ecret Trap Door

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

The Baron was in York, England, visiting a cousin with his fiancée, Lady Angela of Alpine Castle. Cousin Peter of Kentford was a favored family member and the Baron and Lady Angela liked to visit his estate since they always had such a good time playing tennis, horseback riding and attending cricket matches. They usually stayed a week and then during the year, Cousin Peter and his wife, Laura, would spend one week at the Baron's castle.

The guest suite that the Baron stayed in had a problem that Cousin Peter mentioned as soon as they arrived. It seems that when guests stayed in this particular suite of rooms, things began to disappear. It happened only in this suite and in no other. The Baron liked the view from these rooms and he decided to stay in the suite despite the warning.

Sure enough the first night they stayed in the rooms something disappeared. It was Lady Angela's antique necklace. The second night, even though the doors were locked from the inside, something else disappeared. It was the Baron's coin purse. Cousin Peter was sorry to learn of the missing items and insisted they move to another suite. The Baron declined and said he wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery. The doors and windows were all locked from the inside. The Baron and Cousin Peter decided to lay a trap. The Baron got some fluorescent dye from a local pharmacy and painted his gold watch and leather watchband with the invisible stain. It was only visible in the dark when it would glow.

Everything was set for the trap. The gold watch was left on the top of the dresser where it was easily seen. Nighttime came and went. The following morning the watch was still there and nothing else was missing. The second night the trap was set again. Nothing happened. The third night the trap was again made ready, and in the morning the watch was missing. Only Cousin Peter knew of the trap and no one said anything about the missing watch.

The following evening Cousin Peter decided to have a quiet formal candlelight dinner with many courses. The formal dinner involved many of the servants. It was quickly noted that one of the servant's fingers glowed in the dark. He was the thief. He returned all the missing items. He admitted finding a secret trap door in the floor that he used to enter the locked room to steal the items. He had a police record of being a crook and used forged a reference letter to obtain the position. He was turned over to the authorities and all the items taken from previous guests were sent to them with a sincere note from Cousin Peter and apology for employing the person who stole the items. The Baron and Lady Angela enjoyed the rest of their visit without incident and they both became interested in the sport of cricket.