ay that he has written
a fatiguing tale. Partly I mean this as a high compliment. The
descriptions of hardships borne and physical difficulties overcome by
his hero are so vivid that they convey a sensation of actual bodily
strain in a manner that only one other living writer can equal. There
are chapters in the book that leave one aching all over. So long,
in fact, as Mr. DUNN's characters are content to do things, to climb
mountains, to ford rivers, to endure hunger and cold and weariness, I
am in close bodily sympathy with them; it is when they begin to talk
and to explain their mental states that my keenness is threatened by
another and less pleasing fatigue. It is not that the scope of the
story--a man's regeneration by love and hardship--isn't a good one:
quite the contrary. It is that I simply do not believe that human
beings, especially those that figure in this book, would ever talk
about themselves in this particular way. "In the name of our own
blood," she uttered softly, "of Love, the Future, and Victory...."
That is a random sentence from the last page, and very typical of Mr.
DUNN's dialogue. It is full of gracious qualities, thoughtful, and
throughout on a high literary level, but as a realistic transcription
of frontier talk it leaves me incredulous. Still the setting, I
repeat, is quite wonderful. You shall read the chapters that tell
of _Gail's_ ascent of Mount Lincoln, and see if they don't stir your
blood, especially where he reaches the top, alone (and therefore
unable to talk), and sees the world at his feet. You will exult in
this.

***

Mr. VICTOR BRIDGES has a very versatile pen and in most of the
twenty-one pieces of _Jetsam_ (MILLS AND BOON) which he has recovered
from the waves of monthly magazines and elsewhere there is a certain
amount of material for mirth. I do not however find him a startlingly
original humorist, whether on the river Thames, where he seems to
follow in the wake of Mr. JEROME K. JEROME, or in a Chelsea "pub,"
where his manners are reminiscent of the characters of Messrs. W.
W. JACOBS and MORTON HOWARD. Again, in the story called "The First
Marathon" (where, by the way, he states that "It is true that the word
'Marathon' was first used in connection with the old Olympian games,"
which seems a little unfair to MILTIADES), the fun mainly depends
on the use of such phrases as "Spoo-fer," "King Kod," and the
"Can't-stik-you-shun-all Club." Other stories are of the ad