Locked in a Blazing Room.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 4 (Supplement)

Locked in a Blazing Room.

On Boxing Day, he and his wife were busy from morning until night, and consequently they afterwards treated themselves to a holiday, returning to their shop a few minutes after midnight. The man living above heard them come in, and then dropped off to sleep again, only soon to be awakened once more, this time by intermittent groans from below. After enduring this for about an hour, he got up to see what was the matter, whereupon he noticed that there was smoke in the room. Rushing to the window, he threw it up, and leaned out to get a view of his landlord's window beneath. A fierce glow shone through the blind. The Millsteins' bedroom was on fire! In response to his cries, the police hurried to the scene, and immediately entered the shop, the door of which was unfastened. Rushing through, they reached the Millsteins' bedroom, and there paused momentarily, for the door was locked—with the key in the lock outside! In a twinkling they turned the key and flung the door open, and there, on the floor, surrounded by flames rapidly stretching out to the walls, lay the bodies of the eating-house proprietor and his wife. If the murderers had left any clues, they were gone in the fire, the police drawing a blank everywhere, and to this day no further light has been shed on the double crime. Another Christmastide murder is also shrouded in mystery. One stormy ni«ht two boys reached Lambridge House? a lonely dwelling not far from Henley-on-Thames, about the usual time, with the intention of sleeping there. As there w-as no answer when they knocked at the door, they thought that Miss Dungay, the housekeeper, was out, and consequently they went to the back of the premises, and crept into the well-house for shelter till she returned. House of Hidden Secrets. After waiting for nearly two hours without seeing or hearing anything of Miss Dungay, the boys returned home and told their father, who set off with them and a neighbour for Lambrid-re House. Knocking having again proved futile, they examined the exterior of the premises. The doors were locked on the nisule, and all the windows were fastened except the one to the sittingroom Of this the bottom sash was th'rr.',*.? P - rty CntereCl thß ho »*e through the opening For a time they saw nothing unusual; but eventually they found indications .L\.... s 7 m the passa S e leadin _ to the front door, as well as a thick stick, broken in the porch. At the rear about thirty yards from the house, they came across the body of the house--keeper. Further discoveries there were practically none. If both doors were locked iv a x c nu "' deler enter the house Did he get through the sitting-room window, and, if 80 , did both he and his