Chapter 9 09. Bet

A dark autumn night.Walking up and down in his study, the old banker remembered a party he had given, also in the autumn, fifteen years ago.At this party, many people of insight came and talked about many interesting topics.They talked about the death penalty in passing.Among the guests were quite a few scholars and journalists, most of whom were negative about the death penalty.They considered the punishment obsolete, unsuitable for Christian nations, and immoral.According to these people, the death penalty should all be changed to life imprisonment. "I don't agree with you," said the banker, "I have neither tasted the death penalty nor the torture of life imprisonment, but if it can be judged subjectively, I think the death penalty is more moral than life imprisonment." , is more humane. Capital punishment kills people all at once, while life imprisonment kills people slowly. Which executioner is more humane? The one who executes you in minutes, or the one who slowly tortures you to death over many years people?"

"Both punishments are equally immoral," said a guest, "because they have the same purpose—to take human life. The state is not God. It has no right to take a life that it cannot give back, even if it will later. " Among the guests was a young lawyer of twenty-five.When someone asked him what he thought, he said: "Both the death penalty and the life sentence are immoral, but if I had to choose between the death penalty and the life sentence, then of course I would choose the latter. It is better to live than to die. " Now the heated debate began.The banker was young and energetic at the time, and in a fit of impulsiveness, he punched the table and yelled at the young lawyer, "That's wrong! I'll bet two million that you won't be able to sit in prison for five years!"

"If that's true," replied the lawyer, "then I'll wager that instead of five years, I'll sit for fifteen." "Fifteen years? All right!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I'll bet two million." "I agree! You bet two million, and I bet my freedom!" said the lawyer. In this way, this savage and absurd bet is established!How many millions the banker had at that time, even he himself couldn't tell. He was spoiled, frivolous and reckless, and he was very happy after gambling.At dinner he teased the lawyer and said, "Sober up, young man, it's not too late. Two million is a small thing to me, and you're risking the best part of your life." Three or four years. I say three or four years because you can't sit longer than that. And don't forget, poor man, that voluntary imprisonment is much harder than forced imprisonment. You have the right to go out and enjoy your freedom whenever you want —this thought will make your life miserable in your cell. I pity you!"

Now the banker was pacing up and down in his study, thinking of the past, and asking himself, "Why bother to make such a bet? The lawyer wasted fifteen years of his life, and I lost two million. What's the use of it?" Does this prove to people that the death penalty is worse or better than life imprisonment? No, no. Absurd, pointless! On my part, it was purely food and whim, and on the lawyer's side, purely for money... ..." The banker then recalled what happened after the said party.It was then decided that the lawyer must move to a cottage in the banker's back garden and spend the rest of his confinement under the strictest surveillance.It was stipulated that for fifteen years he had no right to step over the threshold, see the living, hear the voice, receive letters or newspapers.He was allowed to have a musical instrument, read, write, drink and smoke.According to the contract, he can only communicate with the outside world through a small window specially set up for this purpose, and he is not allowed to speak.What he needs, such as books, music scores, wine, etc., he can write on a note and give as much as he wants, but only through the window.The contract stipulates various terms and details, guarantees that the imprisonment will be strictly segregated, and stipulates that the lawyer must sit for fifteen years, that is, from twelve o'clock on November 14, 1870 to November 1885. End at twelve o'clock on the fourteenth day of the month.Any attempt on the part of the lawyer to breach the contract, even by two minutes before the stipulated time, would relieve the banker of his obligation to pay him two millions.

During his first year in prison, according to his lawyer's brief note, he was lonely, bored, and miserable.No matter day or night, the sound of the piano often came from his cabin!He refuses to drink and smoke.He wrote: Wine stirs up desire, and desire is the number one enemy of the prisoner.Besides, there's nothing more frustrating than drinking good wine and seeing no one.The smoke spoiled the air in his room.In the first year, lawyers asked for light-hearted reading: complex romance novels, detective novels, fairy tales, comedies, and so on. In the second year, there was no music in the hut, and the lawyer's note asked for only classical works.In the fifth year, the sound of music was heard again, and the prisoner asked for wine.Those who watched him from the small window said that for a whole year he just ate, drank, and lay in bed, yawning and muttering indignantly to himself.He doesn't read.Sometimes I get up at night to write, and I write for a long time, and in the morning I tear up all the written things.More than once they heard him cry.

In the second half of the sixth year, the prisoners are keen to study languages, philosophy and history.He studied these lore so voraciously that the bankers had no time to order the books he wanted.In the next four years, at his request, a total of 600 books were bought.While the lawyer was intoxicated reading, the banker also received this letter from him: The prisoner's wish came true.The banker ordered two shots to be fired in the garden. Ten years later, the lawyer sits motionless at his desk, reading just one Gospel.The banker felt strange, since he could finish reading 600 esoteric books during his prison years, how could it take him a year to read such an easy-to-understand, not thick book?After reading the "Gospels", he went on to read religious history and theological works.

In the last two years of imprisonment, the prisoners read a lot of books indiscriminately.Sometimes he studied the natural sciences, and sometimes asked for the works of Byron and Shakespeare.Some of his notes often asked to send him chemistry books, medical books, novels, some philosophical treatises, or theological works at the same time.He read as if he had fallen overboard and was floating in the sea, desperate to save his life by grabbing now this piece of the wreck and now another piece of driftwood! The old banker thought after recalling these events: "Tomorrow at twelve o'clock he will be free. According to the contract, I should pay him two million. If I pay the full amount, I will be completely bankrupt and everything will be over..."

Fifteen years ago, he didn't know how many millions he had, but now he was afraid to ask himself: Does he have more property or more debts?Gambling by chance on the stock exchange, risky speculation, and impatience that persisted until old age gradually caused his career to plummet.This fearless, overconfident, arrogant rich man is now a middle-class banker, and the ups and downs of securities always make him shudder. "Damn bet!" muttered the old man, clasping his head in despair. "Why isn't this man dead? He's only forty. Soon he'll take the last of my money, get married, enjoy life, and Securities speculation. As for me, I have become a beggar, and I can only look at him with envy, and listen to his confession every day: "Thanks to you, I am happy, let me help you." No, this is too much! Get rid of The only solution to bankruptcy and disgrace is this man's death!"

The clock struck three.The banker listened attentively: everyone in the house was asleep, only the trees outside the window could be heard whining with cold.Trying not to make any noise, he took out the house key which had not been used for fifteen years from the safe, put on his overcoat, and went out of the room. It was dark and cold in the garden.It's raining.The damp and biting wind howled through the garden, leaving the trees alone.The banker concentrated, but still he couldn't see the land, the white statue, the hut, or the trees.He made his way around the hut and called the watchman twice.No one answered.Apparently, the caretaker had gone to shelter from the wind and rain, and was sleeping in the kitchen or the greenhouse at the moment.

"If I have enough courage to carry out my purpose," thought the old man, "then the suspicion will fall first on the gatekeeper." Fumbling in the dark for the steps and the door, he entered the front room of the hut, then groped into the small passage in the dark, and struck a match.There is no one here.There was a bed, but no quilt, and a dark iron stove in the corner.The seal on the prisoner's cell door was intact. The match went out, and the old man was trembling with panic. He touched the small window and looked in. A dimly lit candle was burning in the prison cell.He himself sat at the table.Only his back, hair and two arms are visible from here.On the table, in the two armchairs, and on the rug beside the table, there were books spread out here and there.

Five minutes passed, and the prisoner never moved.Fifteen years of imprisonment had taught him to sit still.The banker tapped with a bent finger on the small window, but the prisoner did not respond.Only then did the banker carefully tear off the seal and insert the key into the lock.There was a muffled rusty lock, and the door creaked open.The banker had expected screams and footsteps at once, but two or three minutes passed and the door was as silent as ever.He decided to go into the room. Sitting motionless behind the desk was an inhuman figure.It was a skinny skeleton, with long curly hair like a woman's, and a shaggy beard.His sallow face, sunken cheeks, long and narrow back, thin arms, and his long, disheveled head resting on one hand gave him a terrifying look.His hair has long been gray, and looking at his old man's withered face, no one would believe that he is only forty years old.He fell asleep... On the table, in front of his drooping head, there was a piece of paper with densely written words on it. "Poor man!" thought the banker, "he's asleep, probably dreaming of the two millions! If I pick up the half-dead man, throw him on the bed, and cover his head with a pillow, Press it a little, and even the most careful medical examination will not find any signs of violent death afterwards. But let me first see what he wrote..." The banker picked up the paper on the table and read the following words: Tomorrow at twelve o'clock I will be free and have the right to associate with people.But before I leave this room and meet the sun, I thought it necessary to say a few words to you.With a clear conscience, before the God who looks at me, I declare to you that I despise liberty, life, health, and everything that your books call human happiness. For fifteen years, I have devoted myself to the study of human life.It is true that I cannot see heaven, earth and people, but in your books I drink fine wine, sing songs, chase deer and wild boars in the woods, and fall in love with women... Created by your genius poets with the pen of magic Countless beauties, light as clouds, often come to visit me at night, telling me magical stories in whispers, which fascinates me.In your book, I climbed to the top of Elbrus and Mont Blanc, from where I watched the morning sunrise, and watched how the bloody sunset dyed the sky, the sea and the forested peaks.Standing there, I saw how the thunder and lightning split the dark clouds above me, swimming like a snake; I saw green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, cities, and heard the singing of the king of Sai and the playing of the reed flute; I even Touched the wings of beautiful devils, they flew to talk to me about God... I also fell into the bottomless abyss in your books, I performed miracles, murdered people, burned cities, preached new religions, conquered Countless kingdoms... Your books have given me wisdom.All that the tireless human mind has created over millennia is now condensed into one mass in my skull.I know I'm smarter than all of you. I also despise your books, and all kinds of happiness and wisdom in the world.Everything is trivial, fleeting, unreal, unbelievable, like a mirage.Proud and wise and beautiful as you are, yet death will consume you like a rat in a cellar, and your posterity, your history, your immortal genius, will freeze with the earth or freeze into ice, Or burn. You have lost your mind and gone astray.You take a lie for truth, and ugliness for beauty, and wonder if, because of certain circumstances, instead of bearing fruit, apple and orange trees suddenly grew toads and lizards, or roses smelled of horse sweat. ; also, I am amazed at those of you who would rather give up the kingdom of heaven for the earth.I don't want to get to know you guys. To show you by deeds that I despise all that you need to live, I give up the two millions, which I despise now, though I once dreamed of it like heaven.In order to waive this right, I have decided to leave here five hours before the stipulated deadline, thus breaching the contract... The banker read this, put the paper back on the table, kissed the eccentric on the head, and walked out of the hut with tears in his eyes.At no point in his life, even after losing his fortune on the Exchange, had he despised himself as deeply as he did now.Back home, he fell on the bed, but the tears of excitement kept him from falling asleep for a long time... The next morning the watchman, pale with fright, came and told him that they had seen the man who lived in the cottage climb out of the window, into the garden, go to the gate, and then disappear.The banker led his servants to the hut at once, and confirmed that the prisoner had indeed escaped.In order to put an end to unnecessary rumors, he took the waiver of rights on the table, went back to the room, and locked it in the safe.

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