Love Many, Trust Few, Do Wrong to None_ ) , who are now in league against them. Only _one_ of them – a renegade from the gang – is still at large. This gangster, who calls himself 'A' ( _One_ ) and whose actual name the public never learns, comes in contact with the police on the occasion of a hold-up of the armoured van in which he is driving away with the looted cash. They shoot him dead at the wheel. His two partners in crime, whom we shall call 'B' ( _Two_ ) and 'C' ( _Three_ ), are picked up by the police at that very moment. In an outburst of rage B accuses C of being an informer for the police. 'Tell me,' says C, 'do you suppose that I could be that kind of monster? I am your friend! I have spent my whole life with you! I have never deceived you and I never will deceive you!' B is silent and C continues: 'Don't you believe a word I say. I never have and I never will take any action which is not in the interests of the gang. The police are trying to find me. As they don't know my real identity, they do not know where to look for me. Yet I have received a letter from one of the gang, telling me that as soon as they hear that I have betrayed them, the police will go to see my father in order to find out who I really am and to take me away. I don't know what to do, for I can't bear to see my father again in a position of peril. This letter should reach me at the same time as you do, but if you were to keep it for a few days until I can get word to you from outside, I would know who wrote it and what to do!' B believes him, yet decides to have it out with A by exposing C, thus proving B's loyalty to the gang by means of a double betrayal. Since he can't get C out of prison he denounces him to the police and goes with them to C's place. A is waiting there, and the three of them are shot dead at the same time. With B's own betrayal and the deaths of A and C, the gang's existence is brought to a temporary end. Their power is gone; in the place of the great gang they have been reduced to a small gang of two. But the fact that B was able to betray C makes it possible for the police to find B. With him captured they can expose C as a double-crosser, a stool-pigeon, and as an informer. In this way they get control over the whole gang in the eyes of the public, who can now admire them for their success in ridding society of criminals who had become the scourge of society. They have done this by resorting to a double murder; in this way they will appear in the eyes of the public as rescuers and saviours, not as executioners. The 'double' motif is clearly evident in this story. From the opening sentence to the last line of the tale the reader is presented with an example of 'double' betrayal, a betrayal double-checked by B himself when he speaks to C, and the two men then going their separate ways. At the same time we have the case of the double-crosser (C) and the double stool-pigeon (B), who are exposed by the same B. It is not difficult to see in this a parallel to the twofold nature of our society, and the fact that those who should rescue society from the dangers that threaten it become in its eyes a great peril to society. The fact that B's 'double betrayal' leads to the exposure of the other 'double' is quite symptomatic of the 'double' role played by society's self-appointed saviours. B 'betrayes' C, and that is all right. B becomes an avenger. C himself knows that B has no choice but to expose him. C knows that B cannot help it. But at the same time C tries to use B's betrayal to save himself. And here we find again the old motif of the double, which has been revealed by the story of B's murder of C and which has now come to the surface in B's betrayal of C. C knows the nature of B's 'double'. He knows that B is doing what society wants him to do; he also knows what society will say of him if he does not do what society wants him to do. C will be punished for not 'upholding' the principles of his society. But at the same time he knows that the role of being betrayed is really forced on him. C, too, knows that B is in a double situation. He knows that B is now in a position of betrayal, but that he, B, is really obliged to betray C in order to save himself. At the same time he knows that B is doing what society wants B to do, and that B is doing what society wants him to do because it is his fate to do it. C knows that he cannot rely on B; he also knows what society will say of him if he does not do what society wants him to do. He tries to use B's act of betrayal to save himself; in his own mind he wants to convince B that he is innocent and C guilty. But C does not take into account the fact that society has condemned him to the role of double stool-pigeon. And again here we see that there is a profound truth in a folk tale: the 'double' who saves society (B) becomes its double who ruins it. He becomes the double of the double-crosser, who betrays society so that he himself may be saved. He becomes the double of the stool-pigeon, who tries to save himself, in order to be the double of a double-crosser. The truth is this: the double who would save society only ends in making sure that the double who would ruin it. C can see this, and tries to get out of his fate. But society does not see this; it only sees B. C tries to save himself from his fate, but society only sees B who, in his turn, only sees C. B saves himself by exposing C, and does not see that he is saving C from himself. C succeeds in keeping B at a distance, but for that very reason C ends up in the same situation as B: C becomes what C's society wanted him to be, a stool-pigeon. In fact, he now occupies the same position as B: betrayed and exposed by the double. He ends up where B started, in the position of the stool-pigeon, because he has used the same trick of trickery to save himself. And because he has failed to make a _choice_ between the two opposites – to choose between being a stool-pigeon and being a betrayer – he ends up being a traitor. It has already been pointed out that this story of betrayal and double betrayal is an archetypal myth that is common to all peoples and cultures. Since it has its parallel in every society, so also do the various ways of avoiding this fate. There is the way in which society takes steps in its own interests to protect itself from being betrayed. At the same time there is the way in which it makes sure that any attempt to help it by means of betrayal is a double-cross, the attempt to trick society into thinking that one of its own number has turned into a stool-pigeon. If we want to understand society, we must at the same time grasp this double role. This is done by means of the following tale: _The Double-Crosser_ A and B are fellow-prisoners. They have met before; they know one another. They have been to the same school, where B worked as a servant, while A was a pupil. A was also a member of the school staff. They now meet again in prison, having been caught for the same offence, and are kept there for a short while, before they are taken to court and either tried or acquitted. The day they are about to leave prison A turns to B and asks him: 'Are you going to stay in jail?' 'No, we are going to escape,' B replies. 'I thought you were going to stay in jail,' A says. 'I do not wish to stay in jail!' B replies. 'I've served my time, and I will now return to my family as I am permitted to do by law.' 'But we are not allowed to escape! Only those who have served their time can do that,' A replies. 'You don't know my family!' B says. 'I am the eldest son. I will not be allowed back into the house. My father and my brothers will not allow it. We will break out and get into the street. From there we will be able to get a place on a ship, and will reach France.' 'But what about the law, B?' A asks. 'If they catch you for this crime, they will hang you! They will sentence you to death. How are you going to escape?' 'If I am caught, they will only execute me once. But if they catch me a second time, they will send me to prison for life. If I stay in jail long enough, they will hang me. But they cannot kill me twice! The