“Well,” said old Smart cheerfully, “I don’t profess to be an authority on spiritual powers. What do you say, Father Brown?”
“The only thing that strikes me,” answered the little priest, “is that all the supernatural acts we have yet heard of seem to be thefts. And stealing by spiritual methods seem to me much the same as stealing by material ones.”
“Father Brown is a Philistine,” said the smiling Smith.
“I have a sympathy with the tribe,” said Father Brown. “A Philistine is only a man who is right without knowing why.”
“All this is too clever for me,” said Hartopp heartily.
“Perhaps,” said Father Brown with a smile, “you would like to speak without words, as the Count suggests. He would begin by saying nothing in a pointed fashion, and you would retort with a burst of taciturnity.”
“
