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Speaker 1: The Eye of Apollo by G. K. Chesterton. That singular

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smoky sparkle, at once a confusion and a transparency, which

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is the strange secret of the Thames was changing more

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and more from its gray to its glittering extreme. As

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the sun climbed to the zenith over Westminster, and two

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men crossed Westminster Bridge. One man was very tall and

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the other very short. They might even have been fantastically

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compared to the arrogant clock tower of Parliament and the

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humbler humped shoulders of the abbey, for the short man

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was in clerical dress. The official description of the tall

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man was m Hercule Flambeau, private detective, and he was

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going to his new offices in a new pile of

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flats facing the abbey entrance. The official description of the

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short man was the Reverend J. Brown, attached to Saint

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Francis Xavior's Church, Camberwell, and he was coming from a

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Camberwell deathbed to see the new offices of his friend.

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The building was America in its skyscraping altitude, an American

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also in the oiled elaboration of its machinery of telephones

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and lifts, but it was barely finished. And still understaffed.

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Only three tenants had moved in the office just above

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Flambeau was occupied, as also was the office just below him.

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The two floors above that and the three floors below

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were entirely bare. But the first glance the new tower

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of Flats caught something much more arresting. Save for a

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few relics of scaffolding, the one glaring object was erected

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outside the office just above Flambeau's. It was an enormous

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guilt effigy of the human eye, surrounded with rays of gold,

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and taking up as much room as two or three

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of the office windows. What on earth is that? Asked

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Father Brown, and stood still. Oh a new religion, said Flambeau, laughing,

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one of those new religions that forgive your sins by

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saying you never had any, rather like Christian science.

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Speaker 2: I should think.

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Speaker 1: The fact is that a fellow calling himself Ceylon. I

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don't know what his name is, except that it can't

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be that has taken the flat just to me. I

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have two lady typewriters underneath me, and this enthusiastic old

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humbug on top. He calls himself the new Priest of Apollo,

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and he worships the Sun. Let him look out, said

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father Brown. The son was the cruelest of all the gods.

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But what does that monstrous?

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Speaker 2: I mean?

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Speaker 1: As I understand it, it is a theory of theirs,

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answered Flambeau. That a man can endure anything if his

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mind is quite steady. The two great symbols are the

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sun and the open eye. For they say that if

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a man were really healthy, he could stare at the sun.

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If a man were really healthy, said father Brown, you

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would not bother to stare at it. Well, that's all

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I can tell you about the new religion, went on

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Flambeaux carelessly. It claims, of course, that it can cure

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all physical diseases. Can a cure the one's spiritual disease?

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Asked Father Brown, with a serious curiosity. And what is

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the one's spiritual disease? Asked Flambeaux, smiling, Oh, thinking one

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is quite well, said his friend. Flambeau was more interested

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in the quiet little office below him than in the

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flatboyant temple above. He was a lucid Southerner, incapable of

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conceiving himself as anything but a Catholic or an atheist.

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And new religions of a bright and pallid sort were

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not much in his line, but humanity was always in

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his line, especially when it was good looking. Moreover, the

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ladies downstairs were characters in their way. The office was

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kept by two sisters, both slight and dark, one of

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them tall and striking. She had a dark, eager, and

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aquiline profile, and was one of those women whom one

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always thinks of a profile as of the clean cut

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edge of some weapon. She seemed to cleave her way

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through life. She had eyes of a startling brilliancy, but

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it was the brilliancy of steel rather than of diamonds,

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and her straight swim figure was a shade too stiff

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for its grace. Her younger sister was like her shortened shadow,

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a little grayer, paler, and more insignificant. They both wore

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a business like black, with little masculine cuffs and collars.

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There are thousands of such curt strenuous ladies in the

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offices of London, but the interests of these lay rather

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in their rear than their apparent position. For Pauline Stacy

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the Elder was actually the heiress of a crest and

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half a county, as well as great wealth. She had

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been brought up in castles and gardens before a frigid,

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fierceness peculiar to the modern woman, had driven her to

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what she considered a harsher and a higher existence. She

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had not, indeed surrendered her money in that there would

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have been a romantic or monkish abandon quite alien to

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her masterful utilitarianism. She held her wealth, she would say,

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for use upon practical social objects. Part of it she

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had put into her business the nucleus of a model typewriting.

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Important part of it was distributed in various leagues and

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causes for the advancement of such work among women. How

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far Joan, her sister and partner, shared this slightly prosaic

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idealism known could be very sure, But she followed her

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leader with a doglike affection, which was somewhow more attractive

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with its touch of tragedy than the hard high spirits

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of the elder. For Pauline Stacey had nothing to say

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to tragedy. She was understood to deny its existence. Her

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rigid rapidity and cold impatience had amused Flambeaux very much

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on the first occasion of his entering the flats. He

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had lingered outside the lift in the entrance hall, waiting

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for the lift boy, who generally conduct strangers to the

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various floors. But this bright eyed falcon of a girl

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had openly refused to endure such official delay. She said

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sharply that she knew all about the lift and was

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not dependent on boys or men either. Though her flat

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was only three floors above, she managed in the few

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seconds of ascent to give Flambeaux a great many of

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her fundamental views in an offhand manner. They were to

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the general effect that she was a modern working woman

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and loved modern working machinery. Her bright black eyes blazed

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with abstract anger against those who were buque mechanic science

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and asked.

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Speaker 2: For the return of romance.

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Speaker 1: Everyone, she said, ought to be able to manage machines,

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just as she could manage the lift. She seemed almost

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to resent the fact of Flambeau opening the lift door

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for her, and that gentleman went up to his own apartment,

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smiling with somewhat mingled feelings at the memory of such

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spitfire self dependence. She certainly had a temper of a snappy,

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practical sort. The gestures of her thin, elegant hands were

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abrupt or even destructive. Once Flambeau entered her office on

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some typewriting business and found she had just flung a

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pair of spectacles belonged to her sister into the middle

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of the floor and stamped on them. She was already

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in the rapids of an ethical tirade about the sickly

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medical notions and the morbid admission of weakness implied in

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such an apparatus. She dared her sister to bring such artificial,

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unhealthy rubbish into the place again. She asked if she

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was expected to wear wooden legs, or false hair or

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glass eyes, and as she spoke, her eyes sparkled like

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the terrible crystal. Flambeau, quite bewildered with this fanaticism, could

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not refrain from asking Miss Pauline, with direct French logic,

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why a pair of spectacles was a more morbid sign

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of weakness than the lift, And why if science might

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help us in one effort, it might not help us

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in the other. That is so different, said Pauline stacy loftily.

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Batteries and motors and all those things are marks of

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the force of man. Yes, mister Flambeau, and the force

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of woman too. We shall take our turn at these

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great engines that devour distance intofy time. That is high

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and splendid. That is really science. But these nasty props

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and plasters the doctors sell, why they are just badges

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of poltroonery. Doctors stick on legs and arms as if

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we were born cripples and six slaves. But I was

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free born, mister Flambeau. People only think they need these

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things because they have been trained in fear instead of

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being trained in power and courage. Just as the silly

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nurses tell children not to stare at the sun, and

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so they can't do it without blinking. But why among

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the stars should there be one star that I may

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not see. The Sun is not my master, and I

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will open my eyes and stare at him whenever I

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choose your eyes, said Flambeau, with a foreign bow, will

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dazzle the sun. He took pleasure in complimenting this strange,

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stiff beauty, partly because it threw her a little off

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her balance. But as he went upstairs to his floor,

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he drew a deep breath and whistled, saying to himself,

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she has got into the hands of that conjuror upstairs

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with his golden eye. For little as he knew or

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cared about the new religion of Chelon, he had heard

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of his special notion about sun gazing. He soon discovered

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that the spiritual bond between the floors above and below

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him was close and increasing. The man who called himself

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Chelon was a magnificent creature, worthy in a physical sense

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to be pontiff of Apollo. He was nearly as tall

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even as Flambeaux, and very much better looking, with a

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golden beard, strong blue eyes, and a mane flung back

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like a lion's. In structure, he was the blonde beast

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of Nietzsche. But all this animal beauty was heightened, brightened,

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and softened by genuine intellect and spirituality. If he looked

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like one of the great Saxon kings, he looked like

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one of the kings that were also saints. And this

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despite the cockney incongruity of his surroundings, the fact that

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he had an office halfway up a building in Victoria Street,

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that the clerk, a commonplace youth in cuffs and collars,

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sat in the outer room between him and the corridor

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that his name was on a brass plate, and the

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gilt emblem of his creed hung above his street like

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the advertisement of an oculist. All this vulgarity could not

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take away from the man called Chelon, the vivid oppression

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and inspiration that came from his soul and body. When

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all was said, a man in the presence of this

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quack did feel in the presence of a great man.

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Even in the loose jacket suit of linen that he

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wore as a workshop dress in his office, he was

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a fascinating.

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Speaker 2: And formidable figure.

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Speaker 1: And when robed in the white vestments and crowned with

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a golden circulate in which he daily sluted the sun,

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he really looked so splendid that the laughter of the

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street people sometimes died suddenly on their lips. For three

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times in the day the new sun worshiper went out

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on his little balcony in the face of all Westminster

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to say some litany to his shining Lord, once at daybreak,

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once at sunset, and once at the shock of noon.

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And it was while the shock of noon still shook

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faintly from the towers of Parliament and parish Church, that

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Father Brown, the friend of Flambeau first looked up and

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saw the white priest of Apollo. Flambeau had seen quite

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enough of these daily salutations of Phoebus, and plunged into

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the porch of the tall building without even looking for

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his clerical friend to follow. But Father Brown, whether from

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a professional interest in ritual or a strong individual interest

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in tom foolery, stopped and stared up at the balcony

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of the sun worshiper, just as he might have stopped

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and stared up at a pung and judy calon. The

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prophet was already erect with argent garments and uplifted hands,

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and the sound of his strangely penetrating voice could be

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heard all the way down the busy street, uttering his

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solar litany. He was already in.

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Speaker 2: The middle of it.

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Speaker 1: His eyes were fixed upon the flaming disc. It is

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doubtful if he saw anything or anyone on this earth.

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It is substantially certain that he did not see a stunted,

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round faced priest who in the crowd below clip at

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him with blinking eyes. That was perhaps the most starling

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difference between even these two far divided men. Father Brown

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could not look at anything without blinking, but the Priest

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of Apollo could look on the blaze at noon without

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a quiver of the eyelid. Oh Son cried the prophet,

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O star that are too great to be allowed among

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the stars, O fountain that flowest quietly in that secret

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spot that is called space. White, Father of all white,

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unwearied things, white flames and white flowers and white peaks, Father,

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who are more innocent than all thy most innocent and

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quiet children, primal purity, into the peace of which a

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rush and crash, like the reversed rush of a rocket,

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was cloven with a strident and incessant yelling. Five people

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rushed into the gate of the mansions, as three people

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rushed out, and for an instant they all deafened each other,

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the sense of some utterly abrupt horror seen for a

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moment to fill half the street with bad news, bad

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news that was all the worst, because no one knew

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what it was. Two figures remained still after the crash

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of commotion, the fair Priest of Apollo on the balcony above,

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and the ugly Priest of Christ below him. At last,

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the tall figure and titanic energy of Flambeau appeared in

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the doorway of the mansions and dominated the little mob.

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Looking at the top of his voice like a foghorn,

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he told somebody or anybody to go for a surgeon.

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And as he turned back into the dark and frogged entrance,

239
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his friend, Father Brown, dipped in insignificantly after him. Even

240
00:12:12,279 --> 00:12:14,320
as he ducked and dived through the crowd, he could

241
00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:17,799
still hear the magnificent melody and monotony of the solar priest,

242
00:12:17,919 --> 00:12:20,000
still calling on the happy God, who is the friend

243
00:12:20,039 --> 00:12:24,039
of fountains and flowers. Father Brown found Flambeaux and some

244
00:12:24,159 --> 00:12:27,559
six other people standing around the enclosed space into which

245
00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:31,519
the lift commonly descended. But the lift had not descended.

246
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:34,840
Something else had descended, something that.

247
00:12:34,759 --> 00:12:36,519
Speaker 2: Ought to have come by a lift.

248
00:12:37,279 --> 00:12:39,919
Speaker 1: For the last four minutes Flambeau had looked down on it,

249
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had seen the brained and bleeding figure of that beautiful

250
00:12:43,519 --> 00:12:47,120
woman who denied the existence of tragedy. He had never

251
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,120
had the slightest doubt that it was Pauline Stacy, and

252
00:12:50,159 --> 00:12:52,279
though he had sent for a doctor, he had not

253
00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:55,600
the slightest doubt that she was dead. He could not

254
00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,519
remember for certain whether he had liked her or disliked her.

255
00:12:59,039 --> 00:13:01,679
There was so much both to like and dislike, but

256
00:13:01,799 --> 00:13:04,879
she had been a person to him, and the unbearable

257
00:13:04,919 --> 00:13:07,919
pathos of details and habits stabbed him with all the

258
00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:11,840
small daggers of bereavement. He remembered her pretty face and

259
00:13:11,879 --> 00:13:15,200
the priggish speeches with a sudden, secret vividness, which is

260
00:13:15,279 --> 00:13:18,159
all the bitterness of death. In an instant, like a

261
00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,639
bolt from the blue, like a thunderbolt from nowhere, that

262
00:13:21,759 --> 00:13:25,320
beautiful and defiant body had been dashed down the open

263
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:28,759
well of the lift to death at the bottom. Was

264
00:13:28,799 --> 00:13:33,039
it suicide? With so insolent an optimist, it seemed impossible?

265
00:13:33,639 --> 00:13:34,200
Speaker 2: Was it murder?

266
00:13:34,879 --> 00:13:37,519
Speaker 1: But who was there in those hardily inhabited flats to

267
00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,159
murder anybody? In a rush of raucous words which he

268
00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:44,120
meant to be strong and suddenly found weak, he asked,

269
00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:48,080
where was that fellow Chelon? A voice, habitually heavy, quiet

270
00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:51,039
and full assured him that Chelon, for the last fifteen

271
00:13:51,039 --> 00:13:54,200
minutes had been away up on his balcony, worshiping his God.

272
00:13:55,159 --> 00:13:57,639
When Flambeau heard the voice and felt the hand of

273
00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:01,879
Father Brown, he turned his swarthy face and said, abruptly, then,

274
00:14:01,879 --> 00:14:04,080
if he has been up there all the time, who

275
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,919
can have done it? Perhaps, said the other. We might

276
00:14:07,919 --> 00:14:10,879
go upstairs and find out. We have half an hour before.

277
00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:11,440
Speaker 2: The police will move.

278
00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,519
Speaker 1: Leaving the body of the slain heiress in charge of

279
00:14:14,519 --> 00:14:17,919
the surgeons, Flambeaux dashed up the stairs to the typewriting office,

280
00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:20,919
found it utterly empty, and then dashed up to his own.

281
00:14:21,679 --> 00:14:24,000
Having entered that, he abruptly returned with a new and

282
00:14:24,039 --> 00:14:27,320
white face to his friend her sister. He said, with

283
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:31,000
an unpleasant seriousness, Her sister seems to have gone out

284
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:31,559
for a walk.

285
00:14:32,759 --> 00:14:33,759
Speaker 2: Father Brown nodded.

286
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:36,279
Speaker 1: Or she may have gone up to the office of

287
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:39,000
that sunman, he said. If I were you, I should

288
00:14:39,039 --> 00:14:42,159
just verify that and then let us all talk it

289
00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:44,879
over in your office. No, he added, suddenly, as if

290
00:14:44,919 --> 00:14:48,279
remembering something. Shall I ever get over that stupidity of mine?

291
00:14:49,159 --> 00:14:53,679
Of course, in their office downstairs. Flambeau stared, but he

292
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,799
followed the little father downstairs to the empty flat of

293
00:14:56,799 --> 00:15:00,480
the Staceys, where that impenetrable pasture took a large red

294
00:15:00,559 --> 00:15:03,120
leather chair in the very entrance, from which he could

295
00:15:03,159 --> 00:15:06,720
not see the stairs and landings, and waited. He did

296
00:15:06,799 --> 00:15:09,960
not wait very long. In about four minutes, three figures

297
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,759
descended the stairs, alike only in their solemnity. The first

298
00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:17,159
was Joan Stacey, the sister of the dead woman. Evidently

299
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:19,480
she had been upstairs in the temporary temple of Apollo.

300
00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,840
The second was the Priest of Apollo himself, his whotny

301
00:15:22,879 --> 00:15:26,879
finished sweeping down the empty stairs and utter magnificence. Something

302
00:15:26,879 --> 00:15:29,279
in his white robes, beard and parted hair had the

303
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:33,960
look of doors Christ leaving the praetorium. The third was Flambeaux,

304
00:15:34,519 --> 00:15:39,279
black browed and somewhat bewildered. Miss Joan Stacey, dark, with

305
00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,679
a drawn face and hair prematurely touched with gray, walked

306
00:15:42,679 --> 00:15:44,720
straight to her own desk and set out her papers

307
00:15:44,759 --> 00:15:48,279
with a practical flap. The mere action rallied everyone else

308
00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:51,440
to sanity. If Miss Joan Stacey was a criminal, she

309
00:15:51,519 --> 00:15:54,440
was a cool one. Father Brown regarded her for some

310
00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:57,360
time with an odd little smile, and then, without taking

311
00:15:57,360 --> 00:16:01,679
his eyes off her, addressed himself to somebody else. Prophet,

312
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:06,000
he said, presumably addressing Chelon. I wish you would tell

313
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,240
me a lot about your religion. I shall be proud

314
00:16:09,279 --> 00:16:11,960
to do it, said Chelon, inclining his still crowned head

315
00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:15,879
but I'm not sure that I understand why it's like this,

316
00:16:15,919 --> 00:16:19,279
said father Brown in his frankly doubtful way. We are

317
00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,360
taught that if a man has really bad first principles,

318
00:16:22,919 --> 00:16:25,919
that must be partly his fault. But for all that,

319
00:16:26,039 --> 00:16:28,360
we can make some difference between a man who insults

320
00:16:28,360 --> 00:16:31,320
his quite clear conscience and a man with a conscience

321
00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:36,120
more or less clouded with sophistries. Now do you really

322
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,080
think that murder is wrong at all? Is this an accusation?

323
00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:45,279
Asked Chelon, very quietly. No, answered Brown equally gently.

324
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,080
Speaker 2: Is the speech for the defense?

325
00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:52,519
Speaker 1: In the long and startled stillness of the room, the

326
00:16:52,559 --> 00:16:56,159
profit of Apollo slowly rose, And really it was like

327
00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:59,000
the rising of the sun. He filled that room with

328
00:16:59,039 --> 00:17:01,279
his light and life, and such a manner that a

329
00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,840
man felt he could as easily have filled Salisbury Plain.

330
00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,519
His robed form seemed to hang the whole room with

331
00:17:07,559 --> 00:17:11,119
classic draperies. His epic gesture seemed to extend it into

332
00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,559
grander perspectives, till the little black figure of the modern

333
00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:17,759
cleric seemed to be a fault and an intrusion, a

334
00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:22,160
round black blot upon some splendor of Hellas we meet

335
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:25,960
at last, Caiaphas, said the prophet. Your church and mine

336
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,279
are the only realities on this earth. I adore the sun,

337
00:17:30,039 --> 00:17:32,720
and you the darkening of the sun. You are the

338
00:17:32,759 --> 00:17:35,039
priests of the dying and I of the living God.

339
00:17:36,079 --> 00:17:39,079
Your present work of suspicion and slander is worthy of

340
00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:41,880
your code and creed. All your church is but a

341
00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:45,720
black police. You are only spies and detectives seeking to

342
00:17:45,799 --> 00:17:49,319
tear from men confessions of guilt, whether by treachery or torture.

343
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,079
You would convict men of crime, I would convict them

344
00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:56,680
of innocence. You would convince them of sin. I would

345
00:17:56,680 --> 00:17:59,960
convince them of virtue. Reader of the Books of the Ease,

346
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,960
one more word before I blow away your baseless nightmares forever.

347
00:18:04,759 --> 00:18:07,680
Not even faintly, could you understand how little I care

348
00:18:07,759 --> 00:18:10,799
whether you could convict me or know The things you

349
00:18:10,839 --> 00:18:14,119
call disgrace and horrible hanging are to me no more

350
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:16,240
than an ogre and a child's toy book to a

351
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:18,960
man once grown up. You said you were offering this

352
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,920
speech for the defense. I care so little for the

353
00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:24,599
cloud land of this life that I will offer you

354
00:18:24,759 --> 00:18:28,119
the speech for the prosecution. There is but one thing

355
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:30,319
that can be said against me in this matter, and

356
00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:33,799
I will say it myself. The woman that is dead

357
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:38,200
was my love and my bride, not after such manner

358
00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,079
as your tin chapels call lawful, but by a law

359
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:45,119
purer and sterner than you will ever understand. She and

360
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:49,160
I walked another world from yours, and trod palaces of crystal,

361
00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:53,359
while you were plodding through tunnels and corridors of brick. Well,

362
00:18:54,319 --> 00:18:58,240
I know that policemen, theological and otherwise, always fancy that

363
00:18:58,319 --> 00:19:01,000
where there has been love, there must soon be hatred.

364
00:19:01,519 --> 00:19:04,039
So there you have the first point made for the prosecution.

365
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:07,359
But the second point is stronger. I do not grudge

366
00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:10,200
it you. Not only is it true that Pauline loved me,

367
00:19:10,519 --> 00:19:12,960
but it is also true that this very morning before

368
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:16,319
she died, she wrote at that table a will leaving

369
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:18,720
me and my new church half a million.

370
00:19:19,279 --> 00:19:19,599
Speaker 2: Come.

371
00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,200
Speaker 1: Where are the handcuffs? Do you suppose I care what

372
00:19:23,279 --> 00:19:26,480
foolish things you do with me? Penal Sertude will only

373
00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:29,240
be like waiting for her at a wayside station. The

374
00:19:29,319 --> 00:19:32,680
gallows will only be going to her in a headlong car.

375
00:19:33,799 --> 00:19:36,880
He spoke with the brain shaking authority of an orator

376
00:19:37,319 --> 00:19:40,720
and Flambeau and Joan Stacy stared at him in amazed admiration.

377
00:19:41,359 --> 00:19:44,519
Father Brown's face seemed to express nothing but extreme distress.

378
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:47,079
He looked at the ground with one wrinkle of pinon

379
00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:50,319
across his forehead. The Prophet of the Sun leaned easily

380
00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:54,240
against the mantelpiece and resumed in a few words, I

381
00:19:54,279 --> 00:19:56,559
have put before you the whole case against me, the

382
00:19:56,599 --> 00:20:00,359
only possible case against me. In fewer words still, I

383
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:03,359
will blow it to pieces so that not a trace

384
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,319
of it remains as to whether I have committed this crime.

385
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:10,200
The truth is in one sentence. I could not have

386
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,400
committed this crime. Pauline Stacy fell from this floor to

387
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:18,200
the ground at five minutes past twelve. A hundred people

388
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:20,240
will go into the witness box and say that I

389
00:20:20,319 --> 00:20:22,960
was standing out upon the balcony of my own rooms

390
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,519
above from just before the stroke of noon to a

391
00:20:25,599 --> 00:20:30,000
quarter past the usual period of my public prayers. My clerk,

392
00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:33,319
our respectable youth from Clapham, with no sort of connection

393
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:35,960
with me, will swear that he sat in my outer

394
00:20:36,039 --> 00:20:39,119
office all the morning, and that no communication passed through.

395
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:42,759
He will swear that I arrived a full ten minutes

396
00:20:42,799 --> 00:20:46,119
before the hour, fifteen minutes before any whisper of the accident,

397
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:48,559
and that I did not leave the office or the

398
00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:52,000
balcony all that time. No one ever had so complete

399
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,279
an alibi I could subpoena half Westminster. I think you

400
00:20:56,319 --> 00:20:58,880
had better put the handcuffs away again. The case is

401
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,960
at an end. But last of all, that no breath

402
00:21:02,039 --> 00:21:04,920
of this idiotic suspicion remained in the air. I will

403
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,039
tell you all you want to know. I believe I

404
00:21:08,279 --> 00:21:10,599
do know how my unhappy friend came by her death.

405
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:14,480
You can, if you choose, blame me for it, or

406
00:21:14,519 --> 00:21:17,559
my faith and philosophy at least, but you certainly cannot

407
00:21:17,599 --> 00:21:21,240
lock me up. It is well known to all students

408
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:24,640
of the Higher Truths that certain adepts and illuminati have

409
00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,839
in history attained the power of levitation, that is, of

410
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:31,799
being self sustained upon the empty air. It is but

411
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,519
a part of that general conquest of matter, which is

412
00:21:34,599 --> 00:21:38,519
the main element in our occult wisdom. Poor Pauline was

413
00:21:38,559 --> 00:21:42,000
of an impulsive and ambitious temper, I think, to tell

414
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,480
the truth, she thought herself somewhat deeper in the mysteries

415
00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:47,000
than she was, and she has often said to me

416
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,759
as we went down in the lift together, that if

417
00:21:49,799 --> 00:21:53,160
one's will were strong enough, one could float down as

418
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,839
harmlessly as a feather. I solemnly believe that, in some

419
00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,599
ecstasy of noble thoughts, she attempted the miracle. Her will

420
00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,000
or faith must have failed her at the crucial instant,

421
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,920
and the lower law of matter had its horrible revenge.

422
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,839
There is the whole story, gentlemen, very sad, and as

423
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:14,279
you think, very presumptuous and wicked, but certainly not criminal

424
00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,680
or in any way connected with me. In the shorthand

425
00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,880
of the police courts. You had better call it suicide.

426
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:23,880
I shall always call it heroic failure for the advance

427
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:28,160
of science and the slow scaling of heaven. It was

428
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:31,160
the first time Flambeau had ever seen Father Brown vanquished.

429
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,480
He still sat looking at the ground with a painful

430
00:22:34,519 --> 00:22:38,759
and corrugated brow, as if in shame. It was impossible

431
00:22:38,799 --> 00:22:41,759
to avoid the feeling which the prophet's winged words had fanned,

432
00:22:42,319 --> 00:22:45,759
that here was a sullen, professional suspecter of men, overwhelmed

433
00:22:45,759 --> 00:22:48,880
by a prouder and pure spirit of natural liberty and help.

434
00:22:50,039 --> 00:22:53,880
At last, he said, blinking as if in bodily distress. Well,

435
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,240
If that is so, sir, you need to do no

436
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:59,319
more than take the testamentary paper you spoke of and go.

437
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:03,039
I wonder where the poor lady left it. It will

438
00:23:03,079 --> 00:23:04,960
be over there on her desk by the door, I think,

439
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:08,240
said Caelon, with that massive innocence of manner that seemed

440
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,039
to acquit him wholly. She told me specially she would

441
00:23:11,039 --> 00:23:13,720
write it this morning, and I actually saw her writing

442
00:23:13,759 --> 00:23:16,200
as I went up in the lift to my own room.

443
00:23:17,079 --> 00:23:19,680
Was her door open, then, asked the priest, with his

444
00:23:19,759 --> 00:23:21,039
eye on the corner of the matting.

445
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 2: Yes, said Chevon, calmly.

446
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,480
Speaker 1: Ah, it has been open ever since, said the other,

447
00:23:27,519 --> 00:23:30,240
and resumed his silent study of the map. There is

448
00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:33,079
a paper over here, said the grim miss Jane, in

449
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:36,240
a somewhat singular voice. She had passed over to her

450
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,079
sister's desk by the doorway and was holding a sheet

451
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:40,279
of blue fool's.

452
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:41,279
Speaker 2: Cap in her hand.

453
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:43,839
Speaker 1: There was a sour smile on her face that seemed

454
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:47,079
unfit for such a scene or occasion, and Flambaud looked

455
00:23:47,079 --> 00:23:50,599
at her with a darkening brow. Cheyvon the prophet stood

456
00:23:50,599 --> 00:23:53,640
away from the paper with that loyal unconsciousness that had

457
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,559
carried him through, but Flambaud took it out of the

458
00:23:56,599 --> 00:23:59,880
lady's hand and read it with the utmost amazement. It

459
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:02,559
did indeed begin in the formal manner of a will,

460
00:24:03,039 --> 00:24:05,559
but after the words I give and bequeath all of

461
00:24:05,559 --> 00:24:08,920
which I die possessed, the writing abruptly stopped with a

462
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,599
set of scratches, and there is no trace of the

463
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:16,680
name of any legatee. Flambeau in wonder handed this truncated

464
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,640
testament to his clerical friend, who glanced at it and

465
00:24:19,799 --> 00:24:23,200
silently gave it to the priests of the Sun. An

466
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,680
instant afterwards, that Pontiff and his splendid sweeping draperies had

467
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:29,359
crossed the room in two great strides, and was towering

468
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:31,920
over Joan Stacey, his blue eyes standing from his head.

469
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:34,839
What monkey tricks have you been playing here? He cried,

470
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,359
That's not all, Pauline wrote. They were startled to hear

471
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:40,799
him speak in quite a new voice, with a Yankee

472
00:24:40,839 --> 00:24:43,880
shrillness in it. All his grandeur and good English had

473
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,119
fallen from him like a cloak. That is the only

474
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,960
thing on her desk, said Joan, and confronted him steadily

475
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,519
with the same smile of ill favor. Of a sudden

476
00:24:53,559 --> 00:24:57,640
the man broke out into blasphemies and cataracts of incredulous words.

477
00:24:58,079 --> 00:25:00,000
There was something shocking about the dropping of his man.

478
00:25:00,759 --> 00:25:03,960
It was like a man's real face falling off. See here,

479
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,680
he cried and broad American when he was breathless with cursing.

480
00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:10,359
I may be an adventurer, but I guess you're a murderess. Yes, gentlemen,

481
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,880
here's your death explained, and without any levitation. The poor

482
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,799
girl was writing a will in my favor. Her cursed

483
00:25:16,799 --> 00:25:19,599
sister comes in, struggles for the pen, drags her to

484
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,480
the well, and throws her down before she could finish it. Sakes,

485
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,519
I reckon, we want the handcuffs after all, as you

486
00:25:25,559 --> 00:25:28,119
have truly remarked, replied Joan, with ugly calm.

487
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:29,079
Speaker 2: Your clerk is.

488
00:25:29,079 --> 00:25:31,400
Speaker 1: A very respectable young man who knows the nature of

489
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,160
an oath, and he will swear in any court that

490
00:25:34,279 --> 00:25:36,599
I was up in your office arranging some typewriting work

491
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:39,759
for five minutes before and five minutes after my sister fell.

492
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,559
Mister Flambeau will tell you that he found me there.

493
00:25:43,839 --> 00:25:48,440
There was a silence, Why then, cried Flambeau, Pauline was

494
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,440
alone when she fell, and it was suicide. She wasn't

495
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,079
alone when she fell, said father Brown. But it was

496
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:58,319
not suicide. Then how did she die, asked Flambeau impatiently.

497
00:25:59,319 --> 00:26:03,000
She was murdered, but she was alone, objected to the detective.

498
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:08,240
She was murdered when she was all alone, answered the priest.

499
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:11,400
All the rest stared at him, but he remained sitting

500
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,279
in the same old, dejected attitude, with a wrinkle in

501
00:26:14,319 --> 00:26:17,880
his round forehead and an appearance of impersonal shame and sorrow.

502
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:22,119
His voice was colorless and sad. What I want to know,

503
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,480
cried Caelon with an oath, is when the police are

504
00:26:24,559 --> 00:26:27,039
coming for this bloody and wicked sister. She's killed her

505
00:26:27,079 --> 00:26:29,119
flesh and blood. She drobbed me of half a million.

506
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,799
That was just as sacredly mine as come, come, Prophet,

507
00:26:31,799 --> 00:26:35,519
interrupted Flambeaud with a kind of sneer. Remember that all

508
00:26:35,519 --> 00:26:38,480
this world is a cloud of land, the hiro font

509
00:26:38,519 --> 00:26:40,519
of the sun. God made an effort to climb back

510
00:26:40,519 --> 00:26:43,839
on his pedestal. It is not the mere money, he cried,

511
00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:47,079
though that would equip the cause throughout the world. It

512
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:50,160
is also my beloved one's wishes to Pauline.

513
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:51,319
Speaker 2: All this was holy.

514
00:26:51,799 --> 00:26:55,880
Speaker 1: In Pauline's eyes, Father Brown suddenly sprang erect, so that

515
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,240
his chair fell over flat behind him. He was deathly pale.

516
00:26:59,519 --> 00:27:02,279
If he seen fired with a hope, his eyes shone.

517
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,000
That's it, he cried, in a clear voice. That's the

518
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:09,319
way to begin. In Pauline's eyes, the tall prophet retreated

519
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:11,960
before the tiny priest in an almost mad disorder.

520
00:27:12,519 --> 00:27:15,079
Speaker 2: What do you mean? How dare you? He cried repeatedly.

521
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 1: In Pauline's eyes, repeated the priest, his own shining more

522
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,440
and more, go on, in God's name, go on, the

523
00:27:22,519 --> 00:27:26,279
foulest crime the fiends ever prompted. Feels lighter after confession,

524
00:27:26,519 --> 00:27:27,920
and I implore you to confess.

525
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:29,279
Speaker 2: Go on, go on.

526
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: In Pauline's eyes, let me go, you devil, thundered Kaelon,

527
00:27:33,559 --> 00:27:36,440
struggling like a giant in bonds. Who are you, you

528
00:27:36,519 --> 00:27:39,119
cursed spy to weave your spider's webs round me and

529
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,880
peep and peer, let me go? Shall I stop him,

530
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,119
asked Flambeaux, bounding towards the exit, for Kaelon had already

531
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,119
thrown the door wide open. No let him pass, said

532
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,680
Father Brown with a strange, deep sigh that seemed to

533
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,039
come from the depths of the universe. But Caine passed by,

534
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,079
for he belongs to God. There was a long drawn

535
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:00,480
silence in the room when he had left it, which

536
00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:04,240
was to Flambeau's fierce wits, one long agony of interrogation.

537
00:28:05,079 --> 00:28:07,799
Miss Joan Stacy very coolly tidied up the papers on

538
00:28:07,839 --> 00:28:11,559
her desk, Father said Flambou. At last, it is my duty,

539
00:28:11,799 --> 00:28:14,640
not my curiosity. Only it is my duty to find out,

540
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:19,680
if I can, who committed the crime. Which crime, asked

541
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:22,559
Father Brown. The one we are dealing with, of course,

542
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,200
replied his impatient friend. We are dealing with two crimes,

543
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,279
said Brown, crimes of very different weight and by very

544
00:28:29,279 --> 00:28:33,279
different criminals. Miss Joan Stacy, having collected and put away

545
00:28:33,279 --> 00:28:36,799
her papers, proceeded to lock up her drawer. Father Brown

546
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,759
went on, noticing her as little as she noticed him.

547
00:28:41,079 --> 00:28:44,279
The two crimes, he observed were committed against the same

548
00:28:44,319 --> 00:28:47,160
weakness of the same person. In a struggle for her money.

549
00:28:48,119 --> 00:28:50,759
The author of the larger crime found himself thwarted by

550
00:28:50,759 --> 00:28:53,839
the smaller crime. The author of the smaller crime got

551
00:28:53,839 --> 00:28:54,240
the money.

552
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 2: Oh, don't go on like a.

553
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: Lecturer groaned, Flambeaux put it in a few words. I

554
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,319
can put it in one word, answered his friend, Miss Joe.

555
00:29:04,319 --> 00:29:06,839
And Stacey skewered her business like black hat on to

556
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,279
her head with a business like black frown before a

557
00:29:09,279 --> 00:29:13,200
little mirror, and as the conversation proceeded, took her handbag

558
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,279
an umbrella in an unhurried style, and.

559
00:29:15,279 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 2: Left the room.

560
00:29:17,039 --> 00:29:19,599
Speaker 1: The truth is one word, and a short one, said

561
00:29:19,599 --> 00:29:25,319
father Brown. Pauline Stacy was blind, blind, repeated Flambeau, and

562
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:29,440
rose slowly to his whole huge stature. She was subject

563
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,319
to it by blood. Brown proceeded. Her sister would have

564
00:29:32,319 --> 00:29:35,680
started eyeglasses if Pauline would have let her, But it

565
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,039
was her special philosophy or fad, that one must not

566
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:43,279
encourage such diseases by yielding to them. She would not

567
00:29:43,359 --> 00:29:45,880
admit the cloud, or she tried to dispel it by will.

568
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,480
So her eyes got worse and worse with straining. But

569
00:29:49,519 --> 00:29:52,079
the worst strain was to come. It came with this

570
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,519
precious prophet or whatever he calls himself, who taught her

571
00:29:55,519 --> 00:29:57,559
to stare at the hot sun with the naked eye.

572
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,480
It was called accepting a poddle. Oh, if these new

573
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,079
pagans would only be old pagan They would be a

574
00:30:04,079 --> 00:30:07,720
little wiser. The old pagans knew that mere naked nature

575
00:30:07,759 --> 00:30:10,599
worship must have a cruel side. They knew that the

576
00:30:10,599 --> 00:30:14,359
eye of Apollo can blast and blind. There was a pause,

577
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,079
and the priest went on in a gentle and even

578
00:30:17,119 --> 00:30:22,000
broken voice, whether or no that devil deliberately made her blind,

579
00:30:22,519 --> 00:30:24,720
there is no doubt that he deliberately killed her through

580
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,559
her blindness. The very simplicity of the crime is sickening.

581
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:31,519
You know, he and she went up and down in

582
00:30:31,599 --> 00:30:35,759
those lifts without official help. You know also how smoothly

583
00:30:35,799 --> 00:30:39,440
and silently the lift slide. Caelon brought the lift of

584
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:41,960
the girl's landing and saw her through the open door,

585
00:30:42,039 --> 00:30:44,759
writing in her slow, slightless way the will she had

586
00:30:44,759 --> 00:30:47,480
promised him. He called out to her cheerily that he

587
00:30:47,519 --> 00:30:49,400
had to lift ready for her, and she was to

588
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,480
come out when she was ready. Then he pressed a

589
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,920
button and shot soundlessly up to his own floor, walked

590
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,680
through his own office, owed on to his own balcony,

591
00:31:00,039 --> 00:31:02,160
and was safely praying before the crowded street.

592
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 2: When the poor girl.

593
00:31:03,599 --> 00:31:06,799
Speaker 1: Having finished her work, gran gaily out to where lover

594
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,119
and lift were to receive her and stepped.

595
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:11,799
Speaker 2: Don't, cried Flambeau.

596
00:31:12,519 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: He ought to have got half a million by pressing

597
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:17,880
that button, continued the little Father, in the colorless voice

598
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,759
in which she talked of such horrors. But that went smash.

599
00:31:22,519 --> 00:31:25,160
It went smash because there happened to be another person

600
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,359
who also wanted the money, and who also knew the

601
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:32,519
secret about poor Pauline's sight. There was one thing about

602
00:31:32,559 --> 00:31:35,920
that will which I think nobody noticed. Although it was

603
00:31:36,039 --> 00:31:39,599
unfinished and without signature, the other Miss Stacy and some

604
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:43,160
servant of hers had already signed it as witnesses. Joan

605
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,480
had signed first, saying Pauline could finish it later, with

606
00:31:46,559 --> 00:31:51,039
a typical feminine contempt for legal forms. Therefore, Joan wanted

607
00:31:51,039 --> 00:31:53,480
her sister to sign the will without real witnesses.

608
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:54,519
Speaker 2: Why.

609
00:31:55,519 --> 00:31:57,799
Speaker 1: I thought of the blindness and felt sure she had

610
00:31:57,799 --> 00:32:00,240
wanted Pauline to sign in solitude, because she had not

611
00:32:00,359 --> 00:32:03,519
wanted her to sign at all. People like the Staces

612
00:32:03,599 --> 00:32:07,440
always use fountain pens, but this was specially natural to Pauline.

613
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,240
By habit and her strong will and memory. She could

614
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:13,440
still write almost as well as if she saw, but

615
00:32:13,559 --> 00:32:17,480
she could not tell when her pen needed dipping. Therefore,

616
00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:20,319
her fountain pens were carefully filled by her sister, all

617
00:32:20,359 --> 00:32:24,079
except this fountain pen. This was carefully not filled by

618
00:32:24,079 --> 00:32:26,440
her sister. The remains of the ink held out for

619
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,960
a few lines and then failed altogether, and the prophet

620
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,799
lost five hundred thousand pounds and committed one of the

621
00:32:32,799 --> 00:32:35,799
most brutal and brilliant murders in human history for nothing.

622
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,359
Flambeau went to the open door and heard the official

623
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:42,519
police ascending the stairs. He turned and said, you must

624
00:32:42,559 --> 00:32:45,400
have followed everything devilish close to have traced the crime

625
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:48,960
to Kaelon in ten minutes. Father Brown gave a sort

626
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,759
of start oh to him.

627
00:32:52,799 --> 00:32:55,880
Speaker 2: He said, no, I had.

628
00:32:55,759 --> 00:32:58,160
Speaker 1: To follow rather close to find out about miss Joan

629
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,559
and the fountain pen. But I knew Aylon was the

630
00:33:00,559 --> 00:33:03,640
criminal before I came into the front door. You must

631
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,319
be joking, cried Flambeaud. I'm quite serious, answered the priest.

632
00:33:07,759 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 2: I tell you, I knew he.

633
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: Had done it, even before I knew what he had done.

634
00:33:11,759 --> 00:33:16,359
But why these pagan stoics, said Father Brown reflectively.

635
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 2: Always fail by their strength.

636
00:33:18,359 --> 00:33:20,759
Speaker 1: There came a crash and a screamed down the street,

637
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,519
and the Priest of Apollo did not start or look around.

638
00:33:24,279 --> 00:33:26,720
I did not know what it was, but I knew

639
00:33:26,759 --> 00:33:32,079
that he was expecting it. And of the eye of

640
00:33:32,119 --> 00:33:33,640
Apollo by G. K.

641
00:33:33,799 --> 00:33:34,279
Speaker 2: Chesterton