23 JULY 1904, Page 21

A Weaver of Webs. By John Oxenham. (Methuen and Co.

6s.)—This novel is frankly melodrama, and as such is not unreadable. The hero is a young Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Vienna, and he is, as heroes should be, a very much more important person than Second Secretaries are wont to be. The evil genius of the story is an apparently respectable gentle- man, who performs the rile of Cerberus, being three people rolled into one. He is ostensibly a Count, but in his leisure moments he is alternately a wicked Pasha and a brigand, whose performances would not disgrace Raisuli himself. The story is concerned with the undoing of this person by the before- mentioned Second Secretary, and it need hardly be said that after many adventures this young man finally compasses his end.