The sun., 1908-12-19
NEN BooKs.

Hollow Nesed Bullets for yellow 7od,
II is disappointing thPt thee could
not have been more explanation Of The
incident related in the seventeenth chap.
ter Of MIR. H. Rider HagRards stor~, of
'The Yellow God Couple, 4 Leon Com.
pany). The facts that are made kno yn
TO uS are interesting and extraordina p
There was Major Alan Vernon see,iNR
to escape from the beautiful Af,ic4n
priesteSs who desired to marry him
Il was plainly his duty TO get away le-
cause he was engaged to a young ady
Of sterling character and infoxiblo mo al
views In England. He had already Go.
spatched to the distant coast fifty-th "a
boxes Of gold of the value Of flOO.ou
Now in the pale glow Of a moonlIt night
he had plunged into tho black waters o.
canal where the yellow god foated mon.
strously about. 1t was god TO ho afraid
Of. The moon shone on lis El.,ring.
deathly eyes, its fishlike snout and il.
huge pale teeth" Il would be difficult
not TO believe that 'the thing was horrid
and uncanny.' Alan shivsred as he be-
held II glaring at the moon.
Slowly It turned. IL Hoated at him,
In the depths he could feel its feet treadina
on him. 1t had very cold feet. He gave
himself up for dead. He thought OF
Barbara. the young lady in England.
A thought Of immediate value flashed
into his desperate mind. He fired three
times with his revolver. The yellow god
was greatly disturbed. II withdrew its
cold foot. 1t wallowed about 1t rocked
and quiz ed. 1t whirled round and
round on tho Gurfaee Of the canal. II
cried like an infant in pain. A white fluid
gusho1 from IL copiously. Had it not
boon a yellow god and IL the fancy were not
trivial wo might think Of Il as an infant
utte.ing lamentations because the three
hollow no cd bullets fred by Alan had
smashod its bottle.
Ii seems to us to be a matter for lust
complaint that the story leaves the yellow
god at this point. 1t is less than salts
factory to be told that it's white blood
gushed forth and not TO be informed as
to whether darkness sealed it's eyes.
Unquestionably it is gratifying to know
that with three hollow nosed bullets In
it's midst it was moved to take away its
cold feet. We were sorry for the priestess.
We thought her considerably more in
teresting than Barbara, who was trust
worthy rather than entertaining. 1t
was glorious to have the fifty three boxes
Of virgin gold get to the coast safely
Lord Aylward was foolish man as we'll
as a wicked finanoier. He should have
known better than to pursue Barbara
into the cannibal African country after
the fearful and plain demonstration made
by Little Bonsa the gold fetch with en-
bryonic legs. in his Office in Threadneedle
street II Jeekie. the Majors black re-
tainer, does not tickle the readers ribs
it will not be because Jeekies humor
is not robust enough. OF Jeekie's humor
further we will from motives that We
trust are oreditable to us forbear to speak
Though we cannot know how the yellow
god came out after the Major with his
thrse hollow nosed bullets had accom-
plished its perforation, il must not be
thought that the story Is distinguished
generally by its lapses or that it does
not contain a great deal. II is really
crowded with very sufficient matters
We had thought that in one of his earlier
stories Mr.. Haggard had depopulated
Africa. but this story shows that we were
mistaken. We are heartily glad of 1t.