28 OCTOBER 1893, Page 25

The Gun - Runner. By Bertram Mitford. (Chatto and Windus.) —This "tale

of Zululand" would have been, we cannot but think, more effective if it had been compressed into smaller space. Some things, which it would have sufficed to indicate, are pictured in a detail which certainly every reader will not enjoy. Still, it is a spirited story ; the motive is striking, and the course of inci- dents skilfully contrived. A "gun-runner," every one may not know, is a White trader who supplies native tribes with rifles,— a business which does not make him a favourite with his fellow - countrymen. Mr. Mitford has, it is clear, a pretty strong sympathy with the Zulus, who are contrasted, not a little to their advantage, with their white enemies. The "gun-runner," who has, besides, great private wrongs to avenge, enjoys some- thing of the favour which outlaws, buccaneers, smugglers, and other revolters against society can command, at least in the realms of fiction.