New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-10-17

his religion to hate the French. And yet
strangely enough, the. parsonage from whom ms
new story, The Gentleman" takes its name IS
an Irishman, Fighting Fitz." in the service OF
tho En,neror The year is 1905 Napoleon has
completed his plans for the great Enghsh IN
vasion and impatientIy watches for his oppor-
tunfty The Channel teens with privateers
blockade runners men-of-war OF both nations
Stationed along the English coast are com
panies of French grenadiers and many OF the
inhabitants of the shore towns are more or less
openlv in league with the Emperors cause
Directing the land operations is the Gentle
man It is by this name that he is universally
known. A good deal Of mystery enshrouds him.
Some one reports having seen him riding across
the hills ct breakneck speed: another has come
upon him stretched indolently on the grass al
the top Of the cliff; he comes and goes
wherever and whenever he will, and has
miraculous faculty for evading capture Though
not technically the hero of Mr. Olivants story
tn, Gentleman is decidedly the dominating
figure in it. and for picture of reckless. bllthe
hearted gallantry must look far to find its
superior
When the game is finally over for him and
he lies mortaIlv wounded on the grass under
the stars diving with a debonair grace that
makes one ashamed of tears, it would be hard
to say whether it is he or the boy kneeling be-
side him that has taken the warmer place in
ones heart There is much to love in both.
Kit Carrvll is a wonderfully appealing lad,
sensitive as a woman yet with the fiery courage
and devotion OF hero It is with his fortunes
that the story chiefly concerns itself, from the
dav when he boards the Tremendous as mid
shpman, to the day when the great Nelson
himself accords him a word of praise. "A hand
hut w he
Nelson touch. Then he would have liked to
ole Earth contained no more for him. and he
was sure of Heaven" Mr. Ollivant's story IS
crowded with stirring incident, both by land
and sea. II is mans book From first TO
last woman figures in the narrative. These
are not scenes in which women have a place.
But in the character of Old Ding-Dong. COM
mander of the Tremendous; in the Parson:
in Piper the cripple, Nelson's Old fcretop man.
and, above all, in Kit and the Gentleman. Mr..
OTivant has given US a group of spendidly
drawn and lifelike individuals. They are sons
of battle, every one of them, and of the true
ancestral stock
Mr.. Webster's detective story, The Whisper
ing Man" fulfls all requirements. It's mystery
is most cunnngIy contrived; the action pro-
ceeds with delightful snap and go; the reader
nives neadong into blind alley after an
other. following clews that lead only into more
battling C5scurity, until at last Eureka, here is
the neatest, prettiest most obvious, yet least
suspected. solution in the world! Why of
! course says the reader; and that, the end
of a detective story means that he's satisfied.
The scene Of the tragedy is Manhattan. in a
fashionable apartment hotel. The time is mid
day The body Il Dr. Marshall is found by the
telephone girl. seated upright in his office chair.
with the nconspicuous wound OF a hypodermic
on the side of the neck. Suspicion falls
cessively almost every individual in the doc
tors intimate circle-on his assistant who had
been about to break OF the professional rela-
ton: on his wife. to whom he had been harsh;
on his son, who was madly in love with an
acceptable young lady. and On said young lady
herself. who in consultation with the doc
tor almost at the very moment of the tragedy.
A very clever but disabled actor. the Whisper
ing Man. offers his services detective, and
exhibits a positively uncanny faculty for fer
retng out valuable evidence. Yet 1t is not the
whispering Man, after all, who in the lonely
moonIit chamber of a Flatbush lodging house.
brings the real criminal TO light Why not?
The story gives u satisfying explanation.
Though some OF the most powerful novels of
the present generation have had the English
moorlands for their setting, Mr.. Trevena's story
may justly claim certain place of its
He does not see Dartmoor it's inhabitants
through borrowed lenses, but with bold, direct
vision that is eminently individual No poetic
glamour softens for him the harsh contours of
the landscape His barrymore folk, with
more than two or three exceptions, ignorant
dirty. vengeful creatures. scarcely. If at ALL
above the level Of savages in brutshness
'Furze," says the author lis destroyed by fire
but grows again; and his idea seems to be that
the wild, primitiv instincts Of man. though
they ay be forced under momentarily. will
some time crop out as relentlessly ever. The
embodiment Of this principle is Pendoggat, the
chief figure of the story. He is tyrant of the
region. a villain whose trail, from first TO last
is marked by acts of cruelty, double dealing
avarit and lust that would be aendsh were
they crude. In the end he meets with
a shocking reIrilutinn at the bands Of tu.n az