His lean face became darkish by comparison, and ended in a curt black beard that appeared Spanish and advised an Elizabethan ruff. He changed into smoking a cigarette with the seriousness of an loafer. there was not anything about him to suggest the truth that the gray jacket included a loaded revolver, that the white waistcoat covered a police card, or that the straw hat covered one of the most powerful intellects in Europe. For this turned into Valentin himself, the top of the Paris police and the most famous investigator of the arena; and he turned intocoming from Brussels to London to make the finest arrest of the century.
Flambeau turned into in England. The police of 3 nations had tracked the high-quality criminal at final from Ghent to Brussels, from Brussels to the Hook of Holland; and it became conjectured that he would take a few gain of the unfamiliarity and confusion of the Eucharistic Congress, then taking area in London. probable he could journey as a fewminor clerk or secretary connected with it; but, of direction, Valentin couldn't be positive; no person might be sureapproximately Flambeau.
it is a few years now on account that this colossus of crime ceased retaining the arena in a turmoil; and while he ceased, as they said after the dying of Roland, there was a splendid quiet upon the earth. however in his first-class days (I mean, of route, his worst) Flambeau became a figure as statuesque and international because the Kaiser. almost every morning the daily paper announced that he had escaped the outcomes of one outstanding crime by means of committing every other. He was a Gascon of enormous stature and bodily daring; and the wildest tales had been told of his outbursts of athletic humour; how he became the juge d’education upside down and stood him on his head, “to clean his mind”; how he ran down the Rue de Rivoli with a policeman beneath every arm. it's miles due to him to say that his great bodily electricitychanged into usually employed in such bloodless though undignified scenes; his real crimes were mainly those of imaginative and wholesale theft. but each of his thefts turned into nearly a brand new sin, and would make a story by using itself. It was he who ran the remarkable Tyrolean Dairy company in London, and not using a dairies, no cows, no carts, no milk, but with some thousand subscribers. these he served by means of the simple operation of moving the little milk cans out of doors people’s doorways to the doors of his very own customers. It turned into he who had stored up an unaccountable and close correspondence with a young woman whose entire letter-bag was intercepted, through the incredible trick of photographing his messages infinitesimally small upon the slides of a microscope. A sweeping simplicity, however, marked many of his experiments. it's miles stated that he once repainted all of the numbers in a street in theuseless of night simply to divert one tourist into a trap. it is pretty certain that he invented a portable pillar-field, which he put up at corners in quiet suburbs on the threat of strangers losing postal orders into it. lastly, he changed intoacknowledged to be a startling acrobat; regardless of his large determine, he should bounce like a grasshopper and meltinto the tree-tops like a monkey. for this reason the exceptional Valentin, whilst he got down to locate Flambeau, turned into perfectly aware that his adventures could not end whilst he had found him.
however how turned into he to locate him? in this the first rate Valentin’s thoughts have been still in process of agreement.
there was one aspect which Flambeau, with all his dexterity of hide, could not cover, and that changed into his singular height. If Valentin’s quick eye had stuck a tall apple-lady, a tall grenadier, or maybe a tolerably tall duchess, he may have arrested them immediately. however all alongside his train there has been no person that is a disguised Flambeau, any more than a cat may be a disguised giraffe. approximately the human beings on the boat he had already glad himself; and the human beings picked up at Harwich or on the journey constrained themselves with truth to 6. there has been a shortrailway reputable traveling up to the terminus, 3 fairly short market gardeners picked up two stations afterwards, one very quick widow female going up from a small Essex city, and a completely quick Roman Catholic priest going up from a small Essex village. while it got here to the last case, Valentin gave it up and nearly laughed. The little priest turned into so much the essence of these japanese apartments; he had a face as round and stupid as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty because the North Sea; he had numerous brown paper parcels, which he was pretty incapable of amassing. The Eucharistic Congress had seemingly sucked out of their local stagnation many such creatures, blind and helpless, like moles disinterred. Valentin become a sceptic inside the severe fashion of France, and could haven't any love for monks. however he should have pity for them, and this one may have provoked pity in everyone. He had a massive, shabby umbrella, which continuously fell on the ground. He did now not seem to understand which became the right end of his go back price ticket. He explained with a moon-calf simplicity to all people within the carriage that he needed to be cautious, because he had something made from actual silver “with blue stones” in one of his brown-paper parcels. His quaint blending of Essex flatness with saintly simplicity constantly amused the Frenchman until the priest arrived (somehow) at Tottenham with all his parcels, and came lower back for his umbrella. whilst he did the closing, Valentin even had the coolest nature to warn him not to take care of the silver through telling each person approximately it. but to whomever he talked, Valentin kept his eye open for someone else; he seemed out progressively for every person, wealthyor terrible, male or lady, who was nicely up to six toes; for Flambeau become 4 inches above it.
He alighted at Liverpool avenue, however, pretty carefully cozy that he had not missed the criminal up to now. He then went to Scotland yard to regularise his position and arrange for help in case of need; he then lit another cigarette and went for a protracted walk within the streets of London. As he become walking within the streets and squares past Victoria, he paused suddenly and stood. It was a quaint, quiet square, very standard of London, full of an unintended stillness. The tall, flat houses spherical checked out once rich and uninhabited; the square of shrubbery inside the centre regarded as deserted as a green Pacific islet. one of the four sides become plenty higher than the rest, like a dais; and the line of this aspect was damaged through certainly one of London’s admirable accidents—a eating place that seemed as though it had strayed from Soho. It was an unreasonably attractive item, with dwarf vegetation in pots and long, striped blinds of lemon yellow and white. It stood specifically excessive above the road, and within the usual patchwork manner of London, a flight of steps from the street ran up to satisfy the the front door nearly as a hearth-break out would possiblyrun as much as a primary-floor window. Valentin stood and smoked in the front of the yellow-white blinds and consideredthem long.
The most incredible thing approximately miracles is that they manifest. a few clouds in heaven do come together into the staring shape of 1 human eye. A tree does arise within the landscape of a dubious journey inside the precise and intricateform of a observe of interrogation. i've seen both these items myself in the previous couple of days. Nelson does die in the instant of victory; and a man named Williams does quite accidentally homicide a man named Williamson; it sounds like a kind of infanticide. In short, there may be in existence an detail of elfin accident which people reckoning on the prosaic may additionally always leave out. as it has been properly expressed inside the paradox of Poe, wisdom mustreckon at the unexpected.
Aristide Valentin become unfathomably French; and the French intelligence is intelligence in particular and totally. He became now not “a questioning gadget”; for that is a brainless phrase of modern-day fatalism and materialism. A machine most effective is a gadget because it can't suppose. but he became a thinking man, and a plain man on theequal time. All his incredible successes, that gave the impression of conjuring, have been won by plodding common sense, through clear and common French thought. The French electrify the arena not via beginning any paradox, they electrify it by way of carrying out a truism. they bring about a truism to date—as inside the French Revolution. but exactlydue to the fact Valentin understood motive, he understood the limits of purpose. most effective a man who is aware ofnothing of vehicles talks of motoring without petrol; only a man who knows nothing of purpose talks of reasoning without strong, undisputed first standards. here he had no strong first principles. Flambeau had been overlooked at Harwich; and if he was in London in any respect, he is probably anything from a tall tramp on Wimbledon not unusual to a tall toast-master on the hotel Metropole. In this kind of naked state of nescience, Valentin had a view and a method of his own.
In such cases he reckoned on the unforeseen. In such instances, when he could not comply with the train of the affordable, he coldly and punctiliously followed the teach of the unreasonable. in preference to going to the rightlocations—banks, police stations, rendezvous—he systematically went to the incorrect locations; knocked at every empty residence, became down each cul de sac, went up every lane blocked with rubbish, went spherical each crescent that led him uselessly out of the manner. He defended this loopy path pretty logically. He stated that if one had a clue this changed into the worst way; but if one had no clue in any respect it become the nice, due to the fact there has been just the dangerthat any oddity that stuck the eye of the pursuer might be the same that had caught the eye of the pursued. somewhere a person need to start, and it had higher be just wherein some other guy would possibly prevent. some thingapproximately that flight of steps as much as the shop, something about the quietude and quaintness of the restaurant, roused all the detective’s uncommon romantic fancy and made him remedy to strike at random. He went up the stairs, and sitting down at a desk by using the window, asked for a cup of black coffee.
It turned into half-manner via the morning, and he had no longer breakfasted; the slight litter of different breakfasts stood approximately at the table to remind him of his hunger; and including a poached egg to his order, he proceeded musingly to shake a few white sugar into his espresso, wondering all the time approximately Flambeau. He remembered how Flambeau had escaped, as soon as by a pair of nail scissors, and as soon as by using a house on hearth; once by usinghaving to pay for an unstamped letter, and once via getting people to glance through a telescope at a comet that couldspoil the world. He idea his detective mind as suitable as the crook’s, which changed into true. however he fully realised the drawback. “The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic,” he stated with a sour smile, and lifted his coffee cup to his lips slowly, and positioned it down right away. He had put salt in it.
He looked at the vessel from which the silvery powder had come; it changed into without a doubt a sugar-basin; as unmistakably meant for sugar as a champagne-bottle for champagne. He wondered why they need to keep salt in it. He looked to see if there have been any extra orthodox vessels. yes; there were two salt-cellars pretty full. possibly there has been a few speciality in the condiment inside the salt-cellars. He tasted it; it changed into sugar. Then he looked round at the eating place with a refreshed air of interest, to peer if there had been any other traces of that singular inventive tastewhich puts the sugar inside the salt-cellars and the salt in the sugar-basin. besides for an ordinary splash of some darkishfluid on one of the white-papered partitions, the entire location seemed neat, pleased and ordinary. He rang the bell for the waiter.
when that official moved quickly up, fuzzy-haired and extremely blear-eyed at that early hour, the detective (who was notwithout an appreciation of the simpler types of humour) requested him to flavor the sugar and spot if it turned into up tothe high recognition of the motel. The end result became that the waiter yawned abruptly and awoke.
“Do you play this delicate comic story on your clients each morning?” inquired Valentin. “Does changing the salt and sugar in no way pall on you as a jest?”
The waiter, while this irony grew clearer, stammeringly assured him that the established order had clearly no such aim; it need to be a maximum curious mistake. He picked up the sugar-basin and looked at it; he picked up the salt-cellar and checked out that, his face growing more and more bewildered. At ultimate he suddenly excused himself, and hurrying away, lower back in a few seconds with the owner. The owner also tested the sugar-basin and then the salt-cellar; the owner additionally appeared bewildered.
all at once the waiter seemed to develop inarticulate with a hurry of phrases.
“I zink,” he stuttered eagerly, “I zink it's miles the ones two clergy-men.”
“What priests?”
“the two priests,” stated the waiter, “that threw soup at the wall.”
“Threw soup at the wall?” repeated Valentin, feeling certain this need to be a few singular Italian metaphor.
“sure, yes,” said the attendant excitedly, and pointed at the darkish splash at the white paper; “threw it over there on thewall.”
Valentin looked his question at the proprietor, who got here to his rescue with fuller reviews.
“yes, sir,” he said, “it’s pretty genuine, although I don’t suppose it has something to do with the sugar and salt. two monkscame in and drank soup right here very early, as soon as the shutters have been taken down. They were both very quiet, respectable human beings; certainly one of them paid the invoice and went out; the alternative, who appeared a slower train altogether, became some mins longer getting his things collectively. but he went at final. only, the on the spotearlier than he stepped into the street he deliberately picked up his cup, which he had simplest 1/2 emptied, and threw the soup slap on the wall. i used to be within the again room myself, and so was the waiter; so I ought to most effectiverush out in time to discover the wall splashed and the store empty. It don’t do any precise damage, however it turned intoconfounded cheek; and that i tried to trap the guys in the road. They were too a ways off even though; I simplest noticedthey went spherical the following corner into Carstairs road.”
The detective was on his toes, hat settled and stick in hand. He had already decided that inside the widespread darkness of his thoughts he should simplest observe the primary strange finger that pointed; and this finger turned into ordinarysufficient. Paying his bill and clashing the glass doorways in the back of him, he turned into quickly swinging round into the alternative street.
It became fortunate that even in such fevered moments his eye became cool and brief. something in a store-the frontwent by him like a mere flash; but he went returned to observe it. the store changed into a famous greengrocer and fruiterer’s, an array of goods set out inside the outdoors and evidently ticketed with their names and prices. in themaximum distinguished booths had been two lots, of oranges and of nuts respectively. on the heap of nuts lay a scrap of cardboard, on which turned into written in bold, blue chalk, “high-quality tangerine oranges, a penny.” at the oranges turned into the equally clear and genuine description, “best Brazil nuts, 4d. a lb.” M. Valentin looked at these placards and fancied he had met this tremendously diffused form of humour before, and that rather recently. He drew the attention of the red-faced fruiterer, who became searching as an alternative sullenly up and down the street, to this inaccuracy in his commercials. The fruiterer stated nothing, however sharply placed each card into its proper location. The detective, leaning elegantly on his strolling-cane, persevered to scrutinise the store. At remaining he said, “Pray excuse my apparentirrelevance, my appropriate sir, however I ought to like to ask you a question in experimental psychology and the affiliation of thoughts.”
The crimson-faced shopman appeared him with an eye fixed of threat; however he endured gaily, swinging his cane, “Why,” he pursued, “why are tickets wrongly located in a greengrocer’s store like a shovel hat that has come to London for a vacation? Or, in case I do now not make myself clear, what is the mystical association which connects the idea of nuts marked as oranges with the idea of clergymen, one tall and the alternative brief?”
The eyes of the tradesman stood out of his head like a snail’s; he simply regarded for an on the spot possibly to fling himself upon the stranger. At closing he stammered angrily: “I don’t realize what you ‘ave to do with it, however in case you’re one of their friends, you may tell ‘em from me that I’ll knock their stupid ‘eads off, parsons or no parsons, if theydisenchanted my apples again.”
“indeed?” asked the detective, with first rate sympathy. “Did they disillusioned your apples?”
“one among ‘em did,” stated the heated shopman; “rolled ‘em all over the street. I’d ‘ave caught the idiot however for havin’ to pick out ‘em up.”
“Which manner did these parsons pass?” asked Valentin.
“Up that 2nd avenue on the left-hand side, after which throughout the square,” stated the alternative right away.
“thanks,” answered Valentin, and vanished like a fairy. On the alternative facet of the second one square he located a policeman, and stated: “that is urgent, constable; have you visible two priests in shovel hats?”
The policeman started out to chuckle closely. “I ‘ave, sir; and in case you arst me, one in every of ‘em changed intoinebriated. He stood inside the middle of the street that bewildered that—”
“Which way did they move?” snapped Valentin.
“They took one among them yellow buses over there,” answered the person; “them that go to Hampstead.”
Valentin produced his legitimate card and stated very rapidly: “name up two of your guys to come with me in pursuit,” and crossed the road with such contagious power that the ponderous policeman turned into moved to almost agile obedience. In a minute and a half the French detective became joined on the other pavement with the aid of an inspector and a manin undeniable garments.
“nicely, sir,” started the former, with smiling significance, “and what can also—?”
Valentin pointed all of sudden together with his cane. “I’ll let you know at the pinnacle of that omnibus,” he stated, and changed into darting and dodging throughout the tangle of the visitors. when all three sank panting on the pinnacle seats of the yellow car, the inspector stated: “We ought to pass 4 times as brief in a taxi.”
“pretty real,” spoke back their chief placidly, “if we handiest had an concept of where we have been going.”
“nicely, where are you going?” requested the opposite, staring.
Valentin smoked frowningly for some seconds; then, casting off his cigarette, he stated: “if you recognize what a man’s doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he’s doing, maintain at the back of him. Stray whilst he strays; forestall whilst he stops; journey as slowly as he. Then you could see what he noticed and may act as he acted. All we willdo is to hold our eyes skinned for a queer component.”
“What sort of queer thing do you imply?” requested the inspector.
“Any kind of queer factor,” replied Valentin, and relapsed into obstinate silence.
The yellow omnibus crawled up the northern roads for what regarded like hours on give up; the top notch detective wouldno longer explain similarly, and possibly his assistants felt a silent and developing doubt of his errand. perhaps, also, they felt a silent and growing preference for lunch, for the hours crept lengthy past the ordinary luncheon hour, and the lengthy roads of the North London suburbs regarded to shoot out into length after length like an infernal telescope. It turned into one of these journeys on which a person continually feels that now at ultimate he need to have come to the end of the universe, and then reveals he has only come to the start of Tufnell Park. London died away in draggled taverns and dreary scrubs, after which turned into unaccountably born again in blazing high streets and blatant inns. It changed into like passing thru 13 separate vulgar towns all simply touching each other. however although the winter twilight turned into already threatening the road in advance of them, the Parisian detective nonetheless sat silent and watchful, eyeing the frontage of the streets that slid by on either facet. by the time they'd left Camden town in the back of, the policemen have been nearly asleep; as a minimum, they gave some thing like a jump as Valentin leapt erect, struck a hand on each man’s shoulder, and shouted to the driving force to forestall.
They tumbled down the stairs into the street with out realising why they were dislodged; when they looked round for enlightenment they determined Valentin triumphantly pointing his finger towards a window at the left side of the road. It turned into a big window, forming part of the lengthy facade of a gilt and palatial public-house; it was the part reserved for decent dining, and labelled “eating place.” This window, like all of the relaxation alongside the frontage of the hotel, changed into of frosted and figured glass; but within the middle of it become a large, black ruin, like a celeb in the ice.
“Our cue at closing,” cried Valentin, waving his stick; “the area with the damaged window.”
“What window? What cue?” requested his important assistant. “Why, what evidence is there that this has some thing to do with them?”
Valentin almost broke his bamboo stay with rage.
“evidence!” he cried. “good God! the person is searching out proof! Why, of direction, the possibilities are twenty to one which it has nothing to do with them. but what else are we able to do? Don’t you notice we ought to both follow one wild opportunity otherwise go home to mattress?” He banged his way into the eating place, observed by using his partners, and they have been soon seated at a overdue luncheon at a bit desk, and checked out the celebrity of smashed glass from the internal. no longer that it was very informative to them even then.
“were given your window damaged, I see,” said Valentin to the waiter as he paid the invoice.
“yes, sir,” responded the attendant, bending busily over the trade, to which Valentin silently delivered an vast tip. The waiter straightened himself with mild however unmistakable animation.
“Ah, yes, sir,” he stated. “Very atypical element, that, sir.”
“certainly?” inform us approximately it,” said the detective with careless curiosity.
“properly, two gentlemen in black came in,” said the waiter; “ of these overseas parsons that are strolling approximately. that they had a cheap and quiet little lunch, and one of them paid for it and went out. the alternative became simplygoing out to join him after I checked out my exchange once more and observed he’d paid me more than 3 instances too much. ‘here,’ I says to the chap who was nearly out of the door, ‘you’ve paid too much.’ ‘Oh,’ he says, very cool, ‘have we?’ ‘yes,’ I says, and alternatives up the invoice to expose him. properly, that become a knock-out.”
“What do you imply?” requested his interlocutor.
“well, I’d have sworn on seven Bibles that I’d placed 4s. on that invoice. but now I noticed I’d put 14s., as undeniable as paint.”
“properly?” cried Valentin, shifting slowly, however with burning eyes, “and then?”
“The parson at the door he says all serene, ‘Sorry to confuse your accounts, however it’ll pay for the window.’ ‘What window?’ I says. ‘the one I’m going to break,’ he says, and smashed that blessed pane with his umbrella.”
All 3 inquirers made an exclamation; and the inspector stated under his breath, “Are we after escaped lunatics?” The waiter went on with a few take pleasure in for the ridiculous story:
“i was so knocked stupid for a 2d, I couldn’t do some thing. the person marched out of the area and joined his friendsimply next door. Then they went so brief up Bullock road that I couldn’t capture them, even though I ran round the bars to do it.”
“Bullock avenue,” said the detective, and shot up that thoroughfare as quickly because the odd couple he pursued.
Their adventure now took them thru naked brick ways like tunnels; streets with few lights or even with few windows; streets that appeared built out of the blank backs of the entirety and everywhere. nightfall was deepening, and it turned into no longer clean even for the London policemen to guess in what genuine course they were treading. The inspector, but, become pretty sure that they would sooner or later strike some part of Hampstead Heath. unexpectedly one bulging gas-lit window broke the blue twilight like a bull’s-eye lantern; and Valentin stopped an instantaneous earlier than a littlegarish sweetstuff keep. After an on the spot’s hesitation he went in; he stood amid the gaudy shades of the confectionery with whole gravity and purchased thirteen chocolate cigars with a sure care. He become certainly getting ready a gap; however he did no longer need one.
An angular, aged young woman in the shop had appeared his elegant look with a merely computerized inquiry; howeverwhen she noticed the door behind him blocked with the blue uniform of the inspector, her eyes appeared to awaken.
“Oh,” she said, “in case you’ve come approximately that parcel, I’ve sent it off already.”
“Parcel?” repeated Valentin; and it turned into his turn to appearance inquiring.
“I imply the parcel the gentleman left—the clergyman gentleman.”
“For goodness’ sake,” said Valentin, leaning forward together with his first real confession of eagerness, “for Heaven’s sake inform us what happened exactly.”
“properly,” said the female a little doubtfully, “the priests got here in about 1/2 an hour in the past and bought somepeppermints and talked a chunk, and then went off towards the Heath. but a 2nd after, one in every of them runs backinto the shop and says, ‘Have I left a parcel!’ well, I seemed everywhere and couldn’t see one; so he says, ‘in no way mind; but if it must flip up, please post it to this address,’ and he left me the cope with and a shilling for my trouble. And positivesufficient, although I idea I’d regarded everywhere, i found he’d left a brown paper parcel, so I posted it to the place he stated. i will’t keep in mind the deal with now; it was someplace in Westminster. however as the element regarded so crucial, I thought possibly the police had come about it.”
“so they have,” stated Valentin rapidly. “Is Hampstead Heath near here?”
“immediately on for fifteen mins,” stated the female, “and you’ll come right out on the open.” Valentin sprang out of the store and commenced to run. the opposite detectives followed him at a reluctant trot.
the street they threaded was so slender and shut in by means of shadows that once they got here out all at once into the void commonplace and large sky they were startled to find the nighttime nevertheless so light and clear. a great dome of peacock-inexperienced sank into gold amid the blackening bushes and the darkish violet distances. The glowinginexperienced tint became just deep sufficient to pick out in points of crystal one or two stars. All that turned into left of the sunlight hours lay in a golden glitter throughout the brink of Hampstead and that famous hollow which is known asthe Vale of health. the holiday makers who roam this region had now not utterly dispersed; some couples sat shapelessly on benches; and here and there female nevertheless shrieked in one of the swings. the consideration of heaven deepened and darkened around the chic vulgarity of man; and standing on the slope and looking across the valley, Valentin beheld the aspect which he sought.
most of the black and breaking groups in that distance turned into one specifically black which did not ruin—a set of twofigures clerically clad. even though they regarded as small as bugs, Valentin may want to see that one in all them becomean awful lot smaller than the alternative. even though the opposite had a scholar’s stoop and an not easily seen way, he ought to see that the man turned into properly over six toes excessive. He close his enamel and went forward, whirling his stick impatiently. by the time he had substantially dwindled the gap and magnified the 2 black figures as in a enormous microscope, he had perceived some thing else; some thing which startled him, and but which he had by hook or by crook expected. Whoever was the tall priest, there could be no question approximately the identity of the short one. It turned into his pal of the Harwich train, the stumpy little remedy of Essex whom he had warned about his brown paper parcels.
Now, so far as this went, the whole thing fitted in eventually and rationally sufficient. Valentin had found out by way ofhis inquiries that morning that a Father Brown from Essex become mentioning a silver cross with sapphires, a relic of hugeprice, to expose some of the overseas clergymen at the congress. This certainly became the “silver with blue stones”; and Father Brown absolutely became the little greenhorn within the educate. Now there was nothing first rate about the truththat what Valentin had located out Flambeau had additionally observed out; Flambeau determined out the whole thing. also there has been nothing extremely good within the fact that after Flambeau heard of a sapphire go he should try tothieve it; that was the maximum natural element in all herbal records. And maximum truly there has been not anythingsuperb approximately the fact that Flambeau must have it all his personal way with any such stupid sheep as the personwith the umbrella and the parcels. He was the type of man whom each person may want to lead on a string to the North Pole; it become now not sudden that an actor like Flambeau, dressed as any other priest, could lead him to Hampstead Heath. up to now the crime regarded clear sufficient; and at the same time as the detective pitied the priest for his helplessness, he nearly despised Flambeau for condescending to so gullible a victim. however while Valentin idea of all that had occurred in between, of all that had led him to his triumph, he racked his brains for the smallest rhyme or purposein it. What had the stealing of a blue-and-silver move from a priest from Essex to do with chucking soup at wall paper? What had it to do with calling nuts oranges, or with purchasing windows first and breaking them afterwards? He had come to the cease of his chase; but by some means he had neglected the middle of it. while he failed (which changed into seldom), he had usually grasped the clue, but however neglected the criminal. here he had grasped the crook, however still he could not grasp the clue.
the two figures that they observed were crawling like black flies across the massive inexperienced contour of a hill. They had been naturally sunk in conversation, and possibly did now not observe where they were going; however they had been in reality going to the wilder and greater silent heights of the Heath. As their pursuers received on them, the latter had to use the undignified attitudes of the deer-stalker, to crouch in the back of clumps of bushes or even to move slowlyprostrate in deep grass. through those ungainly ingenuities the hunters even got here near sufficient to the quarry to hearthe murmur of the dialogue, however no phrase can be outstanding except the phrase “motive” ordinary frequently in a high and nearly childish voice. once over an abrupt dip of land and a dense tangle of thickets, the detectives genuinely lostthe 2 figures they had been following. They did no longer locate the trail once more for an agonising ten minutes, after which it led round the forehead of a amazing dome of hill overlooking an amphitheatre of wealthy and desolate sunsetscenery. underneath a tree on this commanding but left out spot become an old ramshackle wooden seat. in this seat sat the two monks nonetheless in severe speech together. The splendid inexperienced and gold nonetheless clung to the darkening horizon; but the dome above become turning slowly from peacock-green to peacock-blue, and the starsdetached themselves increasingly more like solid jewels. Mutely motioning to his fans, Valentin contrived to creep up in the back of the big branching tree, and, status there in deathly silence, heard the words of the unusual priests for the firsttime.
After he had listened for a minute and a half of, he became gripped with the aid of a devilish doubt. perhaps he had dragged the two English policemen to the wastes of a nocturnal heath on an errand no saner than seeking figs on its thistles. For the two priests were talking exactly like clergymen, piously, with getting to know and entertainment, aboutthe maximum aerial enigmas of theology. The little Essex priest spoke the more virtually, along with his spherical face became to the strengthening stars; the alternative talked together with his head bowed, as if he have been no longer even worth to look at them. however no more innocently clerical communication might have been heard in any white Italian cloister or black Spanish cathedral.
the primary he heard was the tail of one of Father Brown’s sentences, which ended: “… what they clearly supposed inside the center a long time by the heavens being incorruptible.”
The taller priest nodded his bowed head and stated:
“Ah, yes, those current infidels enchantment to their motive; however who can observe the ones tens of millions of worlds and now not experience that there could be awesome universes above us wherein motive is fully unreasonable?”
“No,” said the opposite priest; “purpose is usually reasonable, even in the ultimate limbo, in the misplaced borderland of factors. I realize that human beings fee the Church with lowering motive, but it's miles simply the other manner. aloneon this planet, the Church makes motive clearly very best. alone on earth, the Church affirms that God himself is certainwith the aid of cause.”
the other priest raised his austere face to the spangled sky and said:
“but who is aware of if in that countless universe—?”
“simplest limitless physically,” stated the little priest, turning sharply in his seat, “now not limitless in the feel of escaping from the laws of reality.”
Valentin in the back of his tree was tearing his fingernails with silent fury. He seemed nearly to listen the sniggers of the English detectives whom he had delivered so far on a fantastic wager handiest to pay attention to the metaphysical gossip of slight vintage parsons. In his impatience he lost the equally complex solution of the tall cleric, and whilst he listened again it changed into again Father Brown who turned into speakme:
“purpose and justice grip the remotest and the loneliest celebrity. study those stars. Don’t they appearance as thoughthey have been single diamonds and sapphires? nicely, you can consider any mad botany or geology you please. think offorests of adamant with leaves of brilliants. assume the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire. howeverdon’t fancy that each one that frantic astronomy would make the smallest difference to the purpose and justice of conduct. On plains of opal, below cliffs cut out of pearl, you'll still find a note-board, ‘Thou shalt not scouse borrow.’”
Valentin turned into simply within the act of growing from his rigid and crouching attitude and creeping away as softly as is probably, felled by using the one top notch folly of his existence. however something inside the very silence of the tall priest made him stop till the latter spoke. when at final he did speak, he stated sincerely, his head bowed and his arms on his knees:
“nicely, I suppose that different worlds may additionally perhaps rise better than our reason. The mystery of heaven is unfathomable, and that i for you may best bow my head.”
Then, with brow but bent and without changing by the faintest coloration his attitude or voice, he added:
“simply quit that sapphire cross of yours, will you? We’re all on my own right here, and i should pull you to pieces like a straw doll.”
the utterly unaltered voice and mind-set added a extraordinary violence to that surprising alternate of speech. but theguarder of the relic handiest appeared to turn his head through the smallest phase of the compass. He seemednonetheless to have a particularly foolish face became to the stars. possibly he had no longer understood. Or, perhaps, he had understood and sat inflexible with terror.
“yes,” stated the tall priest, inside the identical low voice and inside the equal nevertheless posture, “yes, i'm Flambeau.”
Then, after a pause, he stated:
“Come, will you deliver me that move?”
“No,” said the alternative, and the monosyllable had an extraordinary sound.
Flambeau flung off all his pontifical pretensions. The first rate robber leaned back in his seat and laughed low but long.
“No,” he cried, “you gained’t give it me, you proud prelate. You received’t provide it me, you little celibate simpleton. Shall I let you know why you received’t supply it me? due to the fact I’ve were given it already in my personal breast-pocket.”
The small man from Essex became what appeared to be a dazed face in the nightfall, and stated, with the timid eagerness of “The non-public Secretary”:
“Are—are you sure?”
Flambeau yelled with delight.
“virtually, you’re as precise as a 3-act farce,” he cried. “yes, you turnip, i am quite positive. I had the sense to make a reproduction of the right parcel, and now, my friend, you’ve were given the duplicate and i’ve got the jewels. An antiquekeep away from, Father Brown—a very antique dodge.”
“yes,” said Father Brown, and exceeded his hand via his hair with the same peculiar vagueness of way. “sure, I’ve heard of it earlier than.”
The colossus of crime leaned over to the little rustic priest with a kind of surprising hobby.
“you have got heard of it?” he asked. “where have you ever heard of it?”
“properly, I mustn’t let you know his call, of direction,” said the little man surely. “He changed into a penitent, you realize. He had lived prosperously for approximately twenty years absolutely on reproduction brown paper parcels. And so, you spot, once I began to suspect you, I concept of this bad chap’s manner of doing it right away.”
“started out to suspect me?” repeated the outlaw with elevated depth. “Did you truely have the gumption to suspect me simply due to the fact I brought you as much as this bare part of the heath?”
“No, no,” stated Brown with an air of apology. “you spot, I suspected you whilst we first met. It’s that little bulge up the sleeve where you humans have the spiked bracelet.”
“How in Tartarus,” cried Flambeau, “did you ever pay attention of the spiked bracelet?”
“Oh, one’s little flock, you realize!” stated Father Brown, arching his eyebrows instead blankly. “when i was a curate in Hartlepool, there had been three of them with spiked bracelets. So, as I suspected you from the primary, don’t you notice, I made positive that the go have to move safe, anyhow. I’m afraid I watched you, you already know. So at closing I noticedyou convert the parcels. Then, don’t you spot, I changed them back once more. and then I left the right one in the back of.”
“Left it behind?” repeated Flambeau, and for the primary time there was some other be aware in his voice beside his triumph.
“well, it was like this,” stated the little priest, talking inside the identical unaffected manner. “I went returned to that sweet-keep and requested if I’d left a parcel, and gave them a specific address if it grew to become up. well, I knew I hadn’t; but after I went away once more I did. So, as opposed to walking after me with that treasured parcel, they havedespatched it flying to a chum of mine in Westminster.” Then he added as a substitute regrettably: “I learnt that, too, from a bad fellow in Hartlepool. He used to do it with handbags he stole at railway stations, but he’s in a monastery now. Oh, one gets to recognise, you already know,” he added, rubbing his head once more with the identical kind of desperate apology. “we can’t help being clergymen. humans come and tell us these items.”
Flambeau tore a brown-paper parcel out of his inner pocket and lease it in pieces. there was nothing however paper and sticks of lead interior it. He sprang to his toes with a colossal gesture, and cried:
“I don’t accept as true with you. I don’t believe a bumpkin like you can manage all that. I consider you’ve still were giventhe stuff on you, and in case you don’t give it up—why, we’re all by myself, and i’ll take it by using force!”
“No,” said Father Brown actually, and stood up also, “you received’t take it by way of pressure. First, due to the fact I honestly haven’t nevertheless were given it. And, 2nd, because we aren't by myself.”
Flambeau stopped in his stride ahead.
“behind that tree,” stated Father Brown, pointing, “are two sturdy policemen and the finest detective alive. How did they come right here, do you ask? Why, I brought them, of course! How did I do it? Why, I’ll let you know if you like! Lord bless you, we need to recognize twenty such things when we paintings a number of the crook instructions! nicely, I wasn’t positive you were a thief, and it would by no means do to make a scandal towards one in every of our personal clergy. So I simply tested you to peer if whatever might make you show yourself. a man typically makes a small scene if he finds salt in his coffee; if he doesn’t, he has a few reason for keeping quiet. I changed the salt and sugar, and also you stored quiet. a person commonly items if his invoice is 3 times too big. If he pays it, he has some purpose for passing omitted. I altered your invoice, and you paid it.”
the world regarded looking ahead to Flambeau to jump like a tiger. however he changed into held back as by way of a spell; he became stunned with the utmost interest.
“nicely,” went on Father Brown, with lumbering lucidity, “as you wouldn’t depart any tracks for the police, of route any person needed to. At each vicinity we went to, I took love to do something that might get us pointed out for the relaxation of the day. I didn’t do a whole lot harm—a splashed wall, spilt apples, a broken window; however I saved the go, as the move will continually be stored. it's miles at Westminster with the aid of now. I alternatively marvel you didn’t prevent it with the Donkey’s Whistle.”
“With the what?” asked Flambeau.
“I’m glad you’ve by no means heard of it,” stated the priest, creating a face. “It’s a bad component. I’m certain you’re too accurate a man for a Whistler. I couldn’t have countered it despite the Spots myself; I’m no longer sturdy enough in thelegs.”
“What on earth are you speaking approximately?” asked the alternative.
“well, I did suppose you’d realize the Spots,” said Father Brown, agreeably surprised. “Oh, you can’t have long gone so very incorrect yet!”
“How in blazes do you understand these types of horrors?” cried Flambeau.
The shadow of a grin crossed the spherical, easy face of his clerical opponent.
“Oh, via being a celibate simpleton, I think,” he said. “Has it in no way struck you that a man who does next to not anything however pay attention men’s real sins is not probable to be absolutely ignorant of human evil? but, as a remember of reality, every other part of my change, too, made me certain you weren’t a clergyman.”
“What?” asked the thief, almost gaping.
“You attacked motive,” said Father Brown. “It’s awful theology.”
And even as he grew to become away to gather his assets, the 3 policemen got here out from under the twilight bushes. Flambeau changed into an artist and a sportsman. He stepped lower back and swept Valentin a brilliant bow.
“Do now not bow to me, mon ami,” said Valentin with silver clearness. “allow us to each bow to our master.”
and they each stood an instant uncovered even as the little Essex priest blinked about for his umbrella.
Flambeau turned into in England. The police of 3 nations had tracked the high-quality criminal at final from Ghent to Brussels, from Brussels to the Hook of Holland; and it became conjectured that he would take a few gain of the unfamiliarity and confusion of the Eucharistic Congress, then taking area in London. probable he could journey as a fewminor clerk or secretary connected with it; but, of direction, Valentin couldn't be positive; no person might be sureapproximately Flambeau.
it is a few years now on account that this colossus of crime ceased retaining the arena in a turmoil; and while he ceased, as they said after the dying of Roland, there was a splendid quiet upon the earth. however in his first-class days (I mean, of route, his worst) Flambeau became a figure as statuesque and international because the Kaiser. almost every morning the daily paper announced that he had escaped the outcomes of one outstanding crime by means of committing every other. He was a Gascon of enormous stature and bodily daring; and the wildest tales had been told of his outbursts of athletic humour; how he became the juge d’education upside down and stood him on his head, “to clean his mind”; how he ran down the Rue de Rivoli with a policeman beneath every arm. it's miles due to him to say that his great bodily electricitychanged into usually employed in such bloodless though undignified scenes; his real crimes were mainly those of imaginative and wholesale theft. but each of his thefts turned into nearly a brand new sin, and would make a story by using itself. It was he who ran the remarkable Tyrolean Dairy company in London, and not using a dairies, no cows, no carts, no milk, but with some thousand subscribers. these he served by means of the simple operation of moving the little milk cans out of doors people’s doorways to the doors of his very own customers. It turned into he who had stored up an unaccountable and close correspondence with a young woman whose entire letter-bag was intercepted, through the incredible trick of photographing his messages infinitesimally small upon the slides of a microscope. A sweeping simplicity, however, marked many of his experiments. it's miles stated that he once repainted all of the numbers in a street in theuseless of night simply to divert one tourist into a trap. it is pretty certain that he invented a portable pillar-field, which he put up at corners in quiet suburbs on the threat of strangers losing postal orders into it. lastly, he changed intoacknowledged to be a startling acrobat; regardless of his large determine, he should bounce like a grasshopper and meltinto the tree-tops like a monkey. for this reason the exceptional Valentin, whilst he got down to locate Flambeau, turned into perfectly aware that his adventures could not end whilst he had found him.
however how turned into he to locate him? in this the first rate Valentin’s thoughts have been still in process of agreement.
there was one aspect which Flambeau, with all his dexterity of hide, could not cover, and that changed into his singular height. If Valentin’s quick eye had stuck a tall apple-lady, a tall grenadier, or maybe a tolerably tall duchess, he may have arrested them immediately. however all alongside his train there has been no person that is a disguised Flambeau, any more than a cat may be a disguised giraffe. approximately the human beings on the boat he had already glad himself; and the human beings picked up at Harwich or on the journey constrained themselves with truth to 6. there has been a shortrailway reputable traveling up to the terminus, 3 fairly short market gardeners picked up two stations afterwards, one very quick widow female going up from a small Essex city, and a completely quick Roman Catholic priest going up from a small Essex village. while it got here to the last case, Valentin gave it up and nearly laughed. The little priest turned into so much the essence of these japanese apartments; he had a face as round and stupid as a Norfolk dumpling; he had eyes as empty because the North Sea; he had numerous brown paper parcels, which he was pretty incapable of amassing. The Eucharistic Congress had seemingly sucked out of their local stagnation many such creatures, blind and helpless, like moles disinterred. Valentin become a sceptic inside the severe fashion of France, and could haven't any love for monks. however he should have pity for them, and this one may have provoked pity in everyone. He had a massive, shabby umbrella, which continuously fell on the ground. He did now not seem to understand which became the right end of his go back price ticket. He explained with a moon-calf simplicity to all people within the carriage that he needed to be cautious, because he had something made from actual silver “with blue stones” in one of his brown-paper parcels. His quaint blending of Essex flatness with saintly simplicity constantly amused the Frenchman until the priest arrived (somehow) at Tottenham with all his parcels, and came lower back for his umbrella. whilst he did the closing, Valentin even had the coolest nature to warn him not to take care of the silver through telling each person approximately it. but to whomever he talked, Valentin kept his eye open for someone else; he seemed out progressively for every person, wealthyor terrible, male or lady, who was nicely up to six toes; for Flambeau become 4 inches above it.
He alighted at Liverpool avenue, however, pretty carefully cozy that he had not missed the criminal up to now. He then went to Scotland yard to regularise his position and arrange for help in case of need; he then lit another cigarette and went for a protracted walk within the streets of London. As he become walking within the streets and squares past Victoria, he paused suddenly and stood. It was a quaint, quiet square, very standard of London, full of an unintended stillness. The tall, flat houses spherical checked out once rich and uninhabited; the square of shrubbery inside the centre regarded as deserted as a green Pacific islet. one of the four sides become plenty higher than the rest, like a dais; and the line of this aspect was damaged through certainly one of London’s admirable accidents—a eating place that seemed as though it had strayed from Soho. It was an unreasonably attractive item, with dwarf vegetation in pots and long, striped blinds of lemon yellow and white. It stood specifically excessive above the road, and within the usual patchwork manner of London, a flight of steps from the street ran up to satisfy the the front door nearly as a hearth-break out would possiblyrun as much as a primary-floor window. Valentin stood and smoked in the front of the yellow-white blinds and consideredthem long.
The most incredible thing approximately miracles is that they manifest. a few clouds in heaven do come together into the staring shape of 1 human eye. A tree does arise within the landscape of a dubious journey inside the precise and intricateform of a observe of interrogation. i've seen both these items myself in the previous couple of days. Nelson does die in the instant of victory; and a man named Williams does quite accidentally homicide a man named Williamson; it sounds like a kind of infanticide. In short, there may be in existence an detail of elfin accident which people reckoning on the prosaic may additionally always leave out. as it has been properly expressed inside the paradox of Poe, wisdom mustreckon at the unexpected.
Aristide Valentin become unfathomably French; and the French intelligence is intelligence in particular and totally. He became now not “a questioning gadget”; for that is a brainless phrase of modern-day fatalism and materialism. A machine most effective is a gadget because it can't suppose. but he became a thinking man, and a plain man on theequal time. All his incredible successes, that gave the impression of conjuring, have been won by plodding common sense, through clear and common French thought. The French electrify the arena not via beginning any paradox, they electrify it by way of carrying out a truism. they bring about a truism to date—as inside the French Revolution. but exactlydue to the fact Valentin understood motive, he understood the limits of purpose. most effective a man who is aware ofnothing of vehicles talks of motoring without petrol; only a man who knows nothing of purpose talks of reasoning without strong, undisputed first standards. here he had no strong first principles. Flambeau had been overlooked at Harwich; and if he was in London in any respect, he is probably anything from a tall tramp on Wimbledon not unusual to a tall toast-master on the hotel Metropole. In this kind of naked state of nescience, Valentin had a view and a method of his own.
In such cases he reckoned on the unforeseen. In such instances, when he could not comply with the train of the affordable, he coldly and punctiliously followed the teach of the unreasonable. in preference to going to the rightlocations—banks, police stations, rendezvous—he systematically went to the incorrect locations; knocked at every empty residence, became down each cul de sac, went up every lane blocked with rubbish, went spherical each crescent that led him uselessly out of the manner. He defended this loopy path pretty logically. He stated that if one had a clue this changed into the worst way; but if one had no clue in any respect it become the nice, due to the fact there has been just the dangerthat any oddity that stuck the eye of the pursuer might be the same that had caught the eye of the pursued. somewhere a person need to start, and it had higher be just wherein some other guy would possibly prevent. some thingapproximately that flight of steps as much as the shop, something about the quietude and quaintness of the restaurant, roused all the detective’s uncommon romantic fancy and made him remedy to strike at random. He went up the stairs, and sitting down at a desk by using the window, asked for a cup of black coffee.
It turned into half-manner via the morning, and he had no longer breakfasted; the slight litter of different breakfasts stood approximately at the table to remind him of his hunger; and including a poached egg to his order, he proceeded musingly to shake a few white sugar into his espresso, wondering all the time approximately Flambeau. He remembered how Flambeau had escaped, as soon as by a pair of nail scissors, and as soon as by using a house on hearth; once by usinghaving to pay for an unstamped letter, and once via getting people to glance through a telescope at a comet that couldspoil the world. He idea his detective mind as suitable as the crook’s, which changed into true. however he fully realised the drawback. “The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic,” he stated with a sour smile, and lifted his coffee cup to his lips slowly, and positioned it down right away. He had put salt in it.
He looked at the vessel from which the silvery powder had come; it changed into without a doubt a sugar-basin; as unmistakably meant for sugar as a champagne-bottle for champagne. He wondered why they need to keep salt in it. He looked to see if there have been any extra orthodox vessels. yes; there were two salt-cellars pretty full. possibly there has been a few speciality in the condiment inside the salt-cellars. He tasted it; it changed into sugar. Then he looked round at the eating place with a refreshed air of interest, to peer if there had been any other traces of that singular inventive tastewhich puts the sugar inside the salt-cellars and the salt in the sugar-basin. besides for an ordinary splash of some darkishfluid on one of the white-papered partitions, the entire location seemed neat, pleased and ordinary. He rang the bell for the waiter.
when that official moved quickly up, fuzzy-haired and extremely blear-eyed at that early hour, the detective (who was notwithout an appreciation of the simpler types of humour) requested him to flavor the sugar and spot if it turned into up tothe high recognition of the motel. The end result became that the waiter yawned abruptly and awoke.
“Do you play this delicate comic story on your clients each morning?” inquired Valentin. “Does changing the salt and sugar in no way pall on you as a jest?”
The waiter, while this irony grew clearer, stammeringly assured him that the established order had clearly no such aim; it need to be a maximum curious mistake. He picked up the sugar-basin and looked at it; he picked up the salt-cellar and checked out that, his face growing more and more bewildered. At ultimate he suddenly excused himself, and hurrying away, lower back in a few seconds with the owner. The owner also tested the sugar-basin and then the salt-cellar; the owner additionally appeared bewildered.
all at once the waiter seemed to develop inarticulate with a hurry of phrases.
“I zink,” he stuttered eagerly, “I zink it's miles the ones two clergy-men.”
“What priests?”
“the two priests,” stated the waiter, “that threw soup at the wall.”
“Threw soup at the wall?” repeated Valentin, feeling certain this need to be a few singular Italian metaphor.
“sure, yes,” said the attendant excitedly, and pointed at the darkish splash at the white paper; “threw it over there on thewall.”
Valentin looked his question at the proprietor, who got here to his rescue with fuller reviews.
“yes, sir,” he said, “it’s pretty genuine, although I don’t suppose it has something to do with the sugar and salt. two monkscame in and drank soup right here very early, as soon as the shutters have been taken down. They were both very quiet, respectable human beings; certainly one of them paid the invoice and went out; the alternative, who appeared a slower train altogether, became some mins longer getting his things collectively. but he went at final. only, the on the spotearlier than he stepped into the street he deliberately picked up his cup, which he had simplest 1/2 emptied, and threw the soup slap on the wall. i used to be within the again room myself, and so was the waiter; so I ought to most effectiverush out in time to discover the wall splashed and the store empty. It don’t do any precise damage, however it turned intoconfounded cheek; and that i tried to trap the guys in the road. They were too a ways off even though; I simplest noticedthey went spherical the following corner into Carstairs road.”
The detective was on his toes, hat settled and stick in hand. He had already decided that inside the widespread darkness of his thoughts he should simplest observe the primary strange finger that pointed; and this finger turned into ordinarysufficient. Paying his bill and clashing the glass doorways in the back of him, he turned into quickly swinging round into the alternative street.
It became fortunate that even in such fevered moments his eye became cool and brief. something in a store-the frontwent by him like a mere flash; but he went returned to observe it. the store changed into a famous greengrocer and fruiterer’s, an array of goods set out inside the outdoors and evidently ticketed with their names and prices. in themaximum distinguished booths had been two lots, of oranges and of nuts respectively. on the heap of nuts lay a scrap of cardboard, on which turned into written in bold, blue chalk, “high-quality tangerine oranges, a penny.” at the oranges turned into the equally clear and genuine description, “best Brazil nuts, 4d. a lb.” M. Valentin looked at these placards and fancied he had met this tremendously diffused form of humour before, and that rather recently. He drew the attention of the red-faced fruiterer, who became searching as an alternative sullenly up and down the street, to this inaccuracy in his commercials. The fruiterer stated nothing, however sharply placed each card into its proper location. The detective, leaning elegantly on his strolling-cane, persevered to scrutinise the store. At remaining he said, “Pray excuse my apparentirrelevance, my appropriate sir, however I ought to like to ask you a question in experimental psychology and the affiliation of thoughts.”
The crimson-faced shopman appeared him with an eye fixed of threat; however he endured gaily, swinging his cane, “Why,” he pursued, “why are tickets wrongly located in a greengrocer’s store like a shovel hat that has come to London for a vacation? Or, in case I do now not make myself clear, what is the mystical association which connects the idea of nuts marked as oranges with the idea of clergymen, one tall and the alternative brief?”
The eyes of the tradesman stood out of his head like a snail’s; he simply regarded for an on the spot possibly to fling himself upon the stranger. At closing he stammered angrily: “I don’t realize what you ‘ave to do with it, however in case you’re one of their friends, you may tell ‘em from me that I’ll knock their stupid ‘eads off, parsons or no parsons, if theydisenchanted my apples again.”
“indeed?” asked the detective, with first rate sympathy. “Did they disillusioned your apples?”
“one among ‘em did,” stated the heated shopman; “rolled ‘em all over the street. I’d ‘ave caught the idiot however for havin’ to pick out ‘em up.”
“Which manner did these parsons pass?” asked Valentin.
“Up that 2nd avenue on the left-hand side, after which throughout the square,” stated the alternative right away.
“thanks,” answered Valentin, and vanished like a fairy. On the alternative facet of the second one square he located a policeman, and stated: “that is urgent, constable; have you visible two priests in shovel hats?”
The policeman started out to chuckle closely. “I ‘ave, sir; and in case you arst me, one in every of ‘em changed intoinebriated. He stood inside the middle of the street that bewildered that—”
“Which way did they move?” snapped Valentin.
“They took one among them yellow buses over there,” answered the person; “them that go to Hampstead.”
Valentin produced his legitimate card and stated very rapidly: “name up two of your guys to come with me in pursuit,” and crossed the road with such contagious power that the ponderous policeman turned into moved to almost agile obedience. In a minute and a half the French detective became joined on the other pavement with the aid of an inspector and a manin undeniable garments.
“nicely, sir,” started the former, with smiling significance, “and what can also—?”
Valentin pointed all of sudden together with his cane. “I’ll let you know at the pinnacle of that omnibus,” he stated, and changed into darting and dodging throughout the tangle of the visitors. when all three sank panting on the pinnacle seats of the yellow car, the inspector stated: “We ought to pass 4 times as brief in a taxi.”
“pretty real,” spoke back their chief placidly, “if we handiest had an concept of where we have been going.”
“nicely, where are you going?” requested the opposite, staring.
Valentin smoked frowningly for some seconds; then, casting off his cigarette, he stated: “if you recognize what a man’s doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he’s doing, maintain at the back of him. Stray whilst he strays; forestall whilst he stops; journey as slowly as he. Then you could see what he noticed and may act as he acted. All we willdo is to hold our eyes skinned for a queer component.”
“What sort of queer thing do you imply?” requested the inspector.
“Any kind of queer factor,” replied Valentin, and relapsed into obstinate silence.
The yellow omnibus crawled up the northern roads for what regarded like hours on give up; the top notch detective wouldno longer explain similarly, and possibly his assistants felt a silent and developing doubt of his errand. perhaps, also, they felt a silent and growing preference for lunch, for the hours crept lengthy past the ordinary luncheon hour, and the lengthy roads of the North London suburbs regarded to shoot out into length after length like an infernal telescope. It turned into one of these journeys on which a person continually feels that now at ultimate he need to have come to the end of the universe, and then reveals he has only come to the start of Tufnell Park. London died away in draggled taverns and dreary scrubs, after which turned into unaccountably born again in blazing high streets and blatant inns. It changed into like passing thru 13 separate vulgar towns all simply touching each other. however although the winter twilight turned into already threatening the road in advance of them, the Parisian detective nonetheless sat silent and watchful, eyeing the frontage of the streets that slid by on either facet. by the time they'd left Camden town in the back of, the policemen have been nearly asleep; as a minimum, they gave some thing like a jump as Valentin leapt erect, struck a hand on each man’s shoulder, and shouted to the driving force to forestall.
They tumbled down the stairs into the street with out realising why they were dislodged; when they looked round for enlightenment they determined Valentin triumphantly pointing his finger towards a window at the left side of the road. It turned into a big window, forming part of the lengthy facade of a gilt and palatial public-house; it was the part reserved for decent dining, and labelled “eating place.” This window, like all of the relaxation alongside the frontage of the hotel, changed into of frosted and figured glass; but within the middle of it become a large, black ruin, like a celeb in the ice.
“Our cue at closing,” cried Valentin, waving his stick; “the area with the damaged window.”
“What window? What cue?” requested his important assistant. “Why, what evidence is there that this has some thing to do with them?”
Valentin almost broke his bamboo stay with rage.
“evidence!” he cried. “good God! the person is searching out proof! Why, of direction, the possibilities are twenty to one which it has nothing to do with them. but what else are we able to do? Don’t you notice we ought to both follow one wild opportunity otherwise go home to mattress?” He banged his way into the eating place, observed by using his partners, and they have been soon seated at a overdue luncheon at a bit desk, and checked out the celebrity of smashed glass from the internal. no longer that it was very informative to them even then.
“were given your window damaged, I see,” said Valentin to the waiter as he paid the invoice.
“yes, sir,” responded the attendant, bending busily over the trade, to which Valentin silently delivered an vast tip. The waiter straightened himself with mild however unmistakable animation.
“Ah, yes, sir,” he stated. “Very atypical element, that, sir.”
“certainly?” inform us approximately it,” said the detective with careless curiosity.
“properly, two gentlemen in black came in,” said the waiter; “ of these overseas parsons that are strolling approximately. that they had a cheap and quiet little lunch, and one of them paid for it and went out. the alternative became simplygoing out to join him after I checked out my exchange once more and observed he’d paid me more than 3 instances too much. ‘here,’ I says to the chap who was nearly out of the door, ‘you’ve paid too much.’ ‘Oh,’ he says, very cool, ‘have we?’ ‘yes,’ I says, and alternatives up the invoice to expose him. properly, that become a knock-out.”
“What do you imply?” requested his interlocutor.
“well, I’d have sworn on seven Bibles that I’d placed 4s. on that invoice. but now I noticed I’d put 14s., as undeniable as paint.”
“properly?” cried Valentin, shifting slowly, however with burning eyes, “and then?”
“The parson at the door he says all serene, ‘Sorry to confuse your accounts, however it’ll pay for the window.’ ‘What window?’ I says. ‘the one I’m going to break,’ he says, and smashed that blessed pane with his umbrella.”
All 3 inquirers made an exclamation; and the inspector stated under his breath, “Are we after escaped lunatics?” The waiter went on with a few take pleasure in for the ridiculous story:
“i was so knocked stupid for a 2d, I couldn’t do some thing. the person marched out of the area and joined his friendsimply next door. Then they went so brief up Bullock road that I couldn’t capture them, even though I ran round the bars to do it.”
“Bullock avenue,” said the detective, and shot up that thoroughfare as quickly because the odd couple he pursued.
Their adventure now took them thru naked brick ways like tunnels; streets with few lights or even with few windows; streets that appeared built out of the blank backs of the entirety and everywhere. nightfall was deepening, and it turned into no longer clean even for the London policemen to guess in what genuine course they were treading. The inspector, but, become pretty sure that they would sooner or later strike some part of Hampstead Heath. unexpectedly one bulging gas-lit window broke the blue twilight like a bull’s-eye lantern; and Valentin stopped an instantaneous earlier than a littlegarish sweetstuff keep. After an on the spot’s hesitation he went in; he stood amid the gaudy shades of the confectionery with whole gravity and purchased thirteen chocolate cigars with a sure care. He become certainly getting ready a gap; however he did no longer need one.
An angular, aged young woman in the shop had appeared his elegant look with a merely computerized inquiry; howeverwhen she noticed the door behind him blocked with the blue uniform of the inspector, her eyes appeared to awaken.
“Oh,” she said, “in case you’ve come approximately that parcel, I’ve sent it off already.”
“Parcel?” repeated Valentin; and it turned into his turn to appearance inquiring.
“I imply the parcel the gentleman left—the clergyman gentleman.”
“For goodness’ sake,” said Valentin, leaning forward together with his first real confession of eagerness, “for Heaven’s sake inform us what happened exactly.”
“properly,” said the female a little doubtfully, “the priests got here in about 1/2 an hour in the past and bought somepeppermints and talked a chunk, and then went off towards the Heath. but a 2nd after, one in every of them runs backinto the shop and says, ‘Have I left a parcel!’ well, I seemed everywhere and couldn’t see one; so he says, ‘in no way mind; but if it must flip up, please post it to this address,’ and he left me the cope with and a shilling for my trouble. And positivesufficient, although I idea I’d regarded everywhere, i found he’d left a brown paper parcel, so I posted it to the place he stated. i will’t keep in mind the deal with now; it was someplace in Westminster. however as the element regarded so crucial, I thought possibly the police had come about it.”
“so they have,” stated Valentin rapidly. “Is Hampstead Heath near here?”
“immediately on for fifteen mins,” stated the female, “and you’ll come right out on the open.” Valentin sprang out of the store and commenced to run. the opposite detectives followed him at a reluctant trot.
the street they threaded was so slender and shut in by means of shadows that once they got here out all at once into the void commonplace and large sky they were startled to find the nighttime nevertheless so light and clear. a great dome of peacock-inexperienced sank into gold amid the blackening bushes and the darkish violet distances. The glowinginexperienced tint became just deep sufficient to pick out in points of crystal one or two stars. All that turned into left of the sunlight hours lay in a golden glitter throughout the brink of Hampstead and that famous hollow which is known asthe Vale of health. the holiday makers who roam this region had now not utterly dispersed; some couples sat shapelessly on benches; and here and there female nevertheless shrieked in one of the swings. the consideration of heaven deepened and darkened around the chic vulgarity of man; and standing on the slope and looking across the valley, Valentin beheld the aspect which he sought.
most of the black and breaking groups in that distance turned into one specifically black which did not ruin—a set of twofigures clerically clad. even though they regarded as small as bugs, Valentin may want to see that one in all them becomean awful lot smaller than the alternative. even though the opposite had a scholar’s stoop and an not easily seen way, he ought to see that the man turned into properly over six toes excessive. He close his enamel and went forward, whirling his stick impatiently. by the time he had substantially dwindled the gap and magnified the 2 black figures as in a enormous microscope, he had perceived some thing else; some thing which startled him, and but which he had by hook or by crook expected. Whoever was the tall priest, there could be no question approximately the identity of the short one. It turned into his pal of the Harwich train, the stumpy little remedy of Essex whom he had warned about his brown paper parcels.
Now, so far as this went, the whole thing fitted in eventually and rationally sufficient. Valentin had found out by way ofhis inquiries that morning that a Father Brown from Essex become mentioning a silver cross with sapphires, a relic of hugeprice, to expose some of the overseas clergymen at the congress. This certainly became the “silver with blue stones”; and Father Brown absolutely became the little greenhorn within the educate. Now there was nothing first rate about the truththat what Valentin had located out Flambeau had additionally observed out; Flambeau determined out the whole thing. also there has been nothing extremely good within the fact that after Flambeau heard of a sapphire go he should try tothieve it; that was the maximum natural element in all herbal records. And maximum truly there has been not anythingsuperb approximately the fact that Flambeau must have it all his personal way with any such stupid sheep as the personwith the umbrella and the parcels. He was the type of man whom each person may want to lead on a string to the North Pole; it become now not sudden that an actor like Flambeau, dressed as any other priest, could lead him to Hampstead Heath. up to now the crime regarded clear sufficient; and at the same time as the detective pitied the priest for his helplessness, he nearly despised Flambeau for condescending to so gullible a victim. however while Valentin idea of all that had occurred in between, of all that had led him to his triumph, he racked his brains for the smallest rhyme or purposein it. What had the stealing of a blue-and-silver move from a priest from Essex to do with chucking soup at wall paper? What had it to do with calling nuts oranges, or with purchasing windows first and breaking them afterwards? He had come to the cease of his chase; but by some means he had neglected the middle of it. while he failed (which changed into seldom), he had usually grasped the clue, but however neglected the criminal. here he had grasped the crook, however still he could not grasp the clue.
the two figures that they observed were crawling like black flies across the massive inexperienced contour of a hill. They had been naturally sunk in conversation, and possibly did now not observe where they were going; however they had been in reality going to the wilder and greater silent heights of the Heath. As their pursuers received on them, the latter had to use the undignified attitudes of the deer-stalker, to crouch in the back of clumps of bushes or even to move slowlyprostrate in deep grass. through those ungainly ingenuities the hunters even got here near sufficient to the quarry to hearthe murmur of the dialogue, however no phrase can be outstanding except the phrase “motive” ordinary frequently in a high and nearly childish voice. once over an abrupt dip of land and a dense tangle of thickets, the detectives genuinely lostthe 2 figures they had been following. They did no longer locate the trail once more for an agonising ten minutes, after which it led round the forehead of a amazing dome of hill overlooking an amphitheatre of wealthy and desolate sunsetscenery. underneath a tree on this commanding but left out spot become an old ramshackle wooden seat. in this seat sat the two monks nonetheless in severe speech together. The splendid inexperienced and gold nonetheless clung to the darkening horizon; but the dome above become turning slowly from peacock-green to peacock-blue, and the starsdetached themselves increasingly more like solid jewels. Mutely motioning to his fans, Valentin contrived to creep up in the back of the big branching tree, and, status there in deathly silence, heard the words of the unusual priests for the firsttime.
After he had listened for a minute and a half of, he became gripped with the aid of a devilish doubt. perhaps he had dragged the two English policemen to the wastes of a nocturnal heath on an errand no saner than seeking figs on its thistles. For the two priests were talking exactly like clergymen, piously, with getting to know and entertainment, aboutthe maximum aerial enigmas of theology. The little Essex priest spoke the more virtually, along with his spherical face became to the strengthening stars; the alternative talked together with his head bowed, as if he have been no longer even worth to look at them. however no more innocently clerical communication might have been heard in any white Italian cloister or black Spanish cathedral.
the primary he heard was the tail of one of Father Brown’s sentences, which ended: “… what they clearly supposed inside the center a long time by the heavens being incorruptible.”
The taller priest nodded his bowed head and stated:
“Ah, yes, those current infidels enchantment to their motive; however who can observe the ones tens of millions of worlds and now not experience that there could be awesome universes above us wherein motive is fully unreasonable?”
“No,” said the opposite priest; “purpose is usually reasonable, even in the ultimate limbo, in the misplaced borderland of factors. I realize that human beings fee the Church with lowering motive, but it's miles simply the other manner. aloneon this planet, the Church makes motive clearly very best. alone on earth, the Church affirms that God himself is certainwith the aid of cause.”
the other priest raised his austere face to the spangled sky and said:
“but who is aware of if in that countless universe—?”
“simplest limitless physically,” stated the little priest, turning sharply in his seat, “now not limitless in the feel of escaping from the laws of reality.”
Valentin in the back of his tree was tearing his fingernails with silent fury. He seemed nearly to listen the sniggers of the English detectives whom he had delivered so far on a fantastic wager handiest to pay attention to the metaphysical gossip of slight vintage parsons. In his impatience he lost the equally complex solution of the tall cleric, and whilst he listened again it changed into again Father Brown who turned into speakme:
“purpose and justice grip the remotest and the loneliest celebrity. study those stars. Don’t they appearance as thoughthey have been single diamonds and sapphires? nicely, you can consider any mad botany or geology you please. think offorests of adamant with leaves of brilliants. assume the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire. howeverdon’t fancy that each one that frantic astronomy would make the smallest difference to the purpose and justice of conduct. On plains of opal, below cliffs cut out of pearl, you'll still find a note-board, ‘Thou shalt not scouse borrow.’”
Valentin turned into simply within the act of growing from his rigid and crouching attitude and creeping away as softly as is probably, felled by using the one top notch folly of his existence. however something inside the very silence of the tall priest made him stop till the latter spoke. when at final he did speak, he stated sincerely, his head bowed and his arms on his knees:
“nicely, I suppose that different worlds may additionally perhaps rise better than our reason. The mystery of heaven is unfathomable, and that i for you may best bow my head.”
Then, with brow but bent and without changing by the faintest coloration his attitude or voice, he added:
“simply quit that sapphire cross of yours, will you? We’re all on my own right here, and i should pull you to pieces like a straw doll.”
the utterly unaltered voice and mind-set added a extraordinary violence to that surprising alternate of speech. but theguarder of the relic handiest appeared to turn his head through the smallest phase of the compass. He seemednonetheless to have a particularly foolish face became to the stars. possibly he had no longer understood. Or, perhaps, he had understood and sat inflexible with terror.
“yes,” stated the tall priest, inside the identical low voice and inside the equal nevertheless posture, “yes, i'm Flambeau.”
Then, after a pause, he stated:
“Come, will you deliver me that move?”
“No,” said the alternative, and the monosyllable had an extraordinary sound.
Flambeau flung off all his pontifical pretensions. The first rate robber leaned back in his seat and laughed low but long.
“No,” he cried, “you gained’t give it me, you proud prelate. You received’t provide it me, you little celibate simpleton. Shall I let you know why you received’t supply it me? due to the fact I’ve were given it already in my personal breast-pocket.”
The small man from Essex became what appeared to be a dazed face in the nightfall, and stated, with the timid eagerness of “The non-public Secretary”:
“Are—are you sure?”
Flambeau yelled with delight.
“virtually, you’re as precise as a 3-act farce,” he cried. “yes, you turnip, i am quite positive. I had the sense to make a reproduction of the right parcel, and now, my friend, you’ve were given the duplicate and i’ve got the jewels. An antiquekeep away from, Father Brown—a very antique dodge.”
“yes,” said Father Brown, and exceeded his hand via his hair with the same peculiar vagueness of way. “sure, I’ve heard of it earlier than.”
The colossus of crime leaned over to the little rustic priest with a kind of surprising hobby.
“you have got heard of it?” he asked. “where have you ever heard of it?”
“properly, I mustn’t let you know his call, of direction,” said the little man surely. “He changed into a penitent, you realize. He had lived prosperously for approximately twenty years absolutely on reproduction brown paper parcels. And so, you spot, once I began to suspect you, I concept of this bad chap’s manner of doing it right away.”
“started out to suspect me?” repeated the outlaw with elevated depth. “Did you truely have the gumption to suspect me simply due to the fact I brought you as much as this bare part of the heath?”
“No, no,” stated Brown with an air of apology. “you spot, I suspected you whilst we first met. It’s that little bulge up the sleeve where you humans have the spiked bracelet.”
“How in Tartarus,” cried Flambeau, “did you ever pay attention of the spiked bracelet?”
“Oh, one’s little flock, you realize!” stated Father Brown, arching his eyebrows instead blankly. “when i was a curate in Hartlepool, there had been three of them with spiked bracelets. So, as I suspected you from the primary, don’t you notice, I made positive that the go have to move safe, anyhow. I’m afraid I watched you, you already know. So at closing I noticedyou convert the parcels. Then, don’t you spot, I changed them back once more. and then I left the right one in the back of.”
“Left it behind?” repeated Flambeau, and for the primary time there was some other be aware in his voice beside his triumph.
“well, it was like this,” stated the little priest, talking inside the identical unaffected manner. “I went returned to that sweet-keep and requested if I’d left a parcel, and gave them a specific address if it grew to become up. well, I knew I hadn’t; but after I went away once more I did. So, as opposed to walking after me with that treasured parcel, they havedespatched it flying to a chum of mine in Westminster.” Then he added as a substitute regrettably: “I learnt that, too, from a bad fellow in Hartlepool. He used to do it with handbags he stole at railway stations, but he’s in a monastery now. Oh, one gets to recognise, you already know,” he added, rubbing his head once more with the identical kind of desperate apology. “we can’t help being clergymen. humans come and tell us these items.”
Flambeau tore a brown-paper parcel out of his inner pocket and lease it in pieces. there was nothing however paper and sticks of lead interior it. He sprang to his toes with a colossal gesture, and cried:
“I don’t accept as true with you. I don’t believe a bumpkin like you can manage all that. I consider you’ve still were giventhe stuff on you, and in case you don’t give it up—why, we’re all by myself, and i’ll take it by using force!”
“No,” said Father Brown actually, and stood up also, “you received’t take it by way of pressure. First, due to the fact I honestly haven’t nevertheless were given it. And, 2nd, because we aren't by myself.”
Flambeau stopped in his stride ahead.
“behind that tree,” stated Father Brown, pointing, “are two sturdy policemen and the finest detective alive. How did they come right here, do you ask? Why, I brought them, of course! How did I do it? Why, I’ll let you know if you like! Lord bless you, we need to recognize twenty such things when we paintings a number of the crook instructions! nicely, I wasn’t positive you were a thief, and it would by no means do to make a scandal towards one in every of our personal clergy. So I simply tested you to peer if whatever might make you show yourself. a man typically makes a small scene if he finds salt in his coffee; if he doesn’t, he has a few reason for keeping quiet. I changed the salt and sugar, and also you stored quiet. a person commonly items if his invoice is 3 times too big. If he pays it, he has some purpose for passing omitted. I altered your invoice, and you paid it.”
the world regarded looking ahead to Flambeau to jump like a tiger. however he changed into held back as by way of a spell; he became stunned with the utmost interest.
“nicely,” went on Father Brown, with lumbering lucidity, “as you wouldn’t depart any tracks for the police, of route any person needed to. At each vicinity we went to, I took love to do something that might get us pointed out for the relaxation of the day. I didn’t do a whole lot harm—a splashed wall, spilt apples, a broken window; however I saved the go, as the move will continually be stored. it's miles at Westminster with the aid of now. I alternatively marvel you didn’t prevent it with the Donkey’s Whistle.”
“With the what?” asked Flambeau.
“I’m glad you’ve by no means heard of it,” stated the priest, creating a face. “It’s a bad component. I’m certain you’re too accurate a man for a Whistler. I couldn’t have countered it despite the Spots myself; I’m no longer sturdy enough in thelegs.”
“What on earth are you speaking approximately?” asked the alternative.
“well, I did suppose you’d realize the Spots,” said Father Brown, agreeably surprised. “Oh, you can’t have long gone so very incorrect yet!”
“How in blazes do you understand these types of horrors?” cried Flambeau.
The shadow of a grin crossed the spherical, easy face of his clerical opponent.
“Oh, via being a celibate simpleton, I think,” he said. “Has it in no way struck you that a man who does next to not anything however pay attention men’s real sins is not probable to be absolutely ignorant of human evil? but, as a remember of reality, every other part of my change, too, made me certain you weren’t a clergyman.”
“What?” asked the thief, almost gaping.
“You attacked motive,” said Father Brown. “It’s awful theology.”
And even as he grew to become away to gather his assets, the 3 policemen got here out from under the twilight bushes. Flambeau changed into an artist and a sportsman. He stepped lower back and swept Valentin a brilliant bow.
“Do now not bow to me, mon ami,” said Valentin with silver clearness. “allow us to each bow to our master.”
and they each stood an instant uncovered even as the little Essex priest blinked about for his umbrella.
No comments:
Post a Comment