Penny Black discovered during the Hollow Man reading

The discovery of the missing Penny Black cover in Milo Motion’s copy of The Hollow Man transformed a planned Bloodhounds reading into an apparent locked-room puzzle. The cover appeared at the precise moment the group reached the book’s famous locked-room chapter, linking the theft to advance knowledge of the meeting and of Milo’s announced choice of reading.

Background and Preparation

At the previous meeting, Milo had told the Bloodhounds that he would read the locked-room chapter from The Hollow Man at their next gathering. That announcement meant those present already knew he would bring the book and open it at chapter seventeen. The discovery therefore pointed toward someone with access to that advance information, although it did not by itself identify who had used it.

Milo’s book was the first English edition, published by Hamish Hamilton in 1935, and lacked its dust wrapper. Sid Towers also brought a copy of the same novel, apparently so he could follow the text; Milo described Sid as a quiet authority on Dickson Carr. The two copies made the shared reading a natural explanation for Sid’s book, while Milo’s prior announcement made his own volume the expected focus of the meeting.

The Discovery

The missing Penny Black cover was found in Milo’s copy at precisely the chapter he was about to read aloud. The timing made the book more than a container for the stolen item: its position within the text echoed the subject under discussion, so that the reading itself seemed to stage a mystery for the group.

John Wigfull presented the incident as both a theft and a stunt, arguing that it required inside information. In his account, the cover’s appearance at the locked-room chapter supplied the performance’s theatrical centre: the group encountered a real concealed object at the moment a fictional locked room was about to be read aloud. The event heightened the puzzle without revealing the perpetrator.

The Locked-Room Puzzle

Wigfull connected the discovery to the claim that The Hollow Man had been aboard Milo’s boat all week and that the boat had been kept locked. Milo had told investigators that it was secured by a bolt inside at the prow and an external padlock. Wigfull displayed a sturdy-looking padlock and said he had interviewed Milo at length after Milo came to the police at once; he had concluded that Milo was not the person they were seeking.

The arrangement created a closed circle of possible planners: anyone who had attended the previous meeting could have known which book Milo would bring and where he would open it, provided they could find a way to place the cover there. The discovery thus shifted attention from the mere presence of the Penny Black cover to the advance planning and access the trick required. It offered the Bloodhounds’ literary subject in material form, while leaving the central question of who had planted the cover unresolved.