Evening star., 1925-05-03

gentleman of leisure really is the
story-and it's good story. All the
rest-the lovely girl Portuguese
Silver" himself, the excited but timid
populace, are, in effect, but the stage
and properties for the entrances and
exits of Lewis Defuniac, master OF
"Ariadne," and master, too, of the
arts of pursuit when the quarry is
big enough to engage his attention
something of international spread
and import.
A VOICE FROM THE DARK. BY
Eden Phillpotts, author of Red
cliff, etc. New York: The MacA1il-
Ian Company.
A STORY from Eden Phillpotts on
any theme whatever carries with
1t the assurance of good work. \
conscience for reasonable treatment
possesses this writer together with
4 clear Instinct for the quality and
form of drama. Here you will find,
unfailingly, devotion TO effects that
are rooted in cause-not plucked al
random out of the air; you will find
too sense of cumulative movement.
an instinct for the coherent quality
of human character, a feeling for tho
right atmosphere to support and sus-
In hand this full equipment is as
much in evidence as when Mr.. PHIL
potts Is writing realism about his
native Devon, about the homely peo-
pie that Devon and the sea have
made. 1t is a child's voice, that
Voice From the Dark" and fear is
It's burden. 1t is upon the ready fears
of childhood, capable OF torture and
finally of death itself, that this story
Of crime grows out of the lust for
money and the doing away with all
that interveneS between this object
and the one bent upon it's achieve
ment. No hit-ormiss mystery tale.
this. A deep and gruesome story. il
is true but one that is at all points
buttressed either by reason itself or
by the unreason that now and then
captures the human in his quest of
money and place.
u x x
CROSS TRAILS. BY Harold Bindloss.
author of Carson of Red River"
etc New York: Frederick A
Stokes Co.
TO send his thirty-ninth novel off in
step with the moment. Harold
BindloSS makes sturdy addition to
his already serviceable stock of ad-
venture. Bootlegging is a vital enter
prise, capable of about every sort of
violent or ingenious response to every
sort Of demand. In this particular
case it adds kidnapping and imprison-
ment. and the sharp hazards of escaps
to the more common Bindloss eX-
actions of shipwreck and wild border
fights and struggles with Northern
frosts and snow and fierce animalI
and lawless men. Not a minute runG
to waste here. Every one has its spe,
nfa
who are conducting this momentous
enterprise of helping each other out III
greatly demanding world. This is
really the fresh point in the new Bind
loss story-thiS friendship of two
young men for each other. In many
ways yielding the clearest essence of
all friendship-that which exists be
! tween two men. Unlike enough for
each to find in the other the compile
ment of himself-one serious, the
other gay; one ambitious, the other
satisfied; one determined. the other
yielding-they, together, get a fuller
meaning out of their joint lives and.
incidentally. permit the author to
| make one of the best of his many por-
trayals of lusty youth in conflict with
wild life in open and relatively law
free regions.
THE MUMMY MOVES. BY Mary
Gaunt, author of THE Uncounted
Cost" etc. New York: Edward j.
Clode.
IT may have been the Tut-ankh- Amen
incident that turned the mind Of
the novelist over to the native side
of the matter, to picture of the in
evitable affront to deep racial beliefs
and sanctities aroused by this eXplora
ton of science. An easy step then to
crystaliZe this feeling of outrage into
an oriental vendetta pursuing the
European who had acquired a mummy
to add to his store of antiquities. The
mystery hinges upon the taking off of
this antiquarian and TO the near-eXists
of one and another into whose pos
session the object in turn comes.
Rather grueSome than really mySteri-
Gus, this succession of events. Rather
the lavish piling up of odds and ends
of wferd stuff than the logical follow
ing cut of the authentic clue. A story
that needs wedding and pruning and a
more careful nurture of the few
healthy stalks left after this treat
ment.