FICTION.
MR. STANDFAST.*
UNDAUNTED by the perils which, according to a commonplace of criticism, beset sequels, Colonel John Buchan gives us a further instalment of the adventures of Richard Hannay, already endeared to the readers of The Thirty-nine Steps and areenmantle, and we are glad that he has disregarded the caution. The result will satisfy the most avid appetite for excitement. It is indeed a " hectic " chronicle. But though Colonel Buchan has all the old tricks in his bag, he has plenty of new ones as well. Like all his work in this genre, Air. Standfast is redeemed from melodrama and crude sensationalism by the skill of the writer, his fine eye for scenery, his love of mountains and mountaineering, his admirable command of racy Scots talk, his artistic use of the element of the supernatural, to say nothing of his grasp of the military history of the war, and his personal knowledge of operations on the Western Front. As an example of his ingenious invention, we need only mention the episode of H.annay's escape from his pursuers, after a forced landing from the air, by assuming the role of director of hostilities in a cinema battle during the tempprary absence of the film-general.
As for the story, it is enough to say that Richard Hannay, while commanding a Brigade in Flanders early in 1917, is pulled out to undertake important secret service work at home and round up the leaders of a mysterious association of pro-German spies known as the Wild Birds. In the pursuit of this aim Hannay • Mr. Standfast. By John Buchan. London : Hodder and Stoughton. as. net.] becomes a veritable Proteus. As Cornelius Brand, a South African merchant of unbenevolent neutrality, he resides for a while at a Garden City, the haunt of Pacifieists. Thence he proceeds to the Clyde, to the Highlands, and to Skye as a Soots publisher's traveller, returning to London as a private soldier, resuming his duties as a Brigadier on the Western Front, re-emerging as a Swiss porter, and winding up in command of a Division in the great battle of March, 1918. But his chief work is concerned with the unmasking and binding of a rival Proteus, generally known as Moxon Ivery, but really the Graf von Schwabing, the most dangerous and able of Defeatists, a ehameleonie, sinister, and elusive personage, who penetrates into the inmost and most exalted political and military circles, even passing himself off as the First Lord of the Admiralty and as Sir Douglas Haig. Tho great problem of his pursuers— amongst whom we find our old friends Blenkiron (the American millionaire, happily cured of his duodenal trouble), Sir Walter Bullivant, and McGillivray of Scotland Yard—is to find his weak spot ; and hero a new and romantic figure enters on the scene in -the person of Mary Lamington, whq acts as decoy, to the mingled admiration and dismay of her lover, Hannay. The true hero of the romance, however, stands outside these detective investigations. Peter Pienaar, the " Mr. Standfast " of the story, is a mighty Dutch hunter, who in middle age has joined in the Great War, won renown as a flying man, and after being brought down by a German crack, imprisoned in Germany, and interned in Switzerland, rejoins the Air Force, though badly crippled, in time to turn the tables on his conqueror and render priceless aid to the Allies in the most critical stage of the war. Peter is a simple hero, a great student of Bunyan, who singled out Mr. Standfast as his counterpart, yet in his end recalled that of Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, whom he had not hoped to emulate. His prominence lends point to the dedication of the story to " that most gallant company, the Officers and Men of the South African Infantry Brigade on the Western Front." But Colonel Buchan is equally interested in mixed characters, and in particular in the psychology of the Pacificist, a typo he deals with so fairly that one of that class, in virtue of an heroic inconsistency, is given the next best of the beaux roles after Peter. Even the villains are not denied saving graces, always excepting Ivory. Blenkiron, whose talk is always illuminating, throws a curious light on the motive which actuated Ivory in all his underground plottings. He had been involved in an odious Court scandal in Berlin ; drummed out of the Guards, out of the clubs, out of the country, he wont into exile " hating humanity, and with a heart all poison and snakes, but itching to get back," because his kind of German has not got any other home on earth. " Your German aristocracy can't consort on terms of equality with any other Upper .Ten Thousand . . . that's why when a Graf is booted out of the Fatherland, he's got to creep back somehow or be a wandering Jew for the rest of time."
A captious critic might object that Hannay is a blend of the Admirable Crichton and the blunderer ; also that he got in and out of the front line with a rapidity and ease impossible to any one but a politician and ex-Minister. But we do not care to press the point. Colonel Buchan has given us a tremendously fine run for our money. And he has shown, not for the first time, that a writer of exciting and adventurous romance can kill two birds with one stone, and appeal alike to the gentle and simple of the reading world.
READABLE NOVELS.—Diana Palls in Love. By E. Maria Albanesi. (Ward, Lock. 6s. net.)—In these days of new openings for women, the heroine of this book could surely have found a more original opening for her work than that of lady's companion ; however, her adventures in this situation will be pleasing reading to those who like a quiet type of novel.— The Education, of a Philanderer. By S. P. B. Mais. (Grant Richards. 7s. net.)—Mr. Mais's " Philanderer " is a schoolmaster, and the book is entirely concerned with his sentimental adventures. In the end he recognizes the enormous failure he has made by developing only one interest in life. The story is very able, but not particularly pleasing reading.—The Tin Soldier. By Temple Bailey. (Skeffington and Son. 6s. 9d. net.)—An American story dealing chiefly with the influences which take a young American into the ranks.—Take One at Night. By Keble Howard. (Same publishers and price.)—A series of cheerful little sketches which tend to raise the spirits of the reader. In spite of the title, they have no soporific influence
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