ried he was in hell, in so
crazy a voice that his daughter did not know it. He was mad for death,
and with the monkey tricks of the mad he had scattered round him death
in many shapes--a running noose and his friend's revolver and a knife.
Royce entered accidentally and acted in a flash. He flung the knife
on the mat behind him, snatched up the revolver, and having no time to
unload it, emptied it shot after shot all over the floor. The suicide
saw a fourth shape of death, and made a dash for the window. The rescuer
did the only thing he could--ran after him with the rope and tried to
tie him hand and foot. Then it was that the unlucky girl ran in, and
misunderstanding the struggle, strove to slash her father free. At first
she only slashed poor Royce's knuckles, from which has come all the
little blood in this affair. But, of course, you noticed that he left
blood, but no wound, on that servant's face? Only before the poor woman
swooned, she did hack her father loose, so that he went crashing through
that window into eternity."

There was a long stillness slowly broken by the metallic noises of
Gilder unlocking the handcuffs of Patrick Royce, to whom he said: "I
think I should have told the truth, sir. You and the young lady are
worth more than Armstrong's obituary notices."

"Confound Armstrong's notices," cried Royce roughly. "Don't you see it
was because she mustn't know?"

"Mustn't know what?" asked Merton.

"Why, that she killed her father, you fool!" roared the other. "He'd
have been alive now but for her. It might craze her to know that."

"No, I don't think it would," remarked Father Brown, as he picked up his
hat. "I rather think I should tell her. Even the most murderous blunders
don't poison life like sins; anyhow, I think you may both be the happier
now. I've got to go back to the Deaf School."

As he went out on to the gusty grass an acquaintance from Highgate
stopped him and said:

"The Coroner has arrived. The inquiry is just going to begin."

"I've got to get back to the Deaf School," said Father Brown. "I'm sorry
I can't stop for the inquiry."

End of Project Gutenberg's The Innocence of Father Brown, by G. K. Chesterton

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