20–16344
A tale of the sea. Cap’n Walter Taylor is a fisherman in Newfoundland waters, but becomes a fugitive as the result of breaking some of the fishing regulations. He takes refuge in the Magdalen Islands and there finds Madeline Boucher, with whom he speedily falls in love. But Jacques Beauport, his hereditary enemy, as his father before him had hated him, has been on the field first, and considers Madeline engaged to him. He seeks Taylor out to return him to justice, but Taylor has no idea of tamely submitting to this, and the chase grows exciting before its finish. Finally a decision of the Hague tribunal puts Taylor in the right, but not before Beauport has lost his life in his spiteful attempt to make Taylor suffer. The story is full of descriptions of fishing and sailing in the turbulent northern waters.
WHITE, STEWART EDWARD. Killer. il *$1.75 (1c) Doubleday
20–9477
“The killer,” which opens this collection, is a story of novelette length. It is a story of the old West with a central character whose malignity and propensity for killing extends even to birds and insects. He never kills men, but has only to nod to one of his Mexican servitors and the desired deed is accomplished. How a reckless young cowboy took a dare and asked for a night’s lodging at his ranch and what followed form the substance of the story. Two shorter tales, The road agent and The tide, come next and the remainder of the book is taken up with three descriptive essays reminiscent of Mr White’s earlier work in “The forest.” The titles are: Climbing for goats; Moisture, a trace; The ranch.
Booklist 16:351 Jl ’20
“‘The killer,’ the first story in Stewart Edward White’s new book, is crammed with action, exciting, unexpected, mysterious; in the last story, ‘The ranch,’ nothing happens at all and yet the chances are that you will read them both with interest and joy. The moral of which of course is that the important thing about a tale is the way you tell it.”
+ Ind 104:66 O 9 ’20 150w
“The essays in the volume are entirely delightful.”