ory to a friendly trader in the south seas. There
is plenty of life and of action in the tale, and there are also some
delightful descriptions of the Pacific and of the wonderful glamour
lagoons and palm trees throw over the spirit of the man who learns to
know and to love the beautiful South Sea islands.

_The Ebb Tide_, originally published in Mr Jerome K. Jerome's magazine
_To-day_ from November 1893 to February 1894, was republished in book
form by Mr W. Heinemann in 1894. Like _Treasure Island_ it is a tale
without a heroine, almost, indeed, without the mention of a woman except
Attwater's statuesque native servant and the shadowy personalities of
Herrick's mother and fiancee in London, and Captain Davis's wife and his
little girl, who died before she got the doll he had so carefully bought
for her, and the memory of whom is the one soft spot in his dark soul.
They are merely mentioned, however, and take no actual part in the
story. It is not a pleasant tale, everyone in it is more or less bad;
more by preference rather than less!--and for no one in it can one feel
the slightest sympathy. There are villains and villains in fiction, and
for some of them, for instance, Bret Harte's Jack Hamlin, or even the
Master himself in _The Master of Ballantrae_, one can feel a sincere
affection or at least have a grudging sort of admiration, but it is not
possible to even faintly like or hesitatingly pity a cowardly Robert
Herrick, whose self-pity is so strong, and who from first to last is, as
his creator intended him to be, a thorough inefficient. Half-hearted in
his wickedness, self-saving in his repentance, he somehow fails to
interest one; and even his lower-class associates, the horrible Huish
and the American captain, are almost less detestable. Huish is quite
diabolical, but he, at least, has the courage of his iniquities.
Attwater is not attractive either as villain or as religious enthusiast,
but he is a fairly possible character and at least a degree less
unpleasant than the American captain after his conversion. Captain
Davis's effort to save Herrick's soul, given in the last paragraph of
the book, is disagreeably profane in its familiarity with things sacred.
Altogether it is not an attractive book, although it is an undoubtedly
clever one; it has some redeeming features in the really lovely
descriptions of the island and the lagoon; and the appearance of the
divers in full working costume remind one of Mr Stevenson