MR. X. Well, then you don"t know what it means to receive a lot of overdue bills. [Reads one of the letters] The rent unpaid--the landlord acting nasty--my wife in despair. And here am I sitting waist-high in gold! [He opens an iron-banded box that stands on the table; then both sit down at the table, facing each other]
Just look--here I have six thousand crowns" worth of gold which I have dug up in the last fortnight. This bracelet alone would bring me the three hundred and fifty crowns I need. And with all of it I might make a fine career for myself. Then I could get the ill.u.s.trations made for my treatise at once; I could get my work printed, and--I could travel! Why don"t I do it, do you suppose?
MR. Y. I suppose you are afraid to be found out.
MR. X. That, too, perhaps. But don"t you think an intelligent fellow like myself might fix matters so that he was never found out? I am alone all the time--with n.o.body watching me--while I am digging out there in the fields. It wouldn"t be strange if I put something in my own pockets now and then.
MR. Y. Yes, but the worst danger lies in disposing of the stuff.
MR. X. Pooh! I"d melt it down, of course--every bit of it--and then I"d turn it into coins--with just as much gold in them as genuine ones, of course--
MR. Y. Of course!
MR. X. Well, you can easily see why. For if I wanted to dabble in counterfeits, then I need not go digging for gold first. [Pause]
It is a strange thing anyhow, that if anybody else did what I cannot make myself do, then I"d be willing to acquit him--but I couldn"t possibly acquit myself. I might even make a brilliant speech in defence of the thief, proving that this gold was _res nullius_, or n.o.body"s, as it had been deposited at a time when property rights did not yet exist; that even under existing rights it could belong only to the first finder of it, as the ground-owner has never included it in the valuation of his property; and so on.
MR. Y. And probably it would be much easier for you to do this if the--hm!--the thief had not been prompted by actual need, but by a mania for collecting, for instance--or by scientific aspirations-- by the ambition to keep a discovery to himself. Don"t you think so?
MR. X. You mean that I could not acquit him if actual need had been the motive? Yes, for that"s the only motive which the law will not accept in extenuation. That motive makes a plain theft of it.
MR. Y. And this you couldn"t excuse?
MR. X. Oh, excuse--no, I guess not, as the law wouldn"t. On the other hand, I must admit that it would be hard for me to charge a collector with theft merely because he had appropriated some specimen not yet represented in his own collection.
MR. Y. So that vanity or ambition might excuse what could not be excused by need?
MR. X. And yet need ought to be the more telling excuse--the only one, in fact? But I feel as I have said. And I can no more change this feeling than I can change my own determination not to steal under any circ.u.mstances whatever.
MR. Y. And I suppose you count it a great merit that you cannot-- hm!--steal?
MR. X. No, my disinclination to steal is just as irresistible as the inclination to do so is irresistible with some people. So it cannot be called a merit. I cannot do it, and the other one cannot refrain!--But you understand, of course, that I am not without a desire to own this gold. Why don"t I take it then? Because I cannot! It"s an inability--and the lack of something cannot be called a merit. There!
[Closes the box with a slam. Stray clouds have cast their shadows on the landscape and darkened the room now and then. Now it grows quite dark as when a thunderstorm is approaching.]
MR. X. How close the air is! I guess the storm is coming all right.
[MR. Y. gets up and shuts the door and all the windows.]
MR. X. Are you afraid of thunder?
MR. Y. It"s just as well to be careful.
(They resume their seats at the table.)
MR. X. You"re a curious chap! Here you come dropping down like a bomb a fortnight ago, introducing yourself as a Swedish-American who is collecting flies for a small museum--
MR. Y. Oh, never mind me now!
MR. X. That"s what you always say when I grow tired of talking about myself and want to turn my attention to you. Perhaps that was the reason why I took to you as I did--because you let me talk about myself? All at once we seemed like old friends. There were no angles about you against which I could b.u.mp myself, no pins that p.r.i.c.ked. There was something soft about your whole person, and you overflowed with that tact which only well-educated people know how to show. You never made a noise when you came home late at night or got up early in the morning. You were patient in small things, and you gave in whenever a conflict seemed threatening. In a word, you proved yourself the perfect companion!
But you were entirely too compliant not to set me wondering about you in the long run--and you are too timid, too easily frightened.
It seems almost as if you were made up of two different personalities. Why, as I sit here looking at your back in the mirror over there--it is as if I were looking at somebody else.
(MR. Y. turns around and stares at the mirror.)
MR. X. No, you cannot get a glimpse of your own back, man!--In front you appear like a fearless sort of fellow, one meeting his fate with bared breast, but from behind--really, I don"t want to be impolite, but--you look as if you were carrying a burden, or as if you were crouching to escape a raised stick. And when I look at that red cross your suspenders make on your white shirt--well, it looks to me like some kind of emblem, like a trade-mark on a packing-box--
MR. Y. I feel as if I"d choke--if the storm doesn"t break soon--
MR. X. It"s coming--don"t you worry!--And your neck! It looks as if there ought to be another kind of face on top of it, a face quite different in type from yours. And your ears come so close together behind that sometimes I wonder what race you belong to.
[A flash of lightning lights up the room] Why, it looked as if that might have struck the sheriff"s house!
MR. Y. [Alarmed] The sheriff"s!
MR. X. Oh, it just looked that way. But I don"t think we"ll get much of this storm. Sit down now and let us have a talk, as you are going away to-morrow. One thing I find strange is that you, with whom I have become so intimate in this short time--that yon are one of those whose image I cannot call up when I am away from them. When you are not here, and I happen to think of you, I always get the vision of another acquaintance--one who does not resemble you, but with whom you have certain traits in common.
MR. Y. Who is he?
MR. X. I don"t want to name him, but--I used for several years to take my meals at a certain place, and there, at the side-table where they kept the whiskey and the otter preliminaries, I met a little blond man, with blond, faded eyes. He had a wonderful faculty for making his way through a crowd, without jostling anybody or being jostled himself. And from his customary place down by the door he seemed perfectly able to reach whatever he wanted on a table that stood some six feet away from him. He seemed always happy just to be in company. But when he met anybody he knew, then the joy of it made him roar with laughter, and he would hug and pat the other fellow as if he hadn"t seen a human face for years. When anybody stepped on his foot, he smiled as if eager to apologise for being in the way. For two years I watched him and amused myself by guessing at his occupation and character.
But I never asked who he was; I didn"t want to know, you see, for then all the fun would have been spoiled at once. That man had just your quality of being indefinite. At different times I made him out to be a teacher who had never got his licence, a non- commissioned officer, a druggist, a government clerk, a detective-- and like you, he looked as if made out of two pieces, for the front of him never quite fitted the back. One day I happened to read in a newspaper about a big forgery committed by a well-known government official. Then I learned that my indefinite gentleman had been a partner of the forger"s brother, and that his name was Strawman. Later on I learned that the aforesaid Strawman used to run a circulating library, but that he was now the police reporter of a big daily. How in the world could I hope to establish a connection between the forgery, the police, and my little man"s peculiar manners? It was beyond me; and when I asked a friend whether Strawman had ever been punished for something, my friend couldn"t answer either yes or no--he just didn"t know! [Pause.]
MR. Y. Well, had he ever been--punished?
MR. X. No, he had not. [Pause.]
MR. Y. And that was the reason, you think, why the police had such an attraction for him, and why he was so afraid of offending people?
MR. X. Exactly!
MR. Y. And did you become acquainted with him afterward?
MR. X. No, I didn"t want to. [Pause.]
MR. Y. Would you have been willing to make his acquaintance if he had been--punished?
MR. X. Perfectly!
(MR. Y. rises and walks back and forth several times.)
MR. X. Sit still! Why can"t you sit still?
MR. Y. How did you get your liberal view of human conditions? Are you a Christian?
MR. X. Oh, can"t you see that I am not?
(MR. Y. makes a face.)
MR. X. The Christians require forgiveness. But I require punishment in order that the balance, or whatever you may call it, be restored. And you, who have served a term, ought to know the difference.
MR. Y. [Stands motionless and stares at MR. X., first with wild, hateful eyes, then with surprise and admiration] How--could--you-- know--that?