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.