The Job Lot Mystery

This mystery begins when a professor buys a job lot, at a local Auction house. Job lots are boxes under tables in the auction houses, generally filled with odds and ends, ornaments, lamps, books, etc. Among his job lot, there was a book, that had a message of help scrawled on one of the pages. It was on his mind for a period, his thoughts were it could be genuine. Or could it be an old man's imagination? So with trepidation, he decided to take it to his local police station, for their thoughts on the matter.