Despite the rather lurid title this is quite a fair tale. Edgar Laird is traveling by rail from Edinburgh to London.On the way,he gets into conversation with a mysterious young lady,a Lillah Ashcroft. In the course of the journey she drops a coded message which include the words 'The Black Three'. On arriving home he happens to read a newspaper report about the murder of a young man by an unidentified method. In his pocket was found the identical coded message that was dropped on the train by Miss Ashcroft. Laird,who is attracted to the girl,sets out to discover the mystery behind the message.
A rather beautiful illustration on the front cover. Many present-day illustrators could learn from the clean lines of this one I think. ( )