Evening star., 1925-09-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

1t is common knowledge among book
men that many indubitably. great
works are dull; that often book less
favored by the critics offers more en-
tertainment than one unconscionably
puffed
During the past year have run on
to two volumes of This good sort, and
am 50 well plea sed with them that l
propose to tell the readers of this col
umn about them. Those who make re
viewing books the business of their
lives may look askance. We will Jet
them.
These interesting stories are cal He'd
in this, our hectic country. Wolves of
the Sea" and Missing Men" CASTOR
Leroux Is the author and the Macau-
lay 60. of New York the publisher
They were published I'm England under
the better titles of The Floating
Prison" and "Cheri-Bibi and Cecilys"
although an even better title for the
second book would be ''The Return of
Cheri- -Bibi." the subtitle to the Ameri-
can edition. +
The. influence of the movies In this
country Is easily seen in the above Ii
ties. THE Floating Prison" would not
do at all. Pep 1t up!' some one said
with the result that we have Wolves
than Missing Men" at that.
These stories of adventure we
might as we'll admit impossible but
pla ausible adventure - some way or
other remind one of Dumas the elder
A certain touch there is in them that
recalls the incompatible narrator Of
The Three Musketeers," ''Chicot the
lester" The Black Tulip" The
Count of Monte Cristo" and those
scores of other tales in which the
master got more action with conver-
sation than any other man who ever
wrote adventure stories.
Let those who will. then. Sneer at
Wolves of the Sea" and Missing
Men dismissing them. forSooth be
cause they are mere adventure sto-
ries." At that rate some of the great.
est stories in the world would have to
be discarded.
There is one thing that ! can guar
antee TO every reader who dips into
those two books, and that is that
he will be interested. Some will he
Mortified, no doubt for there Is
enough realism about these stories
TO make part of them sruesome.
When the first of the series was
printed in Detective. Stories Maya
!,
lication protested the story as being
too horrible ! do not know
whether the editor of that estimaple
publication printed the sequel or not.
but l do not ina gine he did. The
fact remains. however. that The
Floating Prison" is the only story |
ever read In that magazine | can re-
call offhand.
Truly the adventures of the re-
doubtable Cheri Bib, criminal by
fate rather than by reason of his
own desires. offer different kind of
story than the average. I feel quite
sure that II Alexandra Dumas had
written them they would be ac-
claimed as ella ssics" and j am not
sure they will not be. at that.
wolves of the Sea- briefly. is
the story of the mutiny of convicts
aboard a French prison ship bearing
criminals to a distant isla nd. Under
the leadership of Cheri-Bibi the men
manage to seize the officers and place
them and the crew in the cells.
The way the story is worked out
by Leroux is clever. so good, indeed,
that AT one and the same time the
reader feels the reality of the thing.
while sharing with the author the
sense that it is a pretty large e.
travagapZa,. after all.
There are few books in which a
writer has better stra ddled the fence
between the impossible and the prob.
able than in these two. To one read.
er. at least. there Is more sense OF
reality in them than I'm many of
Joseph Conrad's stories.
The character of Cheri-Bibi, ls
norant. vet filed with great thoughts,
in his way is admirably worked out.
and held at a high level throughout
these Two stories. If at times the