before the end of this vehement story is reached.
The average tale of criminals and detectives is not apt to move
slowly, but here Mr. LESLIE HOWARD GORDON maintains the speed of a
half-mile relay race. I am not going to reveal his mystery except
to say that _Tien T'ze_ was a Chinese organisation which perpetrated
crimes, and that _Donald Craig_, _Kyrle Durand_--his secretary
(female) and cousin--and _Bruce MacIvor_, superintendent of the
Criminal Investigation Department, were employed in tracking it down
and smashing it to pieces. Never have I met anyone in fiction (let
fact alone) so clever as _Kyrle_ in getting herself and her friends
out of tight places. When _Craig_ and _MacIvor_ were so beset by _Tien
T'ze_ that their last hour seemed to have come I found myself saying,
"It is time for _Kyrle_ to emerge from her machine," and she emerged.
In a novel of this _genre_ it is essential that the excitement should
never fall below fever-heat, but Mr. GORDON'S book does better than
that; its temperature would, I think, burst any ordinary thermometer.

* * * * *

"The Vicar's Study Circle is now engaged in considering the
teaching of what is known as the 'Higher Criticism.' All
interested are invited to attend, whatever sex they may claim
to possess."

--_Parish Magazine._

The Vicar evidently possesses the open mind so necessary for
discussions of this sort.

* * * * *

[Illustration: EPILOGUE]

AS WE SEE OTHERS: A CANDID APPRECIATION OF U.S.A.

The liner _de luxe_ had swung in past Sandy Hook, and the tender had
already come alongside with its mail and Press-gang. There ensued a
furious race to interview the most distinguished passenger, and it
was by the representative of _The Democratic Elevator_, who got
there first, that the Sage, in the very act of recording the emotions
provoked by his first sky-scraper, was _aborde_.

"Mr. Punch, I guess?" said he. "Pleased to meet you, Sir. And what do
you think of the American nation?"

"Shall I tell you now," asked Mr. Punch, "or wait till I've actually
seen it?"

"Right here," said the interviewer, and drew his note-book.

"Well," began Mr. Punch, "I think a good deal of it--I mean, I think a
good deal about it. And it nearly always makes me smile. Of course you
won't understand why it nearly always makes me smile, because we
don't see fun in the same things. You don't a