f-appointed task
triumphantly. To drop metaphor, here is a temperate and clearly-written
history, midway between the technical and the popular, of a kind
precisely suited to the plain man who wishes a comprehensive _resume_
of the course of the War at sea. For this purpose its arrangement is
admirable, the story being presented first in a general survey under
dates, then in special chapters devoted to episodes or aspects, e.g.,
Coronel and the Falklands (that unmatchable drama of disaster and
revenge), the submarines and their countering, and finally Jutland.
Throughout, as I have said, Sir HENRY, having one of the best stories
in the world to tell, is at pains to avoid anything that even remotely
approaches fine writing. Only once have I even detected the literary
man, when, in describing the strange finish of the _Koenigsberg_,
he permits himself the pleasure of calling it "the sea fight in the
forest." For the rest, the "strength and splendour" of England's
greatest naval war are left to make their own impression. I shall be
astonished if such a book, having figured brilliantly as a present
this Christmas, is not treasured for generations as a work of family
reference in hundreds of British homes.

* * *

The name of Mrs. BELLOC LOWNDES on the outside would alone have made me
open _From the Vasty Deep_ (HUTCHINSON) with a pleasant anticipation of
creepiness, even without the generous measure of bogies depicted on the
coloured wrapper. Having now read the story, I am bound to add (and
I can only hope that Mrs. LOWNDES will take my admission for the
compliment that it really is) that the net result has been one of slight
disappointment. Briefly, I continue to prefer the writer as a criminal,
rather than a psychic, "Fat Boy." After all, once grant your ghost and
anyone can conjure it, with appropriate circumstance, at the proper
moments. Wyndfell Hall was full enough of ghosts, all ready to appear at
the voluntary or involuntary instance of a young lady named _Bubbles_,
who was one of the Christmas house-party and the owner of a rather
uncomfortable gift of spook-raising. But beyond making themselves an
occasional nuisance to the guests I couldn't find that the phantoms did
anything practical to help along such plot as there was. Even the quite
palpable fact that the host was at least a double murderer came to
proof by the ordinary process of law rather than by any supernatural
revelation. Before th