E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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And those again who have any means of concealment (either of themselves, or of the goods they have stolen,) or any ‘mode’ (of changing it, so that it shall not be recognised, Victorius, or more generally, ‘any contrivance or device’) or any place (of refuge for themselves, or for stowing away the stolen property) or are of an inventive disposition, or habit of mind’, (suggestive of τρόποι in the second sense, and μηχαναί).

Victorius confines the whole of this topic to the one crime of robbery, de furibus ac latronibus; and interprets κρύψις qui possunt quae sustulerint nullo negotio occulere; τρόπος quibus modus viaque facilis est illa immutandi. Quod aut figuram aut colorem variare possint; aut artificio denique suo aliquo modo facere ne ipsa agnoscantur. I should prefer giving it the wider sense of contrivances, devices of all kinds, tricks, artifices, any ‘ways’ or ‘modes’ of getting out of a scrape, and escaping the consequences of a criminal act. In Plat. Phileb. 16 A, it has a nearly similar sense, εἴ τις τρόπος ἔστιν καὶ μηχανή. Lastly, confining διάθεσις to the same subject, he translates it vendere, as we say to dispose of a thing; adding, διάθεσιν enim hic alienationem valere arbitror, and quoting, in support of the interpretation, Plut. Solon, p. 91 E, τῶν δὲ γενομένων διάθεσιν πρὸς ξένους ἐλαίου μόνον ἔδωκεν: ἄλλα δὲ ἐξάγειν ἐκώλυσεν. Demosth. Olynth. II, p. 22, οὔθ᾽ ὅς᾿ ἂν πορίσωσιν οὕτως ὅπως ἂν δύνωνται ταῦτ̓ ἔχοντες διάθεσθαι. Isocr. Paneg. § 42, τὰ μὲν ὅπου χρὴ διάθεσθαι τὰ δ᾽ ὁπόθεν εἰσαγάγεσθαι, (the word in this sense implies ‘distribution’, and so, ‘disposing or setting out for sale.’ Similarly ib. § 9, τοῖς ὀνόμασιν εὖ διάθεσθαι ‘to set out, or forth, in words’; and several of the best authors use it of ‘disposing of’ a variety of different things, property, one's own person, a daughter, goods for sale).

It seems to me preferable to extend the meaning, as in the other cases, beyond the mere ‘disposal’ of stolen goods, to any disposition or habit of mind, which is at all events the usual meaning of διάθεσις. And there is this further reason for rejecting Victorius' limitation of the topic, that if it is adopted no difference whatsoever is left between κρύψις and τόπος here and afterwards in §§ 33, 34.

καὶ οἷς, ἐὰν γένηται ζημία κ.τ.λ.] And those who, if they don't escape detection, have the means of getting rid of (lit. pushing off) the trial altogether, or postponing it, or of bribing the judges. And those who, if a penalty be actually imposed have the means of getting rid of the payment of it, or postponing it for a long time, or who from poverty have nothing to lose: (in the last clause the relative οἷς, which is convertible with εἴ τις, must be supposed to take that form when joined with ἕξει).