natural grace and charm of char
acter draw him to her The spark Of love is
famed into flame when he finds himself regard
ed as a rival by one of his employers, virile,
brutal enig1natical and, in way. fascinating
Individual How the story works out to a salts
factory conclusion. who and what is the odd
countryside ghost that stalks menacingly
through the pages is the authors secret, and
is TO be revealed only by him. Emmy, with her
longing and efforts to become "a person." is as
delightful and provoking little heroine as has
appeared in some time.
Not mystery. but motor misadventure is the
theme of Mr. Osbourne's story. Baby Bullet"
is an antique impossible automobile. won in
rattle and thrust by its dsgusted owner on two
unprotected American women taking a pedes-
trian tour through England. How the Baby"
brought both trouble and romance into the lives
of the heroine and her chaDerOn is told with
considerable humor. Though not overlong for
a novel, it is rather spun out for yarn, such as
il merely is-a sort of extended short story
and it would have been if not more amusing, at
least more satisfying If told in a more con-
densed form.