first edition
1915 · Philadelphia
by FREEMAN, R. Austin (novel); TAYLOR, H. Weston (illustrations)
Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1915. First American Edition. First Printing. Octavo (20.25cm); navy blue cloth, with titling and pictorial elements stamped in gilt, black, and yellow on spine and front cover; 382,[2]pp, with frontispiece and three plates of illustrations by H. Weston Taylor. Forward lean, modest wear to spine ends and extremities, with a tasteful art deco bookplate to front pastedown; contents clean; Very Good only, lacking the scarce dustjacket. "An early example of the body that is discovered and then vanishes when help comes. Told in the first person by Dr. Jardine, whose life is attempted for what he unsuspectingly knows, who weaves his own romance out of murder and other machinations and who is loved and guarded by the villain's wife. She dies in saving him, and all ends well, after an orgy of complexity in which Thorndyke, Polton, and Jervis work like beavers" (BARZUN & TAYLOR 900). HUBIN, p.157. (Inventory #: 53448)