The Incredulity of Father Brown
eastern patterns and things, till you have a hunch that that old Lord God is still driving like a dark Apollo, and shooting black rays of death?"
"If he is," replied Father Brown, "I might call him by another name. But I doubt whether Merton died by a dark ray or even a stone arrow."
"I guess you think he's St. Sebastian," sneered Drage, "killed with an arrow. A millionaire must be a martyr. How do you know he didn't deserve it? You don't know much about your millionaire, I fancy. Well, let me tell you he deserved it a hundred times over."
"Well," asked Father Brown, gently, "why didn't you murder him?"
"You want to know why I didn't?" said the other, staring. "Well, you're a nice sort of clergyman."
"Not at all," said the other, as if waving away a compliment.
"I suppose it's your way of saying I did," snarled Drage. "Well, prove it, that's all. As for him, I reckon he was no loss."
"Yes he was," said Father Brown, sharply. "He was a loss to you. That's why you didn't kill him."
And he walked out of the room, leaving the man in goggles gaping after him.
It was nearly a month later that Father Brown revisited the house where the third millionaire had
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