5 APRIL 1913, Page 29

The Red Cross Girl. By Richard Harding Davis. (Duckworth and

Co. 6s.)—This is a collection of not very noteworthy stories, redeemed by a most spirited and moving sketch called " Tho Invasion of England." In this two Oxford undergraduates and a young American, anxious to break the record in practical joking, masquerade as German soldiers and spread the alarm on the East Coast. By a singular coincidence a German invasion is actually to take place that very evening. The alarm is given by the appearance of the three mock Germans, and the mobiliza- tion of the British defences is complete and instantaneous. It is to be hoped that things would work out as well in reality as in Mr. Richard Harding Davis's sketch. Even the most unpatriotic of readers will hardly get through the account of the behaviour of the telegraph operator on the Great Eastern Railway without a lump in his throat.