emma Se4s°—By Crosbie Ganstin; Chatto & Windus, London, Crosbie Garstin wrote his last novel just before his tragic death ty drowning. last year. "That he was s story teller of real ability Jand a romance writer with an [peal entirely his own, is evident in this tale of adventure in the Far Bast.
Shane-Gaskell, an Englishman of distinction, is captain of a merchant vessel that plies the China coast. Adventure follows him on every [journey and his fellow passeng make an interesting study. From Singapore he recognizes an old ac-[quaintance, the notorious Olga Vollberg, late' of Foochow. Widowed ity the Great War, Mrs. Vollberr thas returned to familiar haunts: Jeke out an existence; Tamesy Mac-'Arle, pig-king and mystery man is abroad; he has slipped in and out of Chinese ports where there are "heap plenty sodjers" and wholesale massacre afoot; Paul Isidore of London, Guy Willhayes, taipan of Hongkong, anda Chinese, Wing. Yulan, the wealthiest woman in Indo-China, are other passengers. 'A storm at sea brings them together and Captain Gaskell finds himself attracted and involved with the Chinese woman, Returning to Hongkong he finds Esther Rhame, an English woman who had been engaged to marry him when he left home nineteen years Jago, but who was persuaded by a mercenary mother to marry a wealthier man; now widowed and possessing great charm, Gaskell finds himself again in love and [dreaming of the homeland, On- a second voyage the res! identity of MacArdle is disclosed by Mrs, Vollberg, who, unnerved by the part she is playing in the bandit raids, dies trying to save Gnskell's T|ship. The ship is blown to bits, before MacArdle can escape, Recovering from wounds in a Saigon hospital, Gaskell makes plans to marry Esther and return to Eng-Iand, bat he finds that his nineteen years in the Far East has bound him irrevocably to the country and to Wing Vu-lan. Ho finds himself reaming as he realizes his position:
table set for tea under the big, cedar. A bank of rhododendrons with crimson flowers, and in the distance the Medway' sliding down to Rochester—fading fast. fading
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.