Evening star., 1938-08-17
NEW BOOKS AT
RANDOM
By MARGARET GERMOND.

4 ~
Hallet. Boston: Houghton Mifiin Co.
After reading the tales Of adventure
which make up this photographed
record Of the life Of q wanderer one is
inclined to play with the idea of cal
culating whether the world or the au-
thor has done the most rolling since
Richard Hallet's Unsuitable hankering
for adventure turned his genius for 60
ing places into a race. In 1912 he
shipped out of Erie Basin in Brooklyn
on British barque for Australia,
jumped ship there and worked as a
sheep shearer, stone breaker and bound
ary rider the following year.
In company with Frank Hyde, one Of
those extraordinary soldiers of fortune
whose fantastic appearance and esca-
padeS are unbelievable, he made his way
across the continent hobo fashion, living
mostly on rabbit. and finally managed
to get himself and his companion out of
Australia by signing up as stokehands
in the hold of q London-bound mail
liner. Hyde, by the way. shows up as q
museum piece of tattooing. The ques-
tion-mark Gibson girl adorned one
shoulder. Across his middle marched
an elephant. A palm tree decorated his
back and forearm displayed q Japa-
neSe geiSha in q wine glass. In addi-
ton to his passion for this colorful en-
belliShment of his body, he possessed a
gift of rare understatement of the truth.
After this venture. Hallet spent a bit
of time writing in London, but finding
that occupation neither exciting nor
financially successful he beat his way
across the Atlantic to America and
went hoboing again in search of ad-
venture and local color-this time in
a sheep car. In 1914 he worked as cop
per miner in Arizona and then went to
Canada. When life became dull and
time dragged bit he turned back to
the writing of short stories, for which
he had good market.
The great war was bound to intrigue
him and he entered the Army supply
transport service and qualified as deck
officer on the transport Westland, car
rying horses to Europe. A Shipping
Board vessel claimed him next for voy-
age as useless as the ship was unsea-
worthy. Its cargo of locomotives docked
in France just when the terms Of the
armistice required that Germany hand
over 5000 locomotives.
A few other adventures that make
these "reminiscences as vivid and thrill
ing as the fictional tales that have come
from the authors pen are descriptions
of a thousand-mile journey down a
treacherous river in homemade boat, a
cruise with the United States Navy
bound for war games at Honolulu and
an odd variety of near-disastrous expert
enceS which are dear to the heart of
every vagabond.
When the author parts with Frank
Hyde the reader wonders if that is to
be the last of him-and hopes it is not.
The hope is fulfilled, but it would be a
poor review that gave $way a secret.
The note on the back of the attractive
Jacket cover states that "all his life Dick
Hallet has sought adventure - and
he has seldom failed to find it. His
autobiography is one-way ticket to
the islands of romance" Well. so 1t is.
But there is every reason to believe that
Mr. Hallet has not allowed too close an
adherence to facts stand in the way OF
a good story.
MIDNIGHT SAILING. BY Lawrence
G. Blochman. New York: Harcourt,
Brace 4 Co.
Glen Larkin, enjoying a vacation in
San Francisco before sailing for Japan
to cover the present conflict in Asia for
yanked out of a comfortable state of
drunkenness and plunged into cold So
briefly by his chief when that all-seeing.
all-hearing gentleman learns that the
daughter of notorious silk manufac-
turer is skipping the country on the
Japanese freighter Kumo-maru.
The activities OF P. G.. Bonner, whose
fortune had supposedly been made in
silk, had been the subject of an investi-
CATION by the United States Senate.
The millionaire had lived in Japan for
the most of his life and his children
were more at home in the Far East than
in America. Bonners accusers called
him a Japanese agent, and there was
evidence of diplomatic skulduggery.
After the investigation the silk man was
found dead in circumstances that indi-
Gated suicide, but the police were not
too willing to let it rest at that-and now
Dorothy Bonner, believed to be as deep
ly involved in the queer business as her
father, is sneaking out Of America.
While giving Larkin an outline Of the
case, the chief of the Seven Seas News
paper Alliance helps that young man to
get his belongings packed and gets him
on board the Kumo-maru just before
midnight His immediate assignment is
to get the inside story from Dorothy
Bonner for exclusive publication by S. S.
N. A. newspapers.
Earkin almost Immediately makes the
acquaintance of the heiress and is quick
ly convinced through the queer behavior
mate, that international intrigue il
rife. Other questionable characters or
board the freighter are George vii.
loughby of Valparaiso, William Cutie
of New York City, Mrs. Millicent Greeve
of Panama, T. Shima of Callao, Y
Izumo of Guayaquil, Jeremy Hood o1
San Francisco, Charles Frayle, fiance
of Dorothy Bonner, and Arthur Bonner,
her brother.
Personal papers are stolen" from Lar
kin and he is later taken into the con-
f1dence of Dorothy, who gives into his
keeping papers purported to be a secret
steel agreement, but which turn out tt
be navy secrets. A man on board l.
murdered and stupid detective en-
ployed by an insurance corporation un-
dertakes to solve the murder. Larkin
seeks information by radio from his
chief and learns that both his messages
and the replies TO them are deliberately
tampered with. In the midst of the
excitement caused by the murder the
ships doctor is stabbed to death.
Things become so tangled that Larkin