New-York tribune., 1922-06-04

land. Small. Maynard
ERE are books for summer
- reading delightfully."- loose
i classification which ! take to
include any volume light
enough 70 place no undue strain on
the slender ropes Of hammock.
Otherwise these three have little In
common which renders any odious COM
parison Of their merits happily i'm
possible.
Melville Davisson Post once put him
self on record 70 the effect that the
element in literature which makes for
Immortality is plot. 1t IL. he declared,
by virtue Of their plots that the classics
survive. He confused plot with form
"A natural mistake n one is literal
minded-but at any rate he has con-
sistently followed his own lights
throughout long literary career,
spending infinite pains IN developing
plot to the utmost limits Of ingenuity.
These Strange Schemes" OF Ran
dolph Mason" afford an interesting op-
portunity Of judging Mr.. Posts prog
rcss a. a craftsman, reading them with
an rye 10 his present product (to be
found in sny Of the current maga-
zines). This book is evidently a re-
print, for the copyright date is 1925.
How quantity the numbers chime upon
the ear-like the sound OF a bicycle
bell heard in the remote distance. In
1926 the Gibson girl was rampant in
leg o. mutton sleeves, the Spanish
American war remained 70 be fought,
W. J. Bryan Rad barely finished the
first lap Of his Presidential marathon
well. forget the rest So these
tales arc a little, just little, dated
and outmoded.
Take the central figure Of the first Of
them. Samuel Walcott Who now can
guess what is meant by his creators
statement that he was not a elubman
after the. manner Of the smart set, and
yet he was, in fact, a clubman." What
nicely Of the niceties does this con-
vey? We do not know.
Otherwise We recognize the man well
enough. He kept horses and a yacht.
II he had no motor cars II was only be-
cause they had not been invented. In
short. he was n villain, as clubmen
too often are. he committed brace
Of murders, the second being Of peeu-
liar and cold-bloodcd atrociousness.
But the penalty Of the law never fell
upon him. though he was caught red
handed. The name Of this tale is "The
Corpus Delicti." because there was
none. and his immunity was owing to
the fact that he took counsel with
Randolph Mason before he attempted
the deed OF blood.
All these collected stories have the
same motif Of rogue who goes un-
whipped Of justice By following the ad-
vice Of Randolph Mason, a sinister,
cynical, perverted genius who finds for
each some legal loophole through which
he may escape. The series affords
various glmpses Of the laws under
which we live from strange and unex-
pected angles, and the reader, curious
in such matters or fond OF mystery and
puzzles. will find the book highly sat
isfactory. II is reverse English on the
regular detective story. or character
drawing there is none save what is nee
essary to the argument, nor arc there
any graces Of style beyond rather
stiltcd precision in telling a plain tale.
The plots themselves have no unneees-
sary ornament or elaboration. They
seem rudmentary compared 10 what
Mr. Post now achieves in the same
line. And II they have any moral It
must he that when the eutthroat IS a.
contemplating crime ne would do well
to call on Randolph Mason.
English High Finance
..NTEN OF AFFAIRS" by Roland
w Pertwee, is strictly up TO the
minute in construction and properties.
Il would hardly do 10 give away the
plot; also it would take too long. The
author requires all Of his 2s5 pages
10 unfold IL. But 10 is well known
make, assembled from reliable stand
ard parts. It begins with the sure
fire device of the two Dromios, vho re-
semble each other so minutely that
even a lady who has begun filtration
with the first continues with the sec
ond for some time before she suspects
she is vamping the wrong man. And
enc Of these lads is doubly familiar to
the habitual fiction reader, having
been reared in luxury until The begin
ming ~ the book. when he IS brought