THE FOUR ARMOURERS. By Francis Heeding. (Hodder and Stoughton. 75.
Cidd—Only the other day an eminent. chemist was expatiating upon the invisible chemical rays whereby "in the next war" (if any) whole populations will. be exterminated. He then went on, alas ! to plead that- the dyestuffs industry and research work should be by alt means encouraged so that Great Britain should be more powerful against the Day than other Great Powers. By the side of this pitiful exhibition of pre-1914 mentality—or at least that of the world before the League of Nations and the' Kellogg Pact—let us place the central figure of Mr. Francis. Beeding's latest "thriller." Colonel Hawing, an American• and a giant among armament manufacturers, has seen the light. He is determined to atone for his life's work of destruction. by securing the secret of a similar overwhelmingly powerful gas invented by a Spanish chemist and transfernng it to the custody of the League of Nations at the Council's Session: in Madrid. First, however, he has to meet the challenge of the four armourers," and incidentally to satisfy the elegant, money-loving Dona Concepcion Sancho y Moraima, who is the possessor of the formula. He is aided in his battle of wits by the ever-resourceful Granby, of the British Secret Service, and the egregious John Baxter, of the League of Nations Secretariat, whose precis-writing function collieca. a bad second to his role in the conspiracy. The scene is Spain, with barely any local colour ; the recipe is the usual one. It is a straightforward political thriller, however, without the element of burlesque which lends a special distinction to the author's previous volumes. Oh, and why is the spelling Zaragossa found throughout ?
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