DRUMS OF FATE. By Arthur E. .SOuthoii. (Sheldon Press. 7s.
6(1.)-Missionary enterprise should- offer. good scope for fiction. Yet missionary stories are usually senti- mental tracts, in which art is sacrificed to propaganda. Mr. Sciuthon, howeyer, is a born storyAeller. His moral never obtrudes itielf, because hi is intensely interested, for its own iiike, in the excellent tale which he tells in terse and vigorous proSe. The daughter of white parent's in West Africa is stolen in infancy by natives, and,..hrought up in the belief that she is the child of Africa's most powerful god, she be- comes, by-reason of her greater intelligence,. more pagan than the pagans. But, while environment makes her a savage queen, heredity awakens in her when she falls under the influence of the white missionary whom ultimately she marries. R is a dramatic conflict betareengods, as Well as an exciting loVe story, that Mr. Soutlion gives us ; and-the Weit African background, with its tribal customs and fetish- worship, sketched in from intimate knowledge.
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