The Washington times., 1912-08-27

OF rldolng hlmself or the thing
in the next room. At first
ne thought that he would go to the
police station, tell the inspector that
begging for shelter, and had died sud.
denly during the. night.
That would Shift the responsibility OF
dealing with the body from his own
shoulders to those of the authorities
He could say that he did not know that
Hollins was wanted for murder and
thus escape any charge of colusion
reflection convinced him that this plan
would certainly be attended by un-
pleasant consequences
All sorts OF questions would be asked
would be a coroners inquest; his EN-
ployers would certainly have something
to say TO him as to his harboring folk
on these premises who had no business
TO be there. Furthermore. he would be
obliged to put back into Hollins' pock-
cts at least some considerable portion
OF the money which he had distracted
from them, and to that part of the pro-
ceedings he had strong natural OBJ
lection. He decided that, whatever else
happened he must keep the fact that
Hollins lay dead in the next room a pro-
found secret.
What. them was to be done? It was
impossible to keep a dead man in the
must certainly be buried within the
next twenty-four hours but where and
how? Finney suddenly realized that
nothing Is so difficult 10 dispose OF as a
human body. which, unlike that of a
dog or a cat, cannot be thrown upon
the nearest dust heap.
The notion of casting the body into
the river occurred to him first. The
his cottage-he would have nothing to
do but to drag the body out there at
night. weight IT and throw 1t from the
wharf But he, remembered as soon as
this expedient crossed his mind that
bodies that are thrown into rivers have
nasty trick OF coming to the surface
at unexpected moments, and that IL
they present themselves with weights
sttached to them questions are sure to
be asked and inquiries instituted.
IL was quite true that he might easily
throw Hollins' body into the river,
equally true THAT the theory probably
evolved by its subsequent discovery
there would be that the man had come
back to his native place and had fallen
over the wharf, or wherever he might
happen TO be found. in the darkness or
IN state Of intoxication. but 1t was
also true that some strange things
would be said IL the body were dis
covered without a penny in its pockets.
Finney knew the difficulties which
arose in matters of this sort, and was
keenly aware of the danger which lies
In possibilities. If Hollins' body was
drawn out of the river, some little
thing that he had never thought OF,
however carefully he might think,
might connect him with it. and that
dire events spring from trivial cause 9
Finney was as well advised as any man
living.
He rose from his breakfast-a SUBJ
stantial meal to which he had done am
PIE justice-still perplexed as to his pro-
cedure. and only certain Of one thing
that he must get rid of Hollins' body.
Lighting pipe and sitting down by his
hearth to think matters out, he sud-
denly called to mind a book which lay
hidden away in the cupboard-a book in
which some diligent compiler had gath
cred together a vast amount of mater
ial relative to crime of all descriptions.
He got 1t down from a dust-coyered
shelf and turned to a chapter wherein
was set forth a description of the yari-
Gus methods and expedients resorted
to by murderers in the effort to rid
themselves of the bodies Of their VIC
Tins.
He read several pages and thought
that most murderers must be men of
small imagination and of no invention,
SO clumsy did their actions in disposina
of the evidences of their crimes seen to
him. But then, he reflected. they were
probably dazed and excited by their
gutlt-he, Finney, had no guilt upon his
soul.
He had, rather. the comfortable re-
Election that he had done the dead man
kindness. And then, quite suddenly.
he remembered that If Hollins' body did
come to light, and If awkward questions
were asked, and If he were mixed up
with the matter, he would be suspected
OF being murderer. though murderer
he was none. Nobody would believe
him. whatever he might say-the mere
making away with a body was quite
sufficient to damn one unutterably. This
thought made him all the more resolute
in his determination to rid himself Sc
curely OF the corpse which numbered his
bed.
The only plan that he could think OF
that seemed at all feasible was to bury
Hollins in the room in which he had
died. But there were many drawbacks
to that-frst the bother and difficulty
of taking up the boarded floor and ex-.
cavating the ground; secondly, the dan
ger that some one would hear the noise
of pick and shovel and insist on know
ing what was going on: and, thirdly the
chance that some future occupant of
the cottage or its owners might take
fancy to carry out new drainage
operations. That plan would not do;
he put the book back in the cupboard,
locked up the cottage and went out
into the yard of the glassworks to
think still further.
Strolling about the works in casual
fashion, Finney was suddenly confront
ID by the answer to his question. He
had walked. in pure absent -mindedness,
close to one of the great furnaces from
which sweating glassblOwers were draw
ing out molten glass, and as he glanced
at the licking flames which showed
through the furnace roles he realized
what he had TO do, There was just one
hour of the lonliest part of the night be-
tween the going of one shift and COM
ing OF another when the care of the fur
naces devolved upon him-if he could
throw Holins' body into that pit of
liquid fire II would be consumed in such
a fashion that not even a toe nail of ii
would remain. He remembered the fate
of a workman who fell into one of the
furnaces, and of whom not a trace could
be found when the molten mass was
cooled off.
II Hollins were thrown into a furnace
he would be literally consumed. flesh
and bone, within a few seconds. Finney
had now found the soution OF his prob
en-