Evening star., 1935-03-24

agreeable, to appeal to her husbands
sister Hannah for help. Then one
night when father and son were to-
gether in the dark shadows of the
parkland, where they had no right to
be, a shot rang out, then a second
shot and the elder Bishop was finally
caught. Not long after, the keeper
was found dead in a ditch and Luke
was suspected. In spite of these
events, The Poacher" is not a mystery
story, though it has many of the ele-
ments of suspense and terror which
characterize the type. 1t is the story
of the life of Luke Bishop, his work
at the Valley Farm, his love for Lily
Thompson, their marriage and their
children, who were ashamed of their
fathers shady past. At the end of
the World War Luke was over so and
a grandfather, and his legs were stiff
when he got up in the morning, and
then he was caught and sent to prison
for a dead rabbit which he hadn't
killed. 1t was the supreme irony Of
his life, for there had been many times
in his younger days when he could
justly have been put in cell. Mr.
Bates draws character with skill and
describes the country in all seasons
with even more skill.
FUGITIVE. BY Louise Redfleld
Peattie. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-
Merrill Co.
p ACKETY America. not her favorite
quiet Provence, is the scene of
this last novel of Mrs. Peattie An
unnamed woman, desperate, rides and
rides on street car, haggard and un-
seeing, until the car reaches the end
of the line. Then she walks along a
weedy path and comes to a gaunt,
mansarded house standing alone on
the edge of the country, the last house
in the city, it must be, she thinks A
card in the window says rooms" she
rings. and takes room, next to that
Of Alexander, revolutionary lecturer
in a night school. Returning from
his classes, where, afterward during
the dancing, he has seen fresh and
pretty Rose Abbott and has almost
frantically begged her to marry him,
Alexander finds that the mysterious
woman in the room next his has
swallowed the contents of bottle
of laudanum. It is rather hard on
Alexander, when his mind is full Of
Rose, to be obliged to work half the
night to resuscitate "hysterical rich
woman come to kill herself over her
artist lover" This Identification is
the doctors hazard. Mrs. Peattie de-
velops her tragic tale of desperation,
involving Zoe, Alexander and Rose,
with mature skill, avoiding melodrama
in treatment, though the situation
makes it seem almost inevitable.
HOMESTEAD. BY Dale Eunson. New
York: Farrar & Rinehart.
IN THE early 1900's John Thurman
= and his wife Anna took up a
homestead In Montana, in the heart
of the cattle country. Their assets
were not large-a son, a horse, a
plow and few necessary household
utensils-but they had hope and a
large amount Of inexperience, or they
would not have gone to Antelope
Spring. This is the story. told with
good local color and truth to reality
by Mr.. Eunson of their discovery and
struggle with difficulties which they
had never taken into account when
they casually decided to 60 West.
Storms. floods. droughts, blights came
In the natural order Of things, for
Nature is not tender of the farmer.
To these were added the hatred of
the cattlemen, who did not want the
country brought under cultivation,
and did not stop with mere hatred,
but stampeded Aelds and murdered