Because, look - you would just let him off the hook, and you’d be quite satisfied with knowing that he was a bad person.’ Törless suppressed a smile. ‘That’s enough for you, because you have no gift or interest in learning anything from a case such as this. But I am interested. If you have a journey ahead of you, inevitably you see people in quite a different way. So I want to keep Basini, so that I can learn from him.’

‘But how do you intend to punish him?’

Beineberg held back his answer for a moment, as though he was still considering the effect he expected from it. Then he said, carefully and hesitantly: ‘You’re wrong if you think I’m all that concerned with punishing him. We’ll have to think of a punishment for him in the end, of course ... but, to be reasonably brief, I have something else in mind, I want to ... how shall we put it.. torment him ...’

Törless didn’t say a word. He still couldn’t see everything quite clearly, but he felt that all of this was happening for him as - inwardly — it must. Beineberg, who couldn’t see the effect his words were having, continued: ‘... There’s no need to be worried, it isn’t as bad as all that. Because, as I’ve just explained to you, there’s no need to show any consideration for Basini. Our decision about whether we should spare him or condemn him depends solely on our need for the one or the other. It depends on inner reasons. Do you have any of those? That stuff you came out with about morals, society and all that won’t count for anything, of course; I hope you never believed in it yourself. So presumably you don’t care either way. But at the same time you can still withdraw from the whole business if you don’t want to stake anything on it.

‘My own journey won’t take me backwards, it won’t take me sideways, but straight ahead, and right through the middle. That’s the way it must be. Reiting won’t drop the matter either, because it’s particularly important for him to have a person entirely in his hands and to be able to practise on him, to treat him like a tool. He wants to rule, and would do to you what he’s doing to Basini if the opportunity arose. But there’s more at stake for me. Almost an obligation to myself; how can I make that difference between us clear to you? You know how Reiting reveres Napoleon: now compare that with the fact that the person who would hold most appeal for me would be more like some sort of philosopher and Indian holy man. Reiting would sacrifice Basini and feel nothing but interest in the process. He would dissect him morally to discover what such an undertaking would involve. And, as I have said, he would deal with you or me just as roundly as he would with Basini, and it wouldn’t make the slightest difference to him. On the other hand, just like you, I have this particular feeling that Basini is, in the end, a human being as well. Something in me, too, is injured by any act of cruelty. But that’s exactly what this is all about! A sacrifice! You see, I’m fastened to two threads as well.