12 FEBRUARY 1927, Page 20

Basil Netherby by the late A. C. Benson (Hutchinson, 6s.),

consists of two ghost stories, of which the first is the best, though a reading of either is calculated to make us dart down an unlighted passage feeling the teeth of an unseen hell-hound ready to snap at our heels. Basil Netherby was a musician who became possessed by the -spirit of a dissolute squire. From a timid creature he became cheerful, vigorous and a composer of marvellous but wicked music. The spring of music rose clear and strong within him, and with the fountain he mingled the subtle venom of that corrupted mind that battened on his consciousness. In the end poor Basil was strangely mangled " by the ghost, but saved his soul, and we come to the end with a sense of relief that he is safely dead.

* * * *