t question?" asked Father Brown.

"Well, why didn't the man cry out or anything?" asked the doctor;
"sabres in gardens are certainly unusual."

"Twigs," said the priest gloomily, and turned to the window which looked
on the scene of death. "No one saw the point of the twigs. Why should
they lie on that lawn (look at it) so far from any tree? They were not
snapped off; they were chopped off. The murderer occupied his enemy
with some tricks with the sabre, showing how he could cut a branch in
mid-air, or what-not. Then, while his enemy bent down to see the result,
a silent slash, and the head fell."

"Well," said the doctor slowly, "that seems plausible enough. But my
next two questions will stump anyone."

The priest still stood looking critically out of the window and waited.

"You know how all the garden was sealed up like an air-tight chamber,"
went on the doctor. "Well, how did the strange man get into the garden?"

Without turning round, the little priest answered: "There never was any
strange man in the garden."

There was a silence, and then a sudden cackle of almost childish
laughter relieved the strain. The absurdity of Brown's remark moved Ivan
to open taunts.

"Oh!" he cried; "then we didn't lug a great fat corpse on to a sofa last
night? He hadn't got into the garden, I suppose?"

"Got into the garden?" repeated Brown reflectively. "No, not entirely."

"Hang it all," cried Simon, "a man gets into a garden, or he doesn't."

"Not necessarily," said the priest, with a faint smile. "What is the
nest question, doctor?"

"I fancy you're ill," exclaimed Dr. Simon sharply; "but I'll ask the
next question if you like. How did Brayne get out of the garden?"

"He didn't get out of the garden," said the priest, still looking out of
the window.

"Didn't get out of the garden?" exploded Simon.

"Not completely," said Father Brown.

Simon shook his fists in a frenzy of French logic. "A man gets out of a
garden, or he doesn't," he cried.

"Not always," said Father Brown.

Dr. Simon sprang to his feet impatiently. "I have no time to spare on
such senseless talk," he cried angrily. "If you can't understand a man
being on one side of a wall or the other, I won't trouble you further."

"Doctor," said the cleric very gently, "we have always got on very
pleasantly together. If only for the sake of old friendship, stop and
tell me your fifth question."

The impatient Simon sank into a chair by the door and s