GIFT-BOOKS.
TALES OF ADVENTURE.*
IN spite of the war, large numbers of excellent volumes of boys' stories are being produced by the publishers. Though there are numerous school stories and historical romances, the pure story of adventure is perhaps the favourite form taken by fiction of this sort, with the sea, more often than not, as a background. Of the books before us, only one can be described as topical, and even it was evidently written before the war broke out. The Sea-Girt Fortress' tells the story of two young yachtsmen, an Englishman and an American, who, after losing their bearings completely in a North Sea fog, suddenly find themselves among the defences of Heligoland. They are promptly arrested as spies and given a long sentence of imprisonment by the Governor of the island, who also, to avoid complications, sets their ketch adrift in the North Sea so that some accident may be presumed to account for their dis- appearance. The ingenious heroes contrive, however, to escape from their prison, and make a thorough investigation of the fortress with its amazing secrets, which include a series of vast subterranean Zeppelin sheds. Unluckily, after an exciting pursuit they are recaptured, but eventually one of them clambers on to a disabled airship and is driven by the gale across the sea to England. Meanwhile an enterprising journalist has discovered the secret of their imprisonment, and England and the United States send Germany an ultimatum demanding their release. The last part of the book, which describes the consequent war and Germany's defeat, naturally falls a little flat at the present time; but the earlier chapters are, if not wholly credible, based with sufficient accuracy upon the actual facts of the German armaments to make them more than a mere succession of thrills.—Warfare of a very different sort forms the theme of Gunboat and Gunrunner,' which carries us from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf. The author of this stirring tale evidently writes with a first-hand experience of gun-running exploits such as he describes. There is little formal plot, but rather a series of vividly written accounts of the adventures of the commander of a little gunboat whose business it is to suppress the noxious trade that supplies rifles to the frontier tribes of India. Among the episodes is a desperate struggle on board an Arab
• (1) The Sea-Girt Fortress. By Percy F. Westerman. London : Blackie and Son. (3a. 6d.]—(2) Gunboat and Gunrunner. By Fleet-Surgeon T. T. Jeans, R.N. Same publishers. 16s.]—(3) The New-Chums. By Joseph Bowes. London : Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton. [5s. (4) A Fight for Fortune. By T. C. Bridges. London : James Nisbet and Co. [3s. Cd.J- CS) The Boy Castaways. By Lieutenant-Commander Taprell Dolling. B.N. London: Blackie and Son. [5a.] —(6) A Sturdy Young Canadian. By
Captain F. 0. Brereton. Same publishers and price.
dhow, on which the hero finds himself isolated with only three companions, and the siege of a telegraph station by hordes of Afghans, which forms the climax of the book ; nor must we forget to mention a poisoned bracelet in the shape of a snake which can only be removed from the arm it encircles at the cost of the lives of the wearer and of the thief. come good character-drawing helps to enliven the story—Mr. Scarlett, the partly Arab gunner, is a most original person—and alto- gether, in spite of a somewhat unnecessary, though luckily very slight, love interest, we can heartily recommend it.
The scene of The New-Chums' is laid in the Northern Terri- tory of Australia, at a period before that country had been thoroughly explored. Two boys are shipwrecked upon its rocky shores, and after narrow escapes from drowning fall in with one of the aboriginal tribes. The savages, though alarmed by some of the products of civilization (such as a looking-glass) which the boys have saved from the wreck, receive them as friends, and allow them to take part in the tribal life. Accordingly they are initiated into the Australian methods of hunting and fighting, and encounter many perils, including such things as crocodiles and pythons. In the course of these they come upon another tribe, ruled over by a medicine man who turns out to be a shipwrecked Irishman. At last, after some gold-digging experiences, they are all taken off by a passing ship. The whole story is most entertaining, and will give its readers many enthralling moments.—A pearl fishery in the China Seas serves as the background of A Fight for Fortune' Stirring adventures with pirates and giant cuttlefish enliven its pages; and the story culminates in the hero, who is undergoing torture by the Chinese pirates, being rescued by his chum in an aeroplane. Boys will revel in the unending chain of excitement here provided for them.—The Boy Castaways' is another tale of the China Seas. The story is of a rather more conventional sort, though it is full of incidents, involving a desert island, buried treasure, pirates (from whom the heroes are saved by a friendly China- man), and a fight with an octopus.—The last book upon our list, A Sturdy Young Canadian,' is of a somewhat different character from the rest. Although a shipwreck is an important feature of the tale, the greater part of the events described takes place on the American Continent. We suspect that the author has at the back of his mind the purpose of encouraging his young readers to emigrate to Canada; and this probably accounts for an emphasis upon commercial success and money-making which is rather unusual in a book of this kind. Nevertheless, there is a plentiful supply of adventures of a lighter sort—among others being a struggle with a bandit, and the snowing up of a freight-train on which the hero is serving as fireman.
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