Suppose it had been all the men on the boat and the
men on the train and the men in the village. Dr Boyne had already obeyed the
telephone message.
He heard footsteps in the parlour
beyond.
The fish may be driven underground again, but it
will come up into the daylight once more.
You know what a man with a delusion is like, and
how a man looks when he is telling the truth.
Whatever else happens, I’m going to have a drink.
You have seen Arnold Aylmer slay John Strake by white magic.
He hung the corpse like a coat on one of the hat
pegs. Father Brown could dimly see a bulky figure standing.
And when I saw that, I think I saw the whole
picture.
Therefore he had not come from inside any room, but
from outside the house.
As St Antony of Padua humorously remarked, ‘It is
only fishes who survive the Deluge.
He saw a tall bearded man in a broad - brimmed
black hat and a large flapping black cloak.
So they all announced in a loud voice that he was a
lunatic, and left. At the end of the passage, black against the winter daylight, he
saw the enemy of his house. That’s what he used to do with old Aylmer, no doubt. For
that is the one thing we may never know. I assumed it myself; but afterwards queer
little things began to happen.
Strake sprang at him, throttling or stabbing him;
we cannot be sure till the inquest.
If there is anything in this business, it seems to
have been going on for a good time.