Page:Chesterton - The Wisdom of Father Brown.djvu/194

THE WISDOM OF FATHER BROWN on him. For three long instants he strained against me as if he had all hell to help him; but I forced back his head until the hairy cap fell off it. I admit that, whilst wrestling, I shut my eyes as it fell.

"I was awakened by a cry from Mull, who was also by this time at the Duke's side. His head and mine were both bending over the bald head of the wigless Duke. Then the silence was snapped by the librarian exclaiming: 'What can it mean? Why, the man had nothing to hide. His ears are just like everybody else's.'

Yes,' said Father Brown, 'that is what he had to hide.'

"The priest walked straight up to him; but strangely enough did not even glance at his ears. He stared with an almost comical seriousness at his bald forehead; and pointed to a three-cornered cicatrice, long healed, but still discernible. 'Mr. Green, I think,' he said politely, 'and he did get the whole estate after all.'

"And now let me tell the readers of The Daily Reformer what I think the most remarkable thing in the whole affair. This transformation-scene, which will seem to you as wild and purple as a Persian fairy-tale, has been (except for my technical assault) strictly legal and constitutional from its first beginnings. This man with the odd scar and the ordinary ears is not an impostor. Though (in 180