ne's pockets?

MR. Y. Yes, but disposing of it, they say, is the dangerous part.

MR. X. Humph, I should of course have the whole thing smelted, and then
I should have it cast into ducats--full weight, of course--

MR. Y. Of course!

MR. X. That goes without saying. If I wanted to make counterfeit
money--well, it wouldn't be necessary to dig the gold first. [Pause.]
It's remarkable, nevertheless, that if some one were to do what I can't
bring myself to do, I should acquit him. But I should not be able to
acquit myself. I should be able to put up a brilliant defense for the
thief; prove that this gold was _res nullius_, or no one's, and that it
got into the earth before there were any land rights; that even now it
belongs to no one but the first comer, as the owner had never accounted
it part of his property, and so on.

MR. Y. And you would not be able to do this if--h'm!--the thief had
stolen through need, but rather as an instance of a collector's mania,
of scientific interest, of the ambition to make a discovery,--isn't that
so?

MR. X. You mean that I wouldn't be able to acquit him if he had stolen
through need? No, that is the only instance the law does not pardon.
That is simple theft, that is!

MR. Y. And that you would not pardon?

MR. X. H'm! Pardon! No, I could hardly pardon what the law does not, and
I must confess that it would be hard for me to accuse a collector for
taking an antique that he did not have in his collection, which he had
dug up on some one else's property.

MR. Y. That is to say, vanity, ambition, could gain pardon where need
could not?

MR. X. Yes, that's the way it is. And nevertheless need should be the
strongest motive, the only one to be pardoned. But I can change that as
little as I can change my will not to steal under any condition.

MR. Y. And you count it a great virtue that you cannot--h'm--steal?

MR. X. With me not to steal is just as irresistible as stealing is to
some, and, therefore, no virtue. I cannot do it and they cannot help
doing it. You understand, of course, that the idea of wanting to possess
this gold is not lacking in me. Why don't I take it then? I cannot; it's
an inability, and a lack is not a virtue. And there you are!

[Closes the case with a bang. At times stray clouds have dimmed the
light in the room and now it darkens with the approaching storm.]

MR. X. How close it is! I think we'll have some thunder.

[Mr. Y. rises and shuts the door an