THE WHITE DACOIT

This is Berkely Mather's strongest story -- for a more modern John Masters audience and taking place in the India he knows so well -- some of which has certainly not been touched by human feet. Wyndham, stationed there with the British Army where he has gambled his way out of his inheritance, briefly becomes an armed dacoit (a dacoit is a robber and you will need the thoughtful glossary appended) conducting predatory raids with a Khan and later picking up the chit when tried and sentenced. He is sent to the Andamans (one of those Devil's Island outposts for the legions of the damned) where he is to be kept ""out of sight, out of mind."" But help from an unexpected source -- a man called Richards who is a distant cousin -- enables him to escape to Madras with the faithful native Somari who attends him with savvy and devotion. Finally they reach Mysore where he thinks of starting a new life with Julia -- Julia with whom he falls in love -- Julia who dies in childbirth so that Wyndham makes his last strike -- the hold-up of the monthly gold train -- to secure the future of their son. . . . An adventure story with lots of physical endurance and a formidable, fascinating terrain -- pukka, pukka, pukka.