Wavtano oF me Guines.—By Ben Bolt Ward Lock, London. 3/6
Mr. Ben Bolt tells a forward frontier story with a plea sant reconciliation of attractive. improbabilities that effectively, and yet of too obtrusively, introduce local colour, Mr. Bolt is fond of translating' into literal' English Pushta terms of abuse, but that is a harmless dlosynerasy which, at any rate, ives a certain amount of vigour 16 the narrative. The heroine is, of course, a blue-eyed English girl of the sixth form type, and the hero is one of those marvellous strong men to whom love making is a pure in-eident in the exciting experience of @isguising themselves and courting death in No Man's Land. Bverything comes out all right, of course, and the Miss Sahib and the Sehid disappear into the glamour of martied romance with the _ré salutations of the faithful retainer. Meanwhile, the wicked Russian lady, who surprisingly prefers the harem of a Pathan chieftain to a cabaret in very appropriate though not such an illustrative one. The story tells of the day when white men in. America were at constant warfare with the Redskins. "A white boy is Kidnapped from his parents by the Indians and brought up as one of themselves. Though his skin is, white he believes himself red, but the strain comes out when he has to face certain tribal rituals neces sitaring bodily torture which, undertaken successfully, turns a boy into Though one of the strongest, swiftest, and surest of his contem-oraries in the tribe, his flesh cries Sut against such brutality. He disgraces his foster father by his refusal and flees from the tribe to the whites among whom he takes shelter fand becomes an assistant to a blacksmith. "He is not happy in his new vocation, the whites regard him as red and he himself longs for the open air freedom to which he is ace customed. Only the deep vow has made to Sweet Medicine, the God of the Red Indians, keeps him from running away. But eventually his vow is fulfilled, he leaves the whites only to undertake another vow, which is to capture a famous wild horse, known both to reds and whites, as the White Horse. He sets! himself the task to try and win the love of a white woman After years of toll he finally eaptures the famous horse and wins honour and. distinction among his own tribe but not from his love, who at first is slow to make up her mind. All turns out well in the end, the fall of blood brings the man to the woman and white people. remembers the days of one's youth 14 feels Like emitting a blood curl Ing yell. of an Indian on the path and with knife in hand go Search of a scalp, the victim being either one's litle sister or the kitchen mop, and in both cases the result was generally disastrous. The book will certainly be enjoyed by boys, but apart from that credulous community the story is too far-fetch.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.