Mystery Tale Related in Tsingtao: Mother Who Vanished in Vienna From Out Halcwow Conessroxoenr We sat at our Tsingtao breakfast table. The fine view of the harbour was completely obscured by the heavy fog that covered the entire water front and erept into the hotels along the Bund, making even rheic interiors murky and damp. There were four of us: the Great-
War Veteran, the Sinologue with his bulging brow, my wife and I.
The tenseness of the last few days had worn away. Not even a decent rumour could get a start on such a morning and we brightened up when the Veteran announced that this was a fit setting for the mystery story he had promised us the day before. He emphasized that some details were exceed Smportant to remember, but that others of comparative triviality had been forgotten, He proposed to relate certain facts and leave the solution for a later meeting. He The exact date I do not recall but that is unimportant—eall ft 1897, or whatever was the date of the opening of the great Vienna Exhibition, a kind of World's Fair. Two ladies, an Englishwoman and her daughter Jet us call them Mrs. Johnstone and Dotty, people of means and refine ment,' "had made an unbroken Journey from England to Vienna and had arrived just in time for the opening of the Great Exhibition, hey reached their hotel early in the afternoon and Miss Dotty swears to thin day that she and her mother stood at the desk together that her mother first registered her name, Mrs, A. N. Johnstone in her Junge' flowing" hand and that she, Dotty, signed directly beneath. hat her mother was assigned to oom 68 and Dotty to room 56 ad-Joining, As might have been expected, the mother was somewhat fatigued {from her long journey, complained fof a severe headache and weariness, and when Dotty propered that, she should take a little exercise insisted "on her daughter" going out alone and leaving her to try to get a good Jong nap. Dotty brushed off her outer dust and in a few minutes Passed her mother's door, tapping it with a finger and calling "I'm gone, Mother." On reaching stairway Dotty remembers that she was prompted to go back a moment to seo if her mother needed anything, but thinking that by flits time she might be already asleep, tripped on downstairs and out into the entrancing city, Naturally for one so young and vivacious the time sped rapidly by and Dotty remembered with a pang that she had been away from her mother in a strange hotel for all of a long afternoon. Tt was dusk. when she returned and knocked at oer No, 68, but getting no answer, proceeded to her own room, thinking it best to let her mother sleep it off. On her way down to dinner she again tapped at her mother's] ly: door but still receiving no reply, 1 wont down to the gorgeous dining oom where for another hour she gave herself over to complete enjoy-mont. At 8.30 she went upstairs determinedly and knocked strongly' fon her mother's door, calling but receiving no response, Becoming uneasy she called the chambermaid and asked that the latter stowed open the door with her duplicate key. The maid looked curiously at Dotty and soked why she wanted the door opened and Dotty replied rather impatient. Jy that she wanted to got in to see! a lady, her mother. "But Miss, there is no Indy in that room," replied the maid, Dotty stopped suddenly, looked up} the number ver the door, wrinkled hor pretty brows snd insisted that it was No, 58 and no other, whew had been assigned her mether and repeated the same stutement emphatically to a floor clerk that happened to be passing by. This clerk listened attentively and said kindly that he would do what hho could to straighten the matter out and asked the maid where the elderly woman had. been located. To Dotty's surprise the maid replied that there had" been no other woman: that this young lady had come in early in the afternoon, alone, and had been assigned to Room 56. Furthermore there had been no other woman on that floor tie whole afternoon.
Dotty thought for a moment and began to wonder if her mother, who was somewhat temperamental had become dissatisfied with this room and had asked for a change. To this the clerk replied that there would certainly be a ¥ecord in the offic downstairs and invited Dotty to accompany him there, The day clerk had gone off duty and the night clerk, she had never rud she wa' not_much sur-to hear him say that he had seen no elderly woman. Dotty reached for the hotel register with!
exclamation "Why there is her name right above. mine;" "but stopped short with a dismayed look. There was her own name, Dotty Johnstone, and opposite it the number 56 but the name above was not her mother's or of any one she bad ever heard, 'The clerks exchanged glances but ingly were politely quiet and Dotty, feeling dismayed, asked for' the manager, who soon appeared, bowing, and assuring her that he would see that she had every attention ete.
Annoyed when he insisted he. should "come into tis private office and be seated, and refused the glass of water he had, hurriedly ordered for her. He listened. with great politeness and she had the hardest work to keep herself quiet. After "hearing her! story he took up the case from the beginning. He bad the door porter called, '8 big burly chap with scarred cheek whom she at once remembered as "having taken her baggage out of the cab. But to her amazement this porter declared that she had been alone!
Most of the day force had been changed but a hall boy and another maid were found, all" of whom testified that the young Indy had as far as they had observed been alone. Feeling more and more desperate! she demanded at Inst that the room 58 be opened, so that she could see} with her own eyes. With a polite Smile the manager assured her that number 68 had just been done over' find had no furnishings in ie at all hut {€ she wished, ete. When tte door was opened at last she almost fainted." The room was perfectly bare and as the manager had said there was evidence of the paper-hanger and the plumber, their respective tools being sprawled over the room.
Dotty. Johnstone was a stronxwinded, healthy, young woman, with large experience in foreign travel never had she seen more Apparent effort to please, but. she was faced with the astounding fact that her mother had disappeared fand_woree still carrying with her all-trace even inthe memory of the hotel attendants. "Her buoyant health and self-reliance refused to allow her to. believe that she had become demented or was suffering from x delusion. Late as it was she demanded that she be taken to the British Consul.
Ske found him an elderly man, quite polite and almost fatherly in his concern. He listened. patient to her story, asked several questions of the hotel'manager and suid kindfappese you return to your for a good night's rest and come to me again in the morning."
Feeling as. if the world had roped away from beneath her feet Dotty returned to her hotel and tossed for hours on her bed, her mind avteethe, The kind-faced maid looked in shortly after mid-hight, and after a glance at Dotty's flushed and troubled fee, bathed it cold water and brought her a cooling drink, and in a few minutes She was in' a sound sleep. from Which she did not awaken till nine! next, morning.
After a hurried breakfast she was driven to the British Consulate and was at once received by the Consul himself. She noticed with dismay that the kind face she had observed the night before seemed judicially cold and hard. He gazed at her Steadily and said firmly regret to. say, my dear young' lady, that I have here most peremptory' demands from the Austrian Government that you leave the country at once. Your baggage is already packed and you will find it] atthe station, and this envelope contains your tickets for the entire Journey."
Dotty attempted to rise to her feet, but her legs crumpled
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.