ures into what are probably plain events. You, with your
small parochial responsibilities, see only this particular Mrs MacNab,
terrified with this particular tale of two voices and a tall man out of
the sea. But the man with the scientific imagination sees, as it
were, the whole clans of MacNab scattered over the whole world, in its
ultimate average as uniform as a tribe of birds. He sees thousands
of Mrs MacNabs, in thousands of houses, dropping their little drop of
morbidity in the tea-cups of their friends; he sees--"

Before the scientist could conclude his sentence, another and more
impatient summons sounded from without; someone with swishing skirts was
marshalled hurriedly down the corridor, and the door opened on a young
girl, decently dressed but disordered and red-hot with haste. She had
sea-blown blonde hair, and would have been entirely beautiful if her
cheek-bones had not been, in the Scotch manner, a little high in relief
as well as in colour. Her apology was almost as abrupt as a command.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir," she said, "but I had to follow Father
Brown at once; it's nothing less than life or death."

Father Brown began to get to his feet in some disorder. "Why, what has
happened, Maggie?" he said.

"James has been murdered, for all I can make out," answered the girl,
still breathing hard from her rush. "That man Glass has been with him
again; I heard them talking through the door quite plain. Two separate
voices: for James speaks low, with a burr, and the other voice was high
and quavery."

"That man Glass?" repeated the priest in some perplexity.

"I know his name is Glass," answered the girl, in great impatience.
"I heard it through the door. They were quarrelling--about money, I
think--for I heard James say again and again, 'That's right, Mr Glass,'
or 'No, Mr Glass,' and then, 'Two or three, Mr Glass.' But we're talking
too much; you must come at once, and there may be time yet."

"But time for what?" asked Dr Hood, who had been studying the young
lady with marked interest. "What is there about Mr Glass and his money
troubles that should impel such urgency?"

"I tried to break down the door and couldn't," answered the girl
shortly, "Then I ran to the back-yard, and managed to climb on to the
window-sill that looks into the room. It was an dim, and seemed to be
empty, but I swear I saw James lying huddled up in a corner, as if he
were drugged or strangled."

"This is very seri