The Smuggler's Secret. By Frank Barrett. (Spencer Blackett.) —Mr. Barrett
has chosen a somewhat misleading title for hie romance, for it is romance, and not a thrilling tale of blood and plunder. The plot and the groundwork of the story are made up of contraband, so to speak, but it is just as much as will throw up into relief the more ideal narrative, and the smugglers themselves are no longer active. It is difficult to say more without betraying the plot; perhaps it is not unfair to say that the secret is a young woman, as it would naturally be in a real romance. The circum- stances that are connected with this young lady are of a kind to furnish a great deal of easy material to work upon ; we do not complain of this, but there is a sufficiency of detail. The Smuggler's Secret, however, is a work of art ; the two old smugglers are weird and wicked enough to give the proper shade to the picture ; and the p'cture, notwithstanding the fault we have pointed out, is one of those truly imaginative works of art which, slight and unreal though they may be, are of real literary value.
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