At the worst, I stood a fair chance of hanging; at the
best, I stood to lose close upon fifty thousand pounds. These were not
pleasant alternatives.
"Supposing, on the other hand, I concealed the body and gave out that
John had gone to Paris. There was, of course, the risk of discovery, in
which case I should certainly be convicted of the murder. But if no
discovery occurred, I was not only safe from suspicion, but I secured
the fifty thousand pounds. In either case there was considerable risk,
but in one there was the certainty of loss, whereas in the other there
was a material advantage to justify the risk. The question was whether
it would be possible to conceal the body. If it were, then the
contingent profit was worth the slight additional risk. But a human body
is a very difficult thing to dispose of, especially to a person of so
little scientific culture as myself.
"It is curious that I considered this question for a quite considerable
time before the obvious solution presented itself. I turned over at
least a dozen methods of disposing of the body, and rejected them all as
impracticable.
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