MR. Y. So? Isn't it murder to slay a man?
MR. X. No, not always. There is manslaughter, homicide, assault resulting in death, with the subdivisions, with or without intent. However, now I am really afraid of you, for you belong in the most dangerous category of human beings, the stupid.
MR. Y. So you think that I am stupid? Now listen! Do you want me to prove that I am very shrewd?
MR. X. Let me hear.
MR. Y. Will you admit that I reason shrewdly and logically when I say this? You met with an accident which might have brought you two years of hard labor. You have escaped the ignominious penalty altogether. Here sits a man who also has been the victim of an accident, an unconscious suggestion, and forced to suffer two years of hard labor. This man can wipe out the stain he has unwittingly brought upon himself only through scientific achievement; but for the attainment of this he must have money—much money, and that immediately. Doesn't it seem to you that the other man, the unpunished one, would restore the balance of human relations if he were sentenced to a tolerable fine? Don't you think so?
MR. X. [Quietly]. Yes.
MR. Y. Well, we understand each other.—H'm! How much do you consider legitimate?
MR. X. Legitimate? The law decrees that a man's life is worth at the minimum fifty crowns. But as the deceased had no relatives, there's nothing to be said on that score.
MR. Y. Humph, you will not understand? Then I must speak more plainly. It is to me that you are to pay the fine.
MR. X. I've never heard that a homicide should pay a fine to a forger, and there is also no accuser.