the more old-fashioned and independent old huckster that if he would not come into their combine they would freeze him out. Hence the ice-box, of course."
After a pause he went on. "There is undoubtedly a Bolshevist movement in the modern world, and it must undoubtedly be resisted, though I do not believe very much in your way of resisting it. But what nobody notices is that there is another movement equally modern and equally moving: the great movement towards monopoly or the turning of all trades into trusts. That also is a revolution. That also produces what all revolutions produce. Men will kill for that and against that, as they do for and against Bolshevism. It has its ultimatums and its invasions and its executions. These trust magnates have their courts like kings; they have their bodyguard and bravos; they have their spies in the enemy camp. Horne was one of old Gideon's spies in one of the enemy camps; but he was used here against another enemy: the rivals who were ruining him for standing out."
"I still don't quite see how he was used," said Byrne, "or what was the good of it."
"Don't you see," cried Father Brown sharply, "that they gave each other an alibi?"
Byrne still looked at him a little doubtfully, though understanding was dawning on his face.
"That's what I mean," continued the other,
295
