The Incredulity of Father Brown
"Perhaps that is an exaggeration," admitted Father Brown calmly. "I should rather say made up more casually and carelessly than the rest of an uncommonly careful plot. But the plotter did not think the details of mediæval history would matter much to anybody. And his calculation in a general way was pretty nearly right, like most of his other calculations."
"Whose calculations? Who was right?" demanded the lady with a sudden passion of impatience. "Who is this person you are talking about? Haven't we gone through enough, without your making our flesh creep with your hes and hims?"
"I am talking about the murderer," said Father Brown.
"What murderer?" she asked sharply. "Do you mean that the poor Professor was murdered?"
"Well," said the staring Tarrant gruffly into his beard, "we can't say 'murdered', for we don't know he's killed."
"The murderer killed somebody else, who was not Professor Smaill," said the priest gravely.
"Why, whom else could he kill?" asked the other.
"He killed the Reverend John Walters, the Vicar of Dulham," replied Father Brown with precision. "He only wanted to kill those two, because they both had got hold of relics of one rare
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