t was a silly notion,
I think, and I quarrelled with my father pretty heartily; for I was an
ambitious man and was left to the last, coming, by succession, after my
own nephew."

"And your father and brother," said the priest, very gently, "died at
sea, I fear."

"Yes," groaned the Admiral; "by one of those brutal accidents on
which are built all the lying mythologies of mankind, they were both
shipwrecked. My father, coming up this coast out of the Atlantic, was
washed up on these Cornish rocks. My brother's ship was sunk, no one
knows where, on the voyage home from Tasmania. His body was never found.
I tell you it was from perfectly natural mishap; lots of other people
besides Pendragons were drowned; and both disasters are discussed in
a normal way by navigators. But, of course, it set this forest of
superstition on fire; and men saw the flaming tower everywhere. That's
why I say it will be all right when Walter returns. The girl he's
engaged to was coming today; but I was so afraid of some chance delay
frightening her that I wired her not to come till she heard from me. But
he's practically sure to be here some time tonight, and then it'll all
end in smoke--tobacco smoke. We'll crack that old lie when we crack a
bottle of this wine."

"Very good wine," said Father Brown, gravely lifting his glass, "but, as
you see, a very bad wine-bibber. I most sincerely beg your pardon": for
he had spilt a small spot of wine on the table-cloth. He drank and put
down the glass with a composed face; but his hand had started at the
exact moment when he became conscious of a face looking in through the
garden window just behind the Admiral--the face of a woman, swarthy,
with southern hair and eyes, and young, but like a mask of tragedy.

After a pause the priest spoke again in his mild manner. "Admiral," he
said, "will you do me a favour? Let me, and my friends if they like,
stop in that tower of yours just for tonight? Do you know that in my
business you're an exorcist almost before anything else?"

Pendragon sprang to his feet and paced swiftly to and fro across the
window, from which the face had instantly vanished. "I tell you there is
nothing in it," he cried, with ringing violence. "There is one thing I
know about this matter. You may call me an atheist. I am an atheist."
Here he swung round and fixed Father Brown with a face of frightful
concentration. "This business is perfectly natural. There is no curse in
it at all."