“Instance, M. le Baron,” I ventured to put in.
“Why,” said Le Sage good-humouredly, “a dozen may well present themselves to a man of average inventive intelligence. Direct murder, for example—how crude! when a hundred means offer themselves for procuring plausible ends to life. Tetanus germs and an iron tack; ptomaine, that toxicologic mystery, so easy to introduce; the edge of a cliff and a windy day; a frayed picture cord; a loosened nut or two; a scrap of soap left on the boards by an opened window—given adroitness, timeliness, a little nerve, would not any of these do?”
Audrey drew back in her chair, with a flushed little laugh.
“What a diabolical list!” she said, and made a face as if she had taken medicine.
“Yes,” said I. “But after all, Baron, this is no more than generalising.”
“You want a concrete instance?” he answered, beaming on me. “What do you say then to a swimmer being awarded the Humane Society’s certificate for attempting to save the life of a man whom he had really drowned? It needs only a little imagination to fill in the details.”
“That is good,” I admitted. “We put one to your credit.”
“Again,” said the Baron, “I offer the case of a senseless young spendthrift. He gambles, he drinks, his life is a bad life from the insurance company’s point of view. When hard pressed, he is lavish with his I.O.U.’s; when flush of money he redeems them; he pays up, he throws the slips into the fire with hardly a glance at them. One who holds a good deal of his paper observes this, and acts accordingly. He preserves the original securities, and on redemption, offers forgeries in their place, which he is careful to see destroyed. On the death of the young man he puts in his claim on his estate on the strength of the indisputable original documents. Thus he is paid twice over, without a possibility of any suspicion arising.”
“But one of the forged I.O.U.’s,” said Audrey, “had been carried up the chimney without catching a light, and had been blown through the open window of the young man’s family lawyer, who had kept it as a surprise.”
There was a shout of laughter, in which the Baron joined.