weeks. It would look, at worst, like simple laziness. Or, at best, like the exercise of enlightened judgment. I shall have used my discretion to avoid the disastrous failure of a distinguished brokerage house. I might even be a hero."
"You're very funny."
"I'm very grave."
Max leaned forward and covered his face. "Can't you ever be serious?"
"Don't despair, my friend. I haven't turned you down yet. But in a matter like this I insist on dotting every 'i' and crossing every 't'. What kind of a devil are you if you won't let a man discuss the soul you're trying to buy? If I am to become a bribed civil servant, Max Satanicus, I am going to become it with my eyes very wide open."
"But I know you when you take that tone," Max retorted wearily. "It always means you've decided against something."
"Do you know me? If you did, you'd know that your proposition intrigues me. It intrigues me immensely. If I'm ever to commit a crime, it strikes me that this might be the right one." Tony paced up and down the rug as he worked it out. "Look at each aspect of it. Where is the wrong? Where is the hurt? Start with the bribe money. Where does it come from? The public? No. The government? No. It comes from the Mafia. Whatever you and I did with it would be at least as socially valuable as what they would. So no loss there. And if Menzies, Lippard is saved from closing, is that not for the public benefit? Are not hundreds of innocent investors saved from possible insolvency? So far so good. But what about Lassatta, or whoever he represents? Wouldn't it be better if they lost their investment in Menzies? Not necessarily. Because this is probably a retirement account. The Mafiosi, like other prudent persons, save for rainy days and senility and terminal ailments. And if they lose their savings, don't they have to go back to robbing and killing for more?"
For the first time in their session Max seemed to be thinking of something besides his own panic. "You don't have to go so far as to make out that we're public benefactors!"
"Why not?" Tony exclaimed. "If everything comes out for the better? Now, let us consider the intangibles. Do we, by taking this bribe..."
"
I
take the bribe."
"Nonsense, Max. I'm the public officer. Do we, by taking this bribe, decrease respect for the United States Government? No, because nobody will know of it but a couple of crooks who have no respect for government anyway. And, as far as you and I are concerned, you will have been relieved of a cruel anxiety, and the temptation to do further wrong, while I shall have been placed in possession of means through which to become a better public servant."
"So what is lost?" If Tony had to be humored, Max's expression seemed to say, well let him be humored.
"'Nothing but honor,' as Jim Fisk put it. That, of course, is lost forever. And I won't try to delude you by quoting Falstaff. We should have indeed lost something when we have lost honor. But precisely what that amounts to is for
us
to decide. We should have made a choice, of our own free will, and for motives that we have thoroughly explored, to commit a criminal act. We should be in charge of our destiny."
"You mean you'd do this thing as some kind of an intellectual game?"
"If you want to put it that way."
Max shook his head and sighed. "You're only playing with me. You'll never go through with it."
"I haven't decided."
"Oh, but you have."
"I haven't. I'll go for a walk. I'll go to the zoo. And tomorrow, I'll let you know. Will that be time enough?"
Max showed at least that he could still laugh. "Don't be eaten by the lions," he cried. "Don't be a martyr to your own non-God."
7
Tony walked in Central Park for an hour, but he found it unexpectedly difficult to bring his mind to any considered appraisal of Max's proposition. It was like walking resolutely down a long corridor to a particular door and placing one's hand firmly on the knob only to be distracted, before turning it, by some fool at the end of
"You're very funny."
"I'm very grave."
Max leaned forward and covered his face. "Can't you ever be serious?"
"Don't despair, my friend. I haven't turned you down yet. But in a matter like this I insist on dotting every 'i' and crossing every 't'. What kind of a devil are you if you won't let a man discuss the soul you're trying to buy? If I am to become a bribed civil servant, Max Satanicus, I am going to become it with my eyes very wide open."
"But I know you when you take that tone," Max retorted wearily. "It always means you've decided against something."
"Do you know me? If you did, you'd know that your proposition intrigues me. It intrigues me immensely. If I'm ever to commit a crime, it strikes me that this might be the right one." Tony paced up and down the rug as he worked it out. "Look at each aspect of it. Where is the wrong? Where is the hurt? Start with the bribe money. Where does it come from? The public? No. The government? No. It comes from the Mafia. Whatever you and I did with it would be at least as socially valuable as what they would. So no loss there. And if Menzies, Lippard is saved from closing, is that not for the public benefit? Are not hundreds of innocent investors saved from possible insolvency? So far so good. But what about Lassatta, or whoever he represents? Wouldn't it be better if they lost their investment in Menzies? Not necessarily. Because this is probably a retirement account. The Mafiosi, like other prudent persons, save for rainy days and senility and terminal ailments. And if they lose their savings, don't they have to go back to robbing and killing for more?"
For the first time in their session Max seemed to be thinking of something besides his own panic. "You don't have to go so far as to make out that we're public benefactors!"
"Why not?" Tony exclaimed. "If everything comes out for the better? Now, let us consider the intangibles. Do we, by taking this bribe..."
"
I
take the bribe."
"Nonsense, Max. I'm the public officer. Do we, by taking this bribe, decrease respect for the United States Government? No, because nobody will know of it but a couple of crooks who have no respect for government anyway. And, as far as you and I are concerned, you will have been relieved of a cruel anxiety, and the temptation to do further wrong, while I shall have been placed in possession of means through which to become a better public servant."
"So what is lost?" If Tony had to be humored, Max's expression seemed to say, well let him be humored.
"'Nothing but honor,' as Jim Fisk put it. That, of course, is lost forever. And I won't try to delude you by quoting Falstaff. We should have indeed lost something when we have lost honor. But precisely what that amounts to is for
us
to decide. We should have made a choice, of our own free will, and for motives that we have thoroughly explored, to commit a criminal act. We should be in charge of our destiny."
"You mean you'd do this thing as some kind of an intellectual game?"
"If you want to put it that way."
Max shook his head and sighed. "You're only playing with me. You'll never go through with it."
"I haven't decided."
"Oh, but you have."
"I haven't. I'll go for a walk. I'll go to the zoo. And tomorrow, I'll let you know. Will that be time enough?"
Max showed at least that he could still laugh. "Don't be eaten by the lions," he cried. "Don't be a martyr to your own non-God."
7
Tony walked in Central Park for an hour, but he found it unexpectedly difficult to bring his mind to any considered appraisal of Max's proposition. It was like walking resolutely down a long corridor to a particular door and placing one's hand firmly on the knob only to be distracted, before turning it, by some fool at the end of
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