live at six o'clock this morning," stammered Wilfred Bohun.

"God is good," said the smith. "Mr. Inspector, I have not the slightest
objection to being arrested. It is you who may object to arresting me.
I don't mind leaving the court without a stain on my character. You do
mind perhaps leaving the court with a bad set-back in your career."

The solid inspector for the first time looked at the blacksmith with a
lively eye; as did everybody else, except the short, strange priest, who
was still looking down at the little hammer that had dealt the dreadful
blow.

"There are two men standing outside this shop," went on the blacksmith
with ponderous lucidity, "good tradesmen in Greenford whom you all know,
who will swear that they saw me from before midnight till daybreak and
long after in the committee room of our Revival Mission, which sits all
night, we save souls so fast. In Greenford itself twenty people could
swear to me for all that time. If I were a heathen, Mr. Inspector, I
would let you walk on to your downfall. But as a Christian man I feel
bound to give you your chance, and ask you whether you will hear my
alibi now or in court."

The inspector seemed for the first time disturbed, and said, "Of course
I should be glad to clear you altogether now."

The smith walked out of his yard with the same long and easy stride, and
returned to his two friends from Greenford, who were indeed friends of
nearly everyone present. Each of them said a few words which no one ever
thought of disbelieving. When they had spoken, the innocence of Simeon
stood up as solid as the great church above them.

One of those silences struck the group which are more strange and
insufferable than any speech. Madly, in order to make conversation, the
curate said to the Catholic priest:

"You seem very much interested in that hammer, Father Brown."

"Yes, I am," said Father Brown; "why is it such a small hammer?"

The doctor swung round on him.

"By George, that's true," he cried; "who would use a little hammer with
ten larger hammers lying about?"

Then he lowered his voice in the curate's ear and said: "Only the kind
of person that can't lift a large hammer. It is not a question of force
or courage between the sexes. It's a question of lifting power in the
shoulders. A bold woman could commit ten murders with a light hammer and
never turn a hair. She could not kill a beetle with a heavy one."

Wilfred Bohun was staring at him with a