[From the St. Louis Mirror.]
The recital of the deeds of the "Sweepers of the Sea" is a breathless one.
The romance is heightened by the realism of the technique of naval warfare, by the sureness and voluminosity of nautical knowledge.
Imaginary sea fights are told with all the particularity of real events, and at the same time the descriptions have a breezy swing that hurries the reader along to most startling catastrophes.
Much of the material is evidently worked over from actual fact into the texture of romance.
The romance is evidently modern in action, but the motives are the grand and noble motives of a mysterious and splendid antiquity. The decendants of the Incas, moved by the Inca traditions, are not at all out of harmony with modern war-ships, or with a very modern war-correspondent, who is touched up a little to heroic proportions.
The book is pleasurable all the way through, and some of the descriptive passages are specimens of first-class writing. The work bears every evidence of having been carefully done, and yet the story reels off as naturally and easily as if it were a running record of fact.
That the general public will take to the book is a safe conclusion. It is just different enough from the ordinary, romantic novel to be essentially new.
Illustrated Price, $1.50