FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  
h his own hand on a plain piece of paper." "Of the wrong shape," said the priest calmly. "Oh, the shape be damned!" cried Flambeau. "What has the shape to do with it?" "There were twenty-three snipped papers," resumed Brown unmoved, "and only twenty-two pieces snipped off. Therefore one of the pieces had been destroyed, probably that from the written paper. Does that suggest anything to you?" A light dawned on Flambeau's face, and he said: "There was something else written by Quinton, some other words. 'They will tell you I die by my own hand,' or 'Do not believe that--'" "Hotter, as the children say," said his friend. "But the piece was hardly half an inch across; there was no room for one word, let alone five. Can you think of anything hardly bigger than a comma which the man with hell in his heart had to tear away as a testimony against him?" "I can think of nothing," said Flambeau at last. "What about quotation marks?" said the priest, and flung his cigar far into the darkness like a shooting star. All words had left the other man's mouth, and Father Brown said, like one going back to fundamentals: "Leonard Quinton was a romancer, and was writing an Oriental romance about wizardry and hypnotism. He--" At this moment the door opened briskly behind them, and the doctor came out with his hat on. He put a long envelope into the priest's hands. "That's the document you wanted," he said, "and I must be getting home. Good night." "Good night," said Father Brown, as the doctor walked briskly to the gate. He had left the front door open, so that a shaft of gaslight fell upon them. In the light of this Brown opened the envelope and read the following words: DEAR FATHER BROWN,--Vicisti Galilee. Otherwise, damn your eyes, which are very penetrating ones. Can it be possible that there is something in all that stuff of yours after all? I am a man who has ever since boyhood believed in Nature and in all natural functions and instincts, whether men called them moral or immoral. Long before I became a doctor, when I was a schoolboy keeping mice and spiders, I believed that to be a good animal is the best thing in the world. But just now I am shaken; I have believed in Nature; but it seems as if Nature could betray a man. Can there be anything in your bosh? I am really getting morbid. I loved Quinton's wife. What was there wrong in that? Nature
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130  
131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Nature
 

priest

 

doctor

 

Quinton

 

believed

 
Flambeau
 
written
 

twenty

 
opened
 

briskly


envelope

 

snipped

 
Father
 

pieces

 
Galilee
 

Vicisti

 
document
 
Otherwise
 

walked

 

FATHER


wanted

 

gaslight

 

instincts

 

animal

 

schoolboy

 

keeping

 

spiders

 

shaken

 

morbid

 

betray


penetrating

 
boyhood
 

immoral

 

called

 

natural

 
functions
 

quotation

 
suggest
 

dawned

 
friend

children
 

Hotter

 
damned
 
calmly
 

papers

 

Therefore

 
destroyed
 

resumed

 
unmoved
 

shooting