With autograph letter. An attractive early issue of this classic of Victorian detective fiction, further enhanced by a letter from the author to a Mr O'Donnell, writing to him from a hotel in St Ives, thanking him for an invitation and hoping to take him up on an offer to meet the editor of The Cornishman in the future. It seems highly plausible that Mr O'Donnell is the ghost hunter and prolific writer on the paranormal, Elliott O'Donnell, who lived in St Ives at that time, and would certainly not have been shy of contacting a celebrated author such as Hume if he were in the area. Hume features in an article in The Cornishman on 21st December 1905.

Early issue, 'two hundred and twenty-fifth thousand'; advertisements at front and end, one advertisment leaf loose, some browning/foxing to leaves at front and end; publisher's pictorial wrappers worn and soiled, some repair work to around spine but original printed backstrip present; together with a loose typed letter signed from Hume to a Mr O'Donnell dated 10th November 1905, both housed in a modern slip-case, reproducing the top and rear boards of the book.