THE MILNE MYSTERY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1359, 1 October 1886, Page 2

THE MILNE MYSTERY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your ingenious speculations as to possible solutions of the mysterious affair at the Ashbnrton hotel li is set me thinking, and I agree with, yon that ths somnambulism theory is net Improbably the correct one. For that Milne was laboring under considerable anxiety of mind as to the safety of his money fa abundantly proved, first by tba extraordinary precautions taken by him before lying down to sleep, and next 'Ey hb awaking so fr.quently daring the night. Year suggestion that ha may hare arisen daring his sleep and stowed bis mousy away somewhere is therefore quite credible and its probability seems to me to be strengthened by a circumstance de‘ailed in tt e evidence bat which yott omitted to refer to in your article. It Is this: that the wind< w of tha room shieh was doted when Milne lay down was open a few inches in the morning. That be it observed, was quite dose to tba head of the bed and could not have been opened from the outside. Is it not quite likely theat (assuming the somnambulism) chat the sleeping man arising to put away bis money in a more secure plaoamistook the window for (ho sliding door of a capboard, and put his purse, as he thought, on a shelf bat really on the sill ef the window whence it fell down Into the street. If so, some early passenger may easily have appropriated it and no oaa have been any the wiser. The refolding of the coat and replacing it where it was placed In the first instance is exactly what a person acting in bis sleep won Id have done, being merely a mechanical repetition of an act performed shortly before in his waking moments, while it is precisely what a thief who h-d secured h»a booty wonld be most I think of it the more I think you ant right, and that the person who unlawfully appropriated the money, picked it" ay outside the hotel. Was any of the money in notes, and, if so, are the number* of any of them known. If so it is just possible that the mystery may yet be unravelled.—l am, etc-, One op Your Rridxks,