The Incredulity of Father Brown
mous silence strangely small like the squeak of a mouse.
"Did you kill him deliberately?" he asked.
"How can one answer such a question?" answered the man in the chair, moodily gnawing his finger. "I was mad, I suppose. He was intolerable and insolent, I know. I was on his land and I believe he struck me; anyhow, we came to a grapple and he went over the cliff. When I was well away from the scene it burst upon me that I had done a crime that cut me off from men; the brand of Cain throbbed on my brow and my very brain; I realized for the first time that I had indeed killed a man. I knew I should have to confess it sooner or later." He sat suddenly erect in his chair. "But I will say nothing against anybody else. It is no use asking me about plots or accomplices—I will say nothing."
"In the light of the other murders," said Nares, "it is difficult to believe that the quarrel was quite so unpremeditated. Surely somebody sent you there?"
"I will say nothing against anybody I worked with," said Horne proudly. "I am a murderer, but I will not be a traitor."
Nares stepped between the man and the door and called out in an official fashion to someone outside.
"We will all go to the place, anyhow," he said in a low voice to the secretary, "but this man must go in custody."
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