AN UNEXPLAINED MYSTERY. 15 



their utter surprise, they found it so full of tobacco- 

 smoke (which the occupant of the apartments cordially 

 detested) that it was impossible even to breathe or 

 to see until the window had been unfastened and 

 opened, and the fumes gradually expelled. Then, of 

 course, a search was instituted, and the puzzled 

 investigators found on the hearth a huge heap of 

 the coarsest and strongest tobacco, upon which was 

 laid a poker, which had evidently been lately heated 

 to redness. No sign was to be found of the 

 mysterious person who had placed it there. No one 

 was in the room; no one had passed out. The 

 windows were closed and fastened, of course on the 

 inside. The chimney was far too small to admit 

 of the ascent or descent of a human being, to say 

 nothing of the fact that a fire was burning in the 

 grate. And there was not even a water-pipe by 

 means of which an accomplished gymnast might have 

 climbed up the wall. The matter was a perfect 

 puzzle. For some time the two stood talking the 

 mystery over, discussing every possible expedient by 

 which the practical joker might have obtained ad- 

 mission to the rooms, and left them again before the 

 rightful occupant could return ; and each in turn was 

 rejected as wholly impracticable. Thus half an hour 

 passed away, and again my father was accompanied 

 by his friend to the head of the staircase for a last 

 parting word. 



No sooner had the two men passed the door 

 than the same programme was exactly repeated ! The 



