Barbs of Grand Bayou. By John Oxenham. (Hodder and Stoughton.
6s.)—We have seen, we think, better work by Mr. Oxenham than he has given us here. This does not, however, mean that this is not good. All the earlier part is indeed excellent. But the adventures in the cavern are pitched in too high a key, so to speak, of the marvellous. The situation of the two men, the injured and the injurer, is sufficiently tragic in itself, and it might have been better to have done without the preternatural horrors which have been introduced to heighten the effect. The reader is always thrilled by a Thing (the capital letter is very effective). We are reminded of Victor Hugo's cuttlefish in " Les Travailleurs du Mer." That was not one of his best effects. Indeed, Mr. Oxenham himself says : " I am almost as sick of this loathly beast as Alain Carbonel was himself." In spite of this, Barbe is well worth reading.
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