‘ “He’ll never sign,” Cosgrove interrupted again.
‘ “Wait a moment,” my father answered, and he went on to explain that if Dale refused to sign, he was to be threatened with immediate death by being tied up, gagged, and drowned in the water basin in the boathouse, it being explained to him that, after being unbound, his body would be sent down over the falls, whereby his death would be put down to accident.
‘I was amazed at my father seriously suggesting such a proceeding, and I felt strongly opposed to it.
‘ “No, no,” I cried, “we can’t do that,” and Cosgrove nodded his agreement.
‘ “Why not?” my father queried, and set himself to overcome our scruples. He argued that if our objection was to making the man sign a false statement, we must remember it was only a bluff, and said that for the sake of my mother and sister we must be willing to do what we might otherwise reasonably object to. If, on the other hand, we were considering Dale’s feelings, we should not forget we were suggesting no harm to him—on the contrary we were about to offer him a large sum of money. The intention was not to injure him, but to prevent him injuring us.
‘ “It’s not that,” said Cosgrove. “I don’t give a fig for the false statement, nor the man’s feelings either. As you say, he more than deserves far worse treatment than what you suggest. Nor do I care if the thing brings us within reach of the law—I would risk that for my aunt, and so would we all. But I don’t like your plan because it will not work.”
‘ “Why not?” asked my father.
‘ “Why not?” Cosgrove repeated. “Because Dale has only to inform the police of the whole affair. He would be believed. How would we account for our meeting here, to take one point only?”
‘ “Ah,” my father rejoined, “you always go too fast. I meet that difficulty in two ways. If Dale informed, I would say he signed the confession when I saw him in London—I shall see him this afternoon—under my threat of otherwise immediately exposing his blackmail to the police. Secondly, alibis are easy to fake. Each of the three of us must work out a false alibi, so that we can deny the meeting in the boathouse in toto.”
‘ “No, no, I don’t like it,” Cosgrove demurred.