This story is partly a farcical romance of the adventures of the last English Inn-keeper, when all Western Europe had been conquered by the Moslem Empire and its dogma of abstinence from wine. It might well be called 'What Might Have Been,' for it was sketched out before the legend of the Invincible Turk was broken. It involves a narrative development which is also something of a challenge in ethics. The lyrics called 'Songs of the Simple Life,' which appeared in _The New Witness_, are sung between the Inn-keeper and his friend, the Irish Captain, who are the principal characters in the romance. THE WAY OF THESE WOMEN By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM, Author of 'The Missing Delora.' In this story Mr. Phillips Oppenheim, who is never content to remain in the same rut for long, has boldly deserted the somewhat complicated mechanism which goes to the making of the modern romance. He has contented himself with weaving a tensely written story around one Event, and concentrating the whole love interest of the book upon two people. The Event in itself is one simple enough, its use in fiction almost hackneyed, yet the circumstances surrounding it are so tragical and surprising, its hidden history so unexpected, that it easily serves as the pivot of an interest arresting from the first, startling in its latter stages, almost breathless in its last development. A CROOKED MILE By OLIVER ONIONS, Author of 'The Two Kisses.' This is a story of a very modern marriage following the author's previous story, _The Two Kisses_, of a very modern courtship. In it two _ménages_ are contrasted, the one run on new and liberal and enlightened lines, the other still dominated by the ideas of the benighted past. What the difference between them comes to in the end depends entirely on the interpretation put upon the story, but the comedy 'note' speaks for itself. It may be remembered that _The Two Kisses_ touches on the foibles of certain artists. _A Crooked Mile_ deals with the vagaries of a certain airy amateurism in Imperial Politics. THE SEA CAPTAIN By H. C. BAILEY, Author of 'The Lonely Queen.' One of the great company of Elizabethan seamen is the hero of this novel. There is, however, no attempt at glorifying him or his comrades. Mr. Bailey has endeavoured to mingle realism with the romance of the time. Captain Rymingtowne is presented as no crusader but something of a merchant, something of an adventurer and a little of a pirate. He has nothing to do with the familiar tales of the Spanish Main and the Indies. His voyages were to the Mediterranean when the Moorish corsairs were at the height of their power, and of them and their great leaders, Kheyr-éd-din Barbarossa and Dragut Reis, the story has much to tell. Captain Rymingtowne was concerned in the famous Moorish raid to capture the most beautiful woman in Europe and in the amazing affair of the Christian prisoners at Alexandria. FIREMEN HOT