nly to time himself two minutes before the fish was
cleared, become a swift servant, and clear it himself. He put the plates
down on a sideboard, stuffed the silver in his breast pocket, giving it
a bulgy look, and ran like a hare (I heard him coming) till he came to
the cloak room. There he had only to be a plutocrat again--a plutocrat
called away suddenly on business. He had only to give his ticket to
the cloak-room attendant, and go out again elegantly as he had come in.
Only--only I happened to be the cloak-room attendant."

"What did you do to him?" cried the colonel, with unusual intensity.
"What did he tell you?"

"I beg your pardon," said the priest immovably, "that is where the story
ends."

"And the interesting story begins," muttered Pound. "I think I
understand his professional trick. But I don't seem to have got hold of
yours."

"I must be going," said Father Brown.

They walked together along the passage to the entrance hall, where they
saw the fresh, freckled face of the Duke of Chester, who was bounding
buoyantly along towards them.

"Come along, Pound," he cried breathlessly. "I've been looking for you
everywhere. The dinner's going again in spanking style, and old Audley
has got to make a speech in honour of the forks being saved. We want to
start some new ceremony, don't you know, to commemorate the occasion. I
say, you really got the goods back, what do you suggest?"

"Why," said the colonel, eyeing him with a certain sardonic approval, "I
should suggest that henceforward we wear green coats, instead of
black. One never knows what mistakes may arise when one looks so like a
waiter."

"Oh, hang it all!" said the young man, "a gentleman never looks like a
waiter."

"Nor a waiter like a gentleman, I suppose," said Colonel Pound, with the
same lowering laughter on his face. "Reverend sir, your friend must have
been very smart to act the gentleman."

Father Brown buttoned up his commonplace overcoat to the neck, for the
night was stormy, and took his commonplace umbrella from the stand.

"Yes," he said; "it must be very hard work to be a gentleman; but, do
you know, I have sometimes thought that it may be almost as laborious to
be a waiter."

And saying "Good evening," he pushed open the heavy doors of that palace
of pleasures. The golden gates closed behind him, and he went at a brisk
walk through the damp, dark streets in search of a penny omnibus.

The Flying Stars

"The most