Books: Reactionary Old Fogy

FULL CARGO (369 pp.)—Wilbur Daniel Sfeele—Doubleday ($3.95).

Most modern short story writers like to keep their tales within easy commuting distance of everyday life. Not so, Wilbur Daniel Steele, 65, who rejoices in being a reactionary and flavorful old fogy. Like Conrad and Maugham, he prefers to clamp a character in the vise of a strange situation, watch him wriggle toward nobility, degradation, or death. At his best, Author Steele can stir a jigger of irony, a dash of adventure, a sprig of the exotic and a pinch of mystery into a tippling good...