s the bowels of the earth for a new and
terrible setting. Here the heroine, a beautiful Chinese girl, is discovered
by the hero, a missionary, in the cinnabar caverns of Hang Yiu, where the
workers have never seen the light of day, are mostly blind and spend the
intervals of labour in opium sleep. I like this yarn and recommend it to
the attention of anybody who feels that marital squabbles are beginning to
pall.

* * * * *

An excellent purpose will have been served by _German Spies at Bay_
(HUTCHINSON) if it is carefully digested by those scaremongers who during
the War insisted that spies were as plentiful as sparrows in Great Britain.
Mr. FELSTEAD tells us the truth, and, though it may offer too little of
sensationalism for some tastes, it is very comforting to read. The fact is
that the spies of the enemy were pounced upon so promptly and had such a
harrowing time that both their quantity and quality gradually sank to
something very like zero. It is no exaggeration to say that most of the
miserable creatures who came spying to this country never had a dog's
chance from the word "Go." One cannot waste one's sympathy upon those who
for mercenary motives consented to be spies, but I am glad that Mr.
FELSTEAD pleads on behalf of such men as CARL LODY. "Some day," he writes,
"when the nations of the world grow more sensible, there will be two
methods of treating spies. Those who can prove patriotism as the inspiring
motive will be dealt with as prisoners of war; the hirelings will be
condemned to the death they richly deserve." The rules, as they stand,
decreed that LODY had to be shot, but, if he could have received the
treatment which brave men have a right to demand all the world over, I do
not believe that even the most rabid Germanophobe would in his heart have
been sorry.

* * * * *

_Mountain Memories_ (CASSELL) must, if honestly named, concern itself to a
certain extent with mountains, but even those of us who have never felt the
smallest wish to climb can read it with great pleasure. For although Sir
MARTIN CONWAY does mention some of his mountaineering feats this book is
concerned primarily with the spirit rather than with the body. "A
Pilgrimage of Romance" is its sub-title, and, though there can't be many
Pilgrims who have done better climbing, I doubt if any more difficult feat
stands to his credit than this of putting these impressions of the