The Bet by Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was walking up and down his study
and remembering how, fifteen years before, he had given a party one autumn
evening. There had been many clever men there, and there had been interesting
conversations. Among other things they had talked of capital punishment. The
majority of the guests, among whom were many journalists and intellectual men,
disapproved of the death penalty. They considered that form of punishment out
of date, immoral, and unsuitable for Christian States. In the opinion of some of
them the death penalty ought to be replaced everywhere by imprisonment for
life. "I don't agree with you," said their host the banker. "I have not tried either
the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge a priori, the
death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life.
Capital punishment kills a man at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him
slowly. Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes
or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years?"

"Both are equally immoral," observed one of the guests, "for they both have
the same object - to take away life. The State is not God. It has not the right to
take away what it cannot restore when it wants to."

Among the guests was a young lawyer, a young man of five-and-twenty.

"The death sentence and the life sentence are equally immoral, but if I had to
choose between the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would certainly
choose the second. To live anyhow is better than not at all."

A lively discussion arose. The banker, who was younger and more nervous in
those days, was suddenly carried away by excitement; he struck the table with his
fist and shouted at the young man:
 "It's not true! I'll bet you two million you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement
for five years."

"If you mean that in earnest," said the young man, "I'll take the bet, but I
would stay not five but fifteen years."

"Fifteen? Done!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I stake two million!"

"Agreed! You stake your millions and I stake my freedom!" said the young
man.

And this wild, senseless bet was carried out! The banker, spoilt and frivolous,
with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet. At supper he made
fun of the young man, and said:

"Think better of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two million is a
trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or
four, because you won't stay longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that
voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than compulsory. The
thought that you have the right to step out in liberty at any moment will poison
your whole existence in prison. I am sorry for you."

And now the banker, walking to and fro, remembered all this, and asked
himself: "What was the object of that bet? What is the good of that man's losing
fifteen years of his life and my throwing away two million? Can it prove that the
death penalty is better or worse than imprisonment for life? No, no. It was all
nonsensical and meaningless. On my part it was the caprice of a pampered man,
and on his part simple greed for money ..."

Then he remembered what followed that evening. It was decided that the
young man should spend the years of his captivity under the strictest supervision
in one of the lodges in the banker's garden. It was agreed that for fifteen years he
should not be free to cross the threshold of the lodge, to see human beings, to
hear the human voice, or to receive letters and newspapers. He was allowed to
have a musical instrument and books, and was allowed to write letters, to drink
wine, and to smoke. By the terms of the agreement, the only relations he could
have with the outer world were by a little window made purposely for that object.
He might have anything he wanted - books, music, wine, and so on - in any
quantity he desired by writing an order, but could only receive them through the
window. The agreement provided for every detail and every trifle that would
make his imprisonment strictly solitary, and bound the young man to stay there
exactly fifteen years, beginning from twelve o'clock of November 14, 1870, and
ending at twelve o'clock of November 14, 1885. The slightest attempt on his part
to break the conditions, if only two minutes before the end, released the banker
from the obligation to pay him the two million.

For the first year of his confinement, as far as one could judge from his brief
notes, the prisoner suffered severely from loneliness and depression. The sounds
of the piano could be heard continually day and night from his lodge. He refused
wine and tobacco. Wine, he wrote, excites the desires, and desires are the worst
foes of the prisoner; and besides, nothing could be more dreary than drinking
good wine and seeing no one. And tobacco spoilt the air of his room. In the first
year the books he sent for were principally of a light character; novels with a
complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories, and so on.

In the second year the piano was silent in the lodge, and the prisoner asked
only for the classics. In the fifth year music was audible again, and the prisoner
asked for wine. Those who watched him through the window said that all that
year he spent doing nothing but eating and drinking and lying on his bed,
frequently yawning and angrily talking to himself. He did not read books.
Sometimes at night he would sit down to write; he would spend hours writing,
and in the morning tear up all that he had written. More than once he could be
heard crying.

In the second half of the sixth year the prisoner began zealously studying
languages, philosophy, and history. He threw himself eagerly into these studies -
so much so that the banker had enough to do to get him the books he ordered.
In the course of four years some six hundred volumes were procured at his
request. It was during this period that the banker received the following letter
from his prisoner:

"My dear Jailer, I write you these lines in six languages. Show them to people
who know the languages. Let them read them. If they find not one mistake I
implore you to fire a shot in the garden. That shot will show me that my efforts
have not been thrown away. The geniuses of all ages and of all lands speak
different languages, but the same flame burns in them all. Oh, if you only knew
what unearthly happiness my soul feels now from being able to understand
them!" The prisoner's desire was fulfilled. The banker ordered two shots to be
fired in the garden.

Then after the tenth year, the prisoner sat immovably at the table and read
nothing but the Gospel. It seemed strange to the banker that a man who in four
years had mastered six hundred learned volumes should waste nearly a year over
one thin book easy of comprehension. Theology and histories of religion
followed the Gospels.

In the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read an immense
quantity of books quite indiscriminately. At one time he was busy with the natural
sciences, then he would ask for Byron or Shakespeare. There were notes in which
he demanded at the same time books on chemistry, and a manual of medicine,
and a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology. His reading suggested
a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save
his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another.

The old banker remembered all this, and thought:

"To-morrow at twelve o'clock he will regain his freedom. By our agreement I

Fifteen years before, his millions had been beyond his reckoning; now he was
afraid to ask himself which were greater, his debts or his assets. Desperate
gambling on the Stock Exchange, wild speculation and the excitability whic h he
could not get over even in advancing years, had by degrees led to the decline of
his fortune and the proud, fearless, self-confident millionaire had become a
banker of middling rank, trembling at every rise and fall in his investments.
"Cursed bet!" muttered the old man, clutching his head in despair "Why didn't
the man die? He is only forty now. He will take my last penny from me, he will
marry, will enjoy life, will gamble on the Exchange; while I shall look at him with
envy like a beggar, and hear from him every day the same sentence: 'I am
indebted to you for the happiness of my life, let me help you!' No, it is too much!
The one means of being saved from bankruptcy and disgrace is the death of that
man!"

It struck three o'clock, the banker listened; everyone was asleep in the house
and nothing could be heard outside but the rustling of the chilled trees. Trying to
make no noise, he took from a fireproof safe the key of the door which had not
been opened for fifteen years, put on his overcoat, and went out of the house.

It was dark and cold in the garden. Rain was falling. A damp cutting wind was
racing about the garden, howling and giving the trees no rest. The banker
strained his eyes, but could see neither the earth nor the white statues, nor the
lodge, nor the trees. Going to the spot where the lodge stood, he twice called the
watchman. No answer followed. Evidently the watchman had sought shelter from
the weather, and was now asleep somewhere either in the kitchen or in the
greenhouse.

"If I had the pluck to carry out my intention," thought the old man, "Suspicion
would fall first upon the watchman."

He felt in the darkness for the steps and the door, and went into the entry of
the lodge. Then he groped his way into a little passage and lighted a match.
There was not a soul there. There was a bedstead with no bedding on it, and in
the corner there was a dark cast-iron stove. The seals on the door leading to the
prisoner's rooms were intact.

When the match went out the old man, trembling with emotion, peeped
through the little window. A candle was burning dimly in the prisoner's room. He
was sitting at the table. Nothing could be seen but his back, the hair on his head,
and his hands. Open books were lying on the table, on the two easy-chairs, and
on the carpet near the table.

Five minutes passed and the prisoner did not once stir. Fifteen years'
imprisonment had taught him to sit still. The banker tapped at the window with
his finger, and the prisoner made no movement whatever in response. Then the
banker cautiously broke the seals off the door and put the key in the keyhole. The
rusty lock gave a grating sound and the door creaked. The banker expected to
hear at once footsteps and a cry of astonishment, but three minutes passed and
it was as quiet as ever in the room. He made up his mind to go in.
 At the table a man unlike ordinary people was sitting motionless. He was a
skeleton with the skin drawn tight over his bones, with long curls like a woman's
and a shaggy beard. His face was yellow with an earthy tint in it, his cheeks were
hollow, his back long and narrow, and the hand on which his shaggy head was
propped was so thin and delicate that it was dreadful to look at it. His hair was
already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one
would have believed that he was only forty. He was asleep ... In front of his
bowed head there lay on the table a sheet of paper on which there was
something written in fine handwriting.

"Poor creature!" thought the banker, "he is asleep and most likely dreaming of
the millions. And I have only to take this half-dead man, throw him on the bed,
stifle him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no
sign of a violent death. But let us first read what he has written here ... "

The banker took the page from the table and read as follows:

"To-morrow at twelve o'clock I regain my freedom and the right to associate

"For fifteen years I have been intently studying earthly life. It is true I have not
seen the earth nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung
songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the forests, have loved women ...
Beauties as ethereal as clouds, created by the magic of your poets and geniuses,
have visited me at night, and have whispered in my ears wonderful tales that
have set my brain in a whirl. In your books I have climbed to the peaks of Elburz
and Mont Blanc, and from there I have seen the sun rise and have watched it at
evening flood the sky, the ocean, and the mountain-tops with gold and crimson. I
have watched from there the lightning flashing over my head and cleaving the
storm-clouds. I have seen green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, towns. I have heard
the singing of the sirens, and the strains of the shepherds' pipes; I have touched
the wings of comely devils who flew down to converse with me of God ... In your
books I have flung myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain,
burned towns, preached new religions, conquered whole kingdoms ...

"Your books have given me wisdom. All that the unresting thought of man has
created in the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know that I
am wiser than all of you.

"And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It
is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud,
wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you
were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your
history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly
globe.

"You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for
truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events
of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead
of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who
exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand you.

"To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the
two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise. To
deprive myself of the right to the money I shall go out from here five hours
before the time fixed, and so break the compact ..."

When the banker had read this he laid the page on the table, kissed the
strange man on the head, and went out of the lodge, weeping. At no other time,
even when he had lost heavily on the Stock Exchange, had he felt so great a
contempt for himself. When he got home he lay on his bed, but his tears and
emotion kept him for hours from sleeping.

Next morning the watchmen ran in with pale faces, and told him they had
seen the man who lived in the lodge climb out of the window into the garden, go
to the gate, and disappear. The banker went at once with the servants to the
lodge and made sure of the flight of his prisoner. To avoid arousing unnecessary
talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and
when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.
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