SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2805, 24 June 1916, Page 6

SOME RECENT FICTION

The Ivory Child. , . . Our old. friends, Allan Quatermain ' and his faithful Hottentot servant, Hans, are once again to, the fore in Sir Eider Haggard's' latest story, "The Ivory Child" (Cassells, per. S. and W. Mackay). , The, veteran hunter • and adventurer ,is. now, shown , accompaiiying ~an English nobleman to the countiy, of the Black and the White Kcndahs, two ri.val tribes. 1 The latter worship a childgod, represented' •by an' ivory figure, whoso guardian and' oracle is a mysterious white woman,! none 'other, than the peer's wife, who lias been! kidnapped by priests of the tribe when travelling in Egypt. Tho Black Kendalls have as their god a huge and ferocious elephant, Jana.by name, which the natives credit with the possession of weirdly occult powers. Sir Rider Haggard is even more generous of exciting incident in his latest story than he waa in its immediate predecessor, "The Holy Mower," and . the final combat of tho Blacks and the Whites is; a veritable orgy of slaughter. The little yellow man, Hans, is as.humorous as ever, and the reader,, will share the. grief of Macumazana when his faithful follower is at last killed by the elephant god. So long as Sir Eider Haggard am go on writing these Allan Quar lormain yarns he can always count upon a big public of readers; Tho Shepherd of the North/ ■"The Shephei-d of the North" (Macmillan arid Co.), by Richard Aumerle Mather, author of that excellent hovel, ' The Heart' of. .a Mali," is a long and exceptionally well-written story of tho forest country on the northern or Canadian border of New York State, wliero there la a region still inhabited very largely by people : wlio only speak French, and are ns far apart in their life and habit of thought as the "habitants" of, say, the country districts of Quebec are from tho hustling Scottish type of Toronto, and further west. The hero of' Mr. Mather's story is a Eoman Catholic bishop, a New Englnndor by birth, an ex-fighting "chaplain" of the American Civil War, now an old but active man, adored by bis people, despito the fact this his French still remains elementary The plot of: the story centres round tho base attempts of a railway and mining Trust to oust the small settlers of the region, and of the part played in defending tho-farmers and their interests by: a .bright young fellow who is in love with the bishop's ward. Tho young man -is falsely'accused of murdering an tigeni o. f the Trust, and It's onlv witnesses who can save him are, the bishop, who has" heard the confession of the real criminal, but whose tongue is tied, and Jeffrey's swaatheart, who, In anothei way, is also bound to secrecy. Needless to say that in the run tho innocent man escapos, and that tho good bishop sees his ward happily nnitod to her lover. Tho'lonal colour of the otorv is decidedly picturesque and attractive Tho literary merits of tho story are munli abovo tli« of American fiction.

The Bars of Iron. , The "Bars of Iron" (Hutchinson ana Co.; per Whitcombo and. Tombs) is tho fcitlo- of a new lovo story, by Miss Ethel M. Dell, author of that- very successful novel, "The Way of an Eagle." Tho hero. Piers Evesham, heir to Sir Beverley Evesham, of Modeling Park, is a very strenuous personage. , Out. in Australia, whon a mere youth, ho kills a man in. a brawl, and all-through tho story gives evidence of - his passionate nature. When, having fallen in lovo with Averys Denys, a governess at tho local vicarage, hp discovers that sho is tho -widow of tho mail, ho had killed in Australia; there iB ii violent struggle between his lovo and ihis. sense of honour. Love wins, awl tho /pair 'marry.. When, however, later on, tho . wife- discovers' the secret, there is a domestic''storm "and a parting. But the war breaks' out/Piers, goes'to the front, and eventually ■ there- is a reconciliation, and the curtain goes down on a-scene full of promise of unbrokei. happiness for the much-tried liusband and wife. Miss Dell is a born story-teller, and herlatest effort, abandoning though" it does 1 in. scenes which verge perilously, rn mere melodrama, will" no .doubt afford unstinted delight to her special and faithful public.