The Flame of Daring. By Harold Spender. ( Mills and Boon.
68.)—" 'See, there are mines! There, and there, and there! That is where they have a garrison! Here they have a cruiser in biding! There a torpedo-boat!' And to Chrysos' absolute amazement, in the course of a few minutes also had placed him in complete possession of all the intimate secrete of the Turkish Government" But wars, and among them the Balkan War of 1912, are not so simple as Mr. Spender would have us believe; young ladies in Bayswater do not hold the fates of nations in their pretty hands, nor do promising Turkish diplomats hand over secrets of State to their Greek friends with Nathan Boy's remarkable generosity. Indeed, the London scenes of The Flame of Daring are incredible and at the same time conventional. It is a different matter with the all too few chapters assigned to the cruise of the 'Demon.' When we are sailing the Aegean in a mine-layer disguised as a yacht, when we are first tricked by Turks, then captured by Greeks, and at last wrecked by one of our own mines, the unlikely becomes the romantic, and we can frankly enjoy our adventures. But Mr. Spender would be wiser for the future not to trade on our tolerance, and to plan his schemes with some little regard for probability.
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