The Kopje Garrison. By G. Manville Fenn. (W. and R.
Chambers. 5a)—Mr. Manville Fenn tells us the story of how a few companies hold a kopje for weeks against a cunning and not over-scrupulous foe. There are sallies, surprises, underground adventures, night attacks on laagers, and some very pretty fighting. All this is related with our author's customary attention to detail and the most copious dialogue. The dialogue is excellent. Mr. Penn's always is, and as he rarely seems at a loss for incidents, and creates them in the most natural fashion possible, boys will read The Kopje Garrison with great enjoyment. Not the least charm of Mr. Penn's stories are the characters; he really does take some trouble to distinguish his characters one from another, and it is this strong personal element in his stories of adventure which make them so readable. We get the seamy side of this fight- ing in the jealousies of the officers; all this is a necessary shade to the picture, but far too much is made of Roby's accusation of cowardice. Limited as the scene is to a few acres of rocky ground; so spirited is Mr. Penn's dialogue, and so vivid and truthful is his description of the events of "the siege and sallies, that we do not notice it. The Kopje Garrison is one of the very few good stories of the present war we have yet seen.
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