However this may be, _Mortallone_ soon attains a development quite
sufficiently original, with an island and a secret and a noble store
of buried treasure, all in doubloons and pieces of eight, which is
exactly how I prefer it. In short a capital yarn, which did but
confirm me in an old resolve that, were I ever thinking of commencing
pirate or starting any unlawful business of the seas, I should avoid
apprentices like the plague. The second part of _Mortallone and Aunt
Trinidad_ (ARROWSMITH) I found rather less satisfactory. Here a number
of tales of the Spanish Main are supposed to be told by a trio of
withered beldames whose youthful prime was spent as pirate queens. A
striking and novel approach; though my belief in it was hindered by
the discovery that these untutored crones not only spoke but wrote an
admirable, if slightly mannered, prose, akin to that of STEVENSON or,
say, Sir ARTHUR himself. But these be the carpings of age; I am sure
that no boy lucky enough to find _Mortallone_ among his Christmas
presents will leave a paragraph undevoured.
* * * * *
Dr. H. STUERMER is one of that small band of Germans who have had the
courage to denounce the policy and acts of their Government. When
the War began he joined the German army, fought in the Masurian
operations, was invalided out of the army at the beginning of 1915,
and thereupon became correspondent in Constantinople of the _Koelnische
Zeitung_, in which capacity he acted until the end of 1916, when his
too great truthfulness proved distasteful to his employers and he had
to give up his place.
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