Evening star., 1933-09-10


sea is for getting rid of some one" later
story is entitled Men Do Murder Their Wives"
but 1t ends with hearts, not spades. In The
Cards Send Max" Max Faber Joins the ship
at Colon and helpless innocent Mary is in
volved more deeply than ever in the puzzling
maze which her life has become. The most
dramatic story is Death Rules the Deck" in
which PopocGtepetl, the tigress, escapes from
her cage and runs amuck on the deck Per-
haps Mahomet Jamoo knows how the tigress
got out he and Max Faber, the owner have
quarreed over a game of cards. The nine
of diamonds is superstitiously feared by Capt.
OMalley, for it has always brought him bad
luck. He holds it in his hand on the night
when the Mindano strikes a submerged dere-
lct. What happens is told in the story Dis
aSter." In all the stories Mr.. Collins ccm-
bines his knowledge of the and ship life
with the fanciful influence of the cards. Ran
SONS bid for a slam is responsible for saving
his own and Marys lves-for a time-and
scattered. faded cards mark the end of the
voyage of the Mindano. The stories are all
excellent in technique.
THE FLAG Is STILL THERE. BY Neil H.
Swanson. New York: G. p. Putnams Sons.
h ELL SWANSON, who has recently written
1.-THE spirited novel of the Colonial period.
The Judas Tree" has been interested in
American history from boyhood In his fore
word he tells how, as boy a Minnesota
farm, when there snow to clear from the
path between the woodshed and the barn, the
pump needed thawng. and there were other
chores to do before night he kept on reading
in a book of American history the story of the
attack Of the British fleet on Baltimore in
the War Of 1912 and Of the writing of The
Star Spangled Banner" by Francis Scott Key.
His disappointment great because the story
Of the flag still flying was so meager He
I'D l.ko ,l.. ,l,ak
was. how many men there were, how many
warships how the Americans won. He hunted
in the school and village libraries for other
books which might tell more, but found none
The disappointment fingered. Years later he
went off to a war himself. Later still he visited
Baltimore and saw Fort McHenry and made
up his mind to find out all about that battle.
He asked questions searched old newspapers,
letters diaries. ofhcial reports and then he
wrote this historical story for boys Who like
himself may have wanted to know what hap
pened during those three days of the battle
at Fort McHenry
The plot is fictitious but most Of the episodes
are historically true. The battle at Baltimore.
he found. was really. for the period and the
war big battle. in which unframed American
militia faced British army in an open un-
trenched field and fought so well that the
British refrained from attacking the fortifica-
tions around Baltimore. BY the light of burn
ing haystacks, a British army which had
reached the of Fort McHenry in small
boats and was between the fort and the town
was driven off in midnight fight If Amer
can soldiers at Bladensburg had fought
vigorously as the Baltimore Militia, perhaps
Washington would not have been burned by
the British Sixteen -year-old Brent Van Buren
is the boy hero, who rides madly on his big
black horse Brutus, from his mothers home
in HagerstoWn, the Frederick Pike, to
Baltimore, because he has heard that the Brit
ish are there. Almost any boy will be led to
read the book if he once reads the tempting
chapter headings Here are few: How War
Came to The Pirates Nest, and Boy Kept
His Brothers Honor How Baltimore Town
Went Out to Fight in Sunday Hats and Rufled
Shirts War Is Picnic and Moonlight
Ride-and Dirty Trick Played in the Dark
"a Hunting Horn and Gallant Horse, and a
Race for Life With an Army In Which
Brent Learns That Tying Necktie May Help
to Win Battle" and How Brent Was
Caught and How a Nations Anthem Was
Born in a Restaurant"