Overdue. By W. Clark Russell. (Chatto and Windus. 6s.)— It
is difficult, we imagine, to construct a sea-story on the lines which are familiar when the persons and things introduced are of the laud. The usual rule is that no incident should occur which does not in a way lead up to the catastrophe or final event. Mr. Clark Russell does not bind himself by any such limitation,— witness the automatic rocket-machine and the waterspout and the schooner which it wrecks. But there is a plot, and a somewhat elaborate plot, running through the whole book. Phyllis Stanhope marries a certain Captain Mostyn, and smuggles herself on board his ship when he is bound on a treasure-hunting voyage. What followe is not quite as pleasant to read as Mr. Clark Russell's sea-stories commonly are. But we miss little of the charm of his style, or of the force of his descriptions. Here, for instance,
is the picture of the handsoine Mostyn: " Old Ocean had fallen in love with him and cherished him, and had put the floating grace of her billow into his paces, and her tropical lights into his eyes, and the magic bronze of her sunsets into his cheeks."
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