“The stranger the things I imagine, the more necessary it is to find motives and explanations for them.” “It’s easy enough to find motives for crime.” “No doubt ... but that’s exactly what I don’t want to do. I don’t want a motive for the crime--all I want is an explanation of the criminal. Yes! I mean to lead him into committing a crime gratuitously--into wanting to commit a crime without any motive at all.” Lafcadio began to prick up his ears. “We will take him as a mere youth. I mean him to show the elegance of his nature by this--that he acts almost entirely in play, and as a matter of course prefers his pleasure to his interest.” “Rather unusual, I should say,” ventured Lafcadio. “Yes, isn’t it?” said Julius, enchanted. “Then, we must add that he takes pleasure in self-control.” “To the point of dissimulation.” “We’ll endow him, then, with the love of risk.” “Bravo!” exclaimed Lafcadio, more and more amused. “If, added to that, he is a fellow who can lend an ear to the demon of curiosity, I think your pupil will be done to a turn.” Progressing in this way by leaps and bounds, each in turn overtaking and overtaken by the other, one would have likened them to two schoolboys playing leap-frog. _Julius._ First of all, I imagine him training himself. He is an adept at committing all sorts of petty thefts. _Lafcadio._ I’ve often wondered why more aren’t committed. It’s true that the opportunity of committing them usually occurs only to people who are free from want and without any particular hankerings. _Julius._ Free from want! Yes, I told you so. But the only opportunities that tempt him are the ones that demand some skill--some cunning. _Lafcadio._ And which run him, no doubt, into some danger. _Julius._ I said that he enjoys risk. But swindling is odious to him; he doesn’t want to appropriate things, but finds it amusing to displace them surreptitiously. He’s as clever at it as a conjurer. _Lafcadio._ And, besides, he’s encouraged by impunity. _Julius._ Yes, but sometimes vexed by it too. If he isn’t caught, it must be because the job he set himself was too easy. _Lafcadio._ He eggs himself on to take greater risks. _Julius._ I make him reason this way.... _Lafcadio._ Do you really think he reasons? _Julius_ (continuing). The author of a crime is always found out by the need he had to commit it. _Lafcadio._ We said that he was very clever. _Julius._ Yes, and all the cleverer because he acts with perfect coolness. Just think! A crime that has no motive either of passion or need! His very reason for committing the crime is just to commit it without any reason. _Lafcadio._ _You_ reason about his crime--_he_ merely commits it. _Julius._ There is no reason that a man who commits a crime without reason should be considered a criminal. _Lafcadio._ You’re too subtle. You have carried him to such a pitch that you have made him what they call “a free man.” _Julius._ At the mercy of the first opportunity.