Evening star., 1936-05-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
BY Margaret Cermond.


Bobbs-Merrill Co.
A surviving bit of ancient Rome,
thriving in an isolated village in twen-
tieth century England, Is the center OF
the mystery which Mr.. Shanks develops
by way of an archaeological discovery
that ramifies into lineal primogeniture,
the origin of "Old King Cole" mystic
religious rites and the aftermath of an
unhappy incident on a polar expedi-
ton. Not any one of these elements
would seem to bear a relationship to
the others, yet as they are here drawn
together in q modern romance they
make a lively and entertaining tale in
which the efforts of some eight or ten
people are directed toward the preven-
ton of a murder instead of toward the
identification and capture OF criminal.
When a well-to-do bachelor who is
nearing the dangerously attractive age
of forty undertakes to escape from mar
riage-intentioned young lady there is no
telling what he may be led into before
he gets over his fright and realizes
that he is, after all, free agent and
has the right to determine his own fate.
Major Philip Laver, pursued by the niece
OF his dearest friends and urged by
them to give serious thought to the ad-
vantages of marriage. goes off in his
autogiro to enjoy bit OF solitude and
to map his campaign Of resistance.
While cruising about over the country
side he sees on the downs below him
large and peculiar dark green circle
which disappears and again becomes
visible with the changing light. In
trigued by the phenomenon. he lands
his machine near what he believes to
be an edge of the circle and promptly
discovers an ancient monolith, which
bears out his surmise that the circle
probably marks the outline of earth
works of an early Roman period.
If his guess proves correct, he has
made an important find as an amateur
archeologist. He investigates the neigh
borhood and comes upon a community
that appears to have been dead for
centuries. He soon discovers, however,
that life exists in that lonely spot and
that the inhabitants, though English,
are as strange as though they were of
a different race Another guest arrives
at the home of his friends, a young
man who has returned from a polar
expedition with the spiritual light with
III nm u0dJOA 44dSdl uLCo
him over the downs, but the circle
refuses to appear. They go together
to the village, where they meet a fanatic
whom Laver has known as a chaplain
during the war, and then a beautiful,
remote young lady, whose presence in
the village comes as q distinct shock
to young Harry Penwith.
Justin Cole had years before set him.
self up as king of the community and
had ruled its people with kindly, If
autocratic authority Strangers had
never been welcomed in Temple Over
roads, but Justin and the vicar are polite
to Laver and Penwith and the former
takes them over the town and shows
them various remnants of ancient Ro-
man splendor. More convinced than
ever that his guess as to the secret
of the green circle is correct, Laver in
vites a famous archeologist to inspect
the locality with him, and meanwhile
the entire Merrion household has
reached the conclusion that the beauti-
full girl who has somehow come under
the spell Of Justin Cole is in some
sort of danger.
When the archeologiSt arrives on the
scene he knows Immediately that Lily
Harkness Is in grave danger, and that
the cause OF that danger dates back
many centuries. And against this back
ground of archaeological interest Mr..
Harkness has presented the story of q
strange community in modern England
in which the life of a beautiful girl
depends upon the wits of Major Laver
and his friends. 1t is interesting and
exciting to the last word.
ALONG NATURES TRAILS. BY Lii
liam Cox Athey. New York: Amer
ican Book Co.
For many months the Nature stories
by Lillian Cox Athey, which have ap-
peared daily in The Star, have attracted
wide interest and there has been q
growing demand that they be collected
and produced In book form for ready
use by all students and lovers of the
great out of doors. In response to this
demand, the first of series of twelve
volumes has been published and is now
available as handy guide and source
OF information concerning the trails
and the woods, the fields and the streams
and the creatures that inhabit them.
The stories were begun because the
small nephew of the author possessed
an Unsuitable thirst for knowledge about
the creatures. Most children are not
particularly concerned about the ac-
curacy or facts of bedtime story so
long as the tale is interesting and mildly
exciting. But this little fellow stipulated
that the stories of the birds and the
animals, the snakes and the insects,
the trees and the flowers must be true.
The filling of such an order for truth
required an enormous amount Of study
and research, and then it was neces-
sary to reduce into human interest
stories that could be told in language
understandable by q child the scientific
facts so laboriously acquired.
Schools throughout the country, the
All Clubs. the Scout organizations and
many smaller groups of outdoor inter-
est students have been using the ma
terial in Miss Athey's stories, and word
has been received that the book is to
be formally accepted by the All organi-
zation come time next month.
The s,ok has been edited by Edward
A. Preble, associate editor of Nature
Magazine. and illustrations in black and
white by Benson B. Moore give an effec-
tive and artistic finish to the work. It
Is quite certain that the successors in
the promised dozen will be awaited with
eagerneSs.
Only a Truce.
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