30 MAY 1903, Page 22

The Duke Decides. By Headon Hill. (Cassell and Co. 6s.)

—Charles Hanbury, a young aristocrat who has so misused his opportunities that he has become a clerk in a New York dry-goods store, allies himself with a gang of thieves, and when he has com- mitted himself hears of his succession to a dukedom. That is the situation with which Mr. Headon Hill opens his story. He works

it out with much skill through a breathless succession of critical situations, attacks and defences, plots and counterplots. He has a practised band in these matters ; but he has never done better, we think, than in the surprise which he contrives as to the real identity of Clinton Ziegler. General Sadgrove and his man Azimoolah ought also to be mentioned as specially good among many well-drawn figures.