I.
From the Editor of "The Globe Fiction Magazine" to Aubrey Aston, Esq.
May 5th.
Dear Mr. Aston,—We are extremely sorry that we cannot see our way to using Red Shadows. The idea is an excellent one, if a trifle improbable. But you must be aware that West Africa has been worse handled by fiction-writers than any other locality, and we are afraid we dare not risk publishing a story in which the writer has drawn on his imagination for local colour, however vivid that imagination may be. The West African expert at our office assures us that Red Shadows contains some inaccuracies which would be bound to spring to the eye of any reader who had been near the West Coast. We cannot imperil the reputation of a magazine so widely circulated as ours, and we feel that in returning the MS. we are in some degree safeguarding your own. Thanking you for the many excellent stories you have let us have,
Yours very truly,
J. W. Ingleby, Editor.
II.
Aubrey Aston to the Editor.
Laburnam Rise, Hornsey.
May 8th.
Dear Mr. Editor,—Thanks for your note. I cannot help feeling that you were to some extent influenced by your knowledge of the fact that I had never been near the West Coast. I hope, however, to visit the White Man's Grave shortly and will possibly let you have some stuff from the spot.
Yours,
A. A.
III.
The Same to the Same.
From Sherbro, Sierra Leone.
June, 18th.