Driftwood Spars: the stories of a man, a boy, a woman, and certain other people who strangely met upon the sea of life

Popular novel, first published in 1912. According to Wikipedia: " Percival Christopher Wren (1 November 1875 – 22 November 1941) was a British writer, mostly of adventure fiction. He is remembered best for Beau Geste, a much-filmed book of 1924 involving the French Foreign Legion in North Africa, and its main sequels, Beau Sabreur and Beau Ideal (in fact the so called "trilogy" was extended in "Good Gestes" and "Spanish Maine"... so John Geste adventures feature in five books).”