A Bid for Fortune. By Guy Boothby. (Ward, Lock, and
Bowden.)—Mr. Boothby has certainly given us a marvellously lively story ; ani in Dr. Nikola, the portentous hero of it, a man who, for resource and diablerie, can only be described as a com- bination of Sherlock Holmes and his enemy, the Professor, in Mr. Conan Doyle's marvellous stories. Nikola's familiar spirit, the black cat, has, indeed, a farcical look ; and the end for which he seta in active operation all his tremendous conspiracies—the securing of a Chinese stick, upon which, as a collector of curios, he has set his heart—seems ludicrously out of proportion to the means. But one forgets impossibilities in the Jules Verne rush of the story, in Nikola's marvellous marshalling of his men and preparation of the machinery for the capture of his rival, Wetherell, who is in possession of the stick ; and, above all, in the wonderful adventures of Hatteras, the sailor, whose mission it is to befriend Wetherell against Nikola, although in vain ; and to marry Miss Wetherell, with whom, of course, he falls in love at first sight. Hatteras has a capacity for knocking people down which would have satisfied Sam Weller himself ; and yet he is as clay in Nikola's hands. Hatteras's friend, particularly the young peer, and Nikola's accomplices, more especially the pseudo-" tutor," are admirable ; and the visits of nearly all the characters in the story to many lands and many teas are, without exception, admirably managed. No more remarkable or sensational book has been produced this Christmas season than A Bid for Fortune.
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