A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2420, 8 February 1909, Page 1

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

A RAILWAY INSPECTOR’S SURPRISE.

The.disappearance of the wife of a well-known London banker recently caused considerable stir in City circles. and the police were quite unable to find any trace of the lady. Her absence lasted less than twenty-four hours, however, and had a very simple explanation. Mr Lucy tells the curious story in his letter to the “Sydney Morning Herald.” The lady had set out for tlic City early to do lier Christmas shopping, and travelled by the "tube.” She bad to wait for her train, and wandered off to the ladies’ waiting-room, which was some distance from the platform and which appeared to be little used. When she entered, the door closed upon her with a snap-catch. That was all very well. But when she came to open it she found the bolt immovable. After prolonged effort she abandoned the attempt as hopeless and took to banging the door and screaming for assistance. It was ten o’clock in the morning when she entered the place, and her watch pointed to the hour of seven when, hearing a footfall outside, she resinned her cries, and the door was opened by an inspector, who chanced to he passing by. The lady was somewhat exhausted frith her tussle with the door, carried ou for nine hours in a close atmosphere, without food. She was, however, able to express to the representative of the railway company her views about the faulty lock that was responsible for her imprisonment. The inspector was profuse in apologies, blit insistent that she had been contributory to the accident. “There is,”’ he said, “nothing easier than to open the door from the inside, if only the bolt is handled properly. If madam will allow me,. I will show «*er.” Entering, the inspector closed the door. “Now sec,” he said, placing his hand on the handle of the lock. But the machinery was immovable. Neither skill nor force would move the holt. The inspector. fresh to the task, banged tho door and shouted for help. They could hear the coming and going of the frequent trains." But no one could hear them. Hour after hour passed. The last train departed. The station was locked up. and there they remained until seven o’clock in tho morning, when the tardy charwoman, going her rounds, opened the prison door. The lady had been twenty-one hours on the wrong side, without food or drink. The inspector’s term was less severe, blit sufficient to make him avoid demonstrations of the ease, and accuracy of patent doorlocks along the line.