The Chinese Jar is a detective mystery by Fergus Hume. Hume was a prolific English novelist, known for his detective fiction, thrillers and mysteries. Excerpt: “After glancing at the cryptographs, Crate resumed his breakfast with a grunt of discontent, being genuinely disappointed at the success achieved by Fanks. Much as he would have liked to have disbelieved the information, he could not doubt the evidence of his own eyes. The ciphers were assuredly there, set forth in the same characters as were in the book of Poe's, shown to him by Fanks on the previous day.”