* * *

In an author's note to _Moon of Israel_ (MURRAY) Sir H. RIDER HAGGARD
tells us that his book "suggests that the real Pharaoh of the Exodus
was not Meneptah or Merenptah, son of Rameses the Great, but the
mysterious usurper, Amenmeses ..." I am not a student of Egyptology,
and in this little matter of AMENMESES am perfectly content to trust
myself to Sir RIDER, and, provided that he tells a good tale, to
follow him wherever he chooses to lead the way. And this story, put
into the mouth of _Ana_, the scribe, is packed with mystery and magic
and miracles and murder. For fear, however, that this may sound a
little too exhausting for your taste, let me add that the main theme
is the love of the _Crown Prince of Egypt_ for the Israelite, _Lady
Merapi, Moon of Israel_. Sir RIDER'S hand has lost none of its
cunning, and, though his dialogue occasionally provokes a smile when
one feels that seriousness is demanded, he is here as successful as
ever in creating or, at any rate, in reproducing atmosphere. I hope,
when you read this tale of the Pharaohs, that you will not find that
your memory of the Book of Exodus is as faded as I found mine to be.

* * * * *

Mr. CHRISTOPHER CULLEY, whom you may remember for a bustling, rather
cinematic story called _Naomi of the Mountains_, has now followed this
with another, considerably better. _Lily of the Alley_ (CASSELL) is,
in spite of a title of which I cannot too strongly disapprove, as
successful a piece of work of its own kind as anyone need wish for,
showing the author to have made a notable advance in his art. Again
the setting is Wild West, on the Mexican border, the theme of the tale
being the outrages inflicted upon American citizens by VILLA, and what
seemed then the bewildering delay of Washington over the vindication
of the flag. The "Alley" of its unfortunate name is the slum in Kansas
City where _Dave_, stranded on his way westward, met the girl to whom
the laws of fiction were inevitably to join him. I fancy that one of
Mr. CULLEY'S difficulties may have lain in the fact that, when the
tale, following _Dave_, had finally shaken itself from the dust of
cities, the need for feminine society was conspicuously less urgent.
Even after a rescued and refreshed _Lily_ is brought up-country,
she is kept, so to speak, as long as possible at the base, and
only arrives on the actual scene of _Dave's_ activities in time to
be bustl