A "very good" vintage hardcover in a matching "good" original dust wrapper published by Grosset and Dunlap in 1946.
Identified by points as the "1946a-28" printing as per Carpentieri & Mular's guide to identifying printings of the Hardy Boys books. The sixth signature of the book has been mistakenly bound with the sixth signature from an earlier Hardy Boys adventure - "While the Clock Ticked" - replacing pages 155-186 with the text of that story. Binding and hinges are fairly tight, not cracked or split. Internally, there can be a little space between signatures, but there are no loose sections pages. A closed tear on the outer edge of the frontispiece, otherwise, no tears, folded or loose pages. No writing. Board corners are nice and crisp. Pages 165-170, the upper corner of the page is slightly mis-cut. The tinting on the top edge of the text block is relatively uniform, a few very light, small scuffs. Paper on front and back boards is smooth and uniform. One small dent in the bottom edge of the front board. Matching dust jacket shows losses at spine head and tail. Some light edge wear elsewhere, with light chipping at flap fold corners. Front and back designs still bright. Now protected in a removable archival sleeve. See images for complete condition details. Will ship promptly, carefully packaged. Using Carpentieri's guide, I am able to identify this copy as what he labels a "1946A-28", meaning it is the first printing of 1946 and the 28th overall printing of the title. The first printing was in 1927. This edition features the original 25 chapter text and second generation cover artwork.