2 DECEMBER 1893, Page 11

Prisoner among Pirates. By David Ker. (W. and R. Chambers.)

—The pirates of this tale are the Tunisian corsairs ; and our hero and his friends are captured by the Bey in the days of the Com- monwealth. The narrative of the voyages and the fights at seas aro full of spirit ; but the most readable, and certainly the most amusing, part of the whole book is the life of the Steels at the Bey's Court. The husband becomes a shipbuilder, the wife the doctor of the harem, and the son the magician, all by a series of lucky accidents. The difficulty of keeping well in the favour of the capricious potentate leads to many an anxious moment, which test the resource of the sailors to the utmost. It is a capital story, and yet not so distinctive in character as Mr. Kees previous work led us to expect.