"Where they generally are in such cases," said Carver. "He's either hidden them or passed them on to a confederate. This was not a one-man job. Of course, my people are searching the garden and warning the district."
"Perhaps," suggested Mrs. Bankes, "the confederate stole the necklace while Moonshine was looking in at the window."
"Why was Moonshine looking in at the window?" asked Father Brown quietly. "Why should he want to look in at the window?"
"Well, what do you think?" cried the cheery John.
"I think," said Father Brown, "that he never did want to look in at the window."
"Then why did he do it?" demanded Carver. "What's the good of talking in the air like that? We've seen the whole thing acted before our very eyes."
"I've seen a good many things acted before my eyes that I didn't believe in," replied the priest. "So have you, on the stage and off."
"Father Brown," said Devine, with a certain respect in his tones, "will you tell us why you can't believe your eyes?"
"Yes, I will try to tell you," answered the priest. Then he said gently: "You know what I am and what we are. We don't bother you much. We try to be friends with all our neighbours. But you can't think we do nothing. You can't think we know nothing. We mind our own business; but we know our own people. I knew this dead man very well indeed; I was his confessor, and his friend. So far as a man can, I knew his mind when he left that garden to-day; and his mind was like a glass hive full of golden bees. It's an under-statement to say his reformation was sincere. He was one of those great penitents who manage to make more out of penitence than others can make out of virtue. I say I was his confessor; but, indeed, it was I who went to him for comfort. It did me good to be near so good a man. And when I saw him lying there dead in the garden, it seemed to me as if certain strange words that were said of old were spoken over him aloud in my ear. They might well be; for if ever a man went straight to heaven, it might be he."
"Hang it all," said John Bankes restlessly, "after all, he was a convicted thief."