Father Brown xx-xx-xx The Dagger with Wings

Summary

Harold's Old Time Radio

Episode Summary: Father Brown xx-xx-xx "The Dagger with Wings"

Release Date: January 19, 2025
Host/Author: Harold's Old Time Radio

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Introduction

In this captivating episode of "Harold's Old Time Radio," listeners are transported back to the Golden Age of Radio with the intriguing tale of "Father Brown: The Dagger with Wings." Adapted by Archie Campbell and featuring Leslie French as Father Brown, the story delves into themes of deception, superstition, and the battle between good and evil. The narrative unfolds through the interactions between Father Brown and Dr. Boyne as they unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Aylmer family.

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Characters

• Father Brown (Leslie French): A perceptive and intuitive priest who often aids in solving complex mysteries.
• Dr. Boyne (Hugh Ross): A compassionate medical officer with connections to both the police and the church.
• John Strake (Peter Yap): The adopted son of the Aylmer family, portrayed as a cunning and malevolent figure.
• Arnold Aylmer (Sam Dastore): The third son of the Aylmer family, seeking protection due to threats from John Strake.
• Inspector Collins (Stephen Thorne): A diligent police inspector involved in the investigation.

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Plot Overview

The episode begins with Dr. Boyne reaching out to Father Brown regarding Arnold Aylmer's plea for protection against perceived threats from his adopted brother, John Strake. The Aylmer family has been plagued by the mysterious deaths of Arnold's two older brothers under suspicious circumstances. As Father Brown and Dr. Boyne delve deeper, they encounter cryptic symbols—a winged dagger—and unsettling claims of black magic.

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Key Discussions and Investigations

1. The Aylmer Family Tragedy

   • Father Brown explains to Dr. Boyne the troubled history of the Aylmer family, highlighting the sudden deaths of Arnold's brothers and the contentious inheritance dispute.
   • Arnold Aylmer accuses John Strake of using dark magic to exact revenge, emphasizing the symbolism of the winged dagger found in threatening letters (00:33).

2. The Investigation at the White House

   • Dr. Boyne takes the lead in visiting the Aylmer estate, describing the neglected grandeur of the manor and the eerie atmosphere underscored by the snowfall (07:09).
   • Upon entering, they encounter Arnold Aylmer, who presents his theory of employing "silver magic" to combat what he perceives as John Strake's black magic (21:21).

3. Supernatural Claims and Skepticism

   • Arnold Aylmer elaborates on his belief in the supernatural abilities of John Strake, including his supposed ability to fly and his use of magical symbols to commit murders (14:00).
   • Dr. Boyne remains skeptical, questioning the plausibility of these claims and seeking rational explanations for the observed phenomena (15:30).

4. The Revelation of Deception

   • As the investigation progresses, Dr. Boyne uncovers inconsistencies in Arnold Aylmer's narrative. Through meticulous observation and logical deduction, he realizes that Arnold is, in fact, John Strake masquerading as his brother (30:02).
   • A dramatic confrontation ensues, leading to Strake's arrest as Inspector Collins arrives to take him into custody (30:28).

5. Father Brown's Insight

   • Father Brown reflects on the nature of belief and deception, emphasizing the importance of practical reasoning over superstition. He contemplates the psychological manipulation employed by Strake and the perversion of storytelling into malevolent ends (37:31).

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Notable Quotes

• Father Brown on the peculiar request for protection:
  "I want someone of sense who isn't an official. To go up and have a Talk with this Mr. Arnold Aylmer and form an impression of him." (02:04)

• Arnold Aylmer introducing his concept of "silver magic":
  "The antidote to black magic is not brute force or worldly wisdom. The antidote to black magic is white magic." (19:17)

• Dr. Boyne expressing skepticism:
  "But you haven't answered my question. If he had not flown, how could he have come?" (26:59)

• Father Brown on practical reasoning:
  "I'm afraid I'm a practical man and I don't bother much about religion and philosophy." (41:35)

• Dr. Boyne concluding the case:
  "John Strake, I'm taking you into custody on a charge of willful murder." (30:33)

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Insights and Conclusions

"The Dagger with Wings" masterfully intertwines elements of mystery and the supernatural, challenging both characters and listeners to discern truth from illusion. Father Brown's pragmatic approach serves as a counterbalance to Arnold Aylmer's descent into superstition and obsession. The episode underscores the timeless struggle between rationality and belief, illustrating how cunning deception can masquerade as otherworldly phenomena.

The resolution of the mystery through logical deduction and keen observation reaffirms the value of practical reasoning. Father Brown's reflections highlight the enduring relevance of critical thinking in unraveling deceit, making "The Dagger with Wings" a compelling addition to the Father Brown series.

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Production Credits

• Adapted by: Archie Campbell
• Cast:
  • Father Brown: Leslie French
  • Dr. Boyne: Hugh Ross
  • John Strake: Peter Yap
  • Arnold Aylmer: Sam Dastore
  • Inspector Collins: Stephen Thorne
• Production: Christopher Venning

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Note: All timestamps correspond to the provided transcript and are formatted as MM:SS.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

At one period of his life, my friend Father Brown found it difficult to hang his hat on a hat peg without repressing a slight shudder. The cause of this curious idiosyncrasy was indeed a mere detail in much more complicated events. But it was, I believe, the only detail that remained to him in his busy life to remind him of the whole strange business. Its remote origin was to be found in the facts which led Dr. Boyne, the medical officer attached to the county police force, to send for Father Brown on a particular frosty morning in December.

[Father Brown]

Come in. Ah, Father Brown.

[Dr. Boyne]

Hello, Dr. Boyne.

[Father Brown]

Come in, my dear man. Sit you down.

[Dr. Boyne]

Thank you.

[Father Brown]

Nice of you to drop him.

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, you wanted to see me. I understand.

[Father Brown]

I'm not so sure that I do. You know, I'm not sure about anything yet. I'm hanged if I can make out whether it's a case for a doctor or a policeman or a priest.

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, as I suppose you are both a policeman and a doctor, I seem to be in rather a minority.

[Father Brown]

An instructed minority, let us say. I mean, I know you've had to do a little in our line as well as your own.

[Dr. Boyne]

That's true. I have stepped rather outside my priestly duties on occasion.

[Father Brown]

Very successfully, if I may be allowed to say so. But it's precious hard to know whether this particular business is in your line or ours. Or merely in the line that the commissioners in lunacy.

[Dr. Boyne]

You intrigue me, Doctor. Pray continue.

[Father Brown]

Come over to this window for a moment.

[Dr. Boyne]

Certainly.

[Father Brown]

You see that large white house on the hill?

[Dr. Boyne]

One could hardly avoid doing so. An imposing looking place even at this.

[Father Brown]

Distance, but somewhat gone to seed in recent years, I'm told. Well, the point is, we've just had a message from the man who lives in it. He's asking us for protection. Protection against what he describes as a murderous persecution.

[Dr. Boyne]

Fear of persecution is a not uncommon delusion with certain individuals. I've even encountered it amongst my own flock. But murderous, you say?

[Father Brown]

His words, not mine. However, if you'll bear with me, I'd better tell you the story from the Beginning? We've gone into the facts as far as we could, of course. Well, it seems that a man named Aylmer, who was a wealthy landowner in these parts, married rather late in life and had three sons. But in his bachelor days, when he thought he would have no heir, he adopted a boy whom he thought very brilliant and promising, who went by the name of John Strake.

[Dr. Boyne]

Some distant relative, no doubt.

[Father Brown]

No, no. His origins seem to be vague. Some say he was a foundling and others insist that he was a gypsy. I think this last notion is mixed up with the fact that Aylmer, in his old age, dabbled in all sorts of dingy occultism, and the three sons insisted that Streake encouraged him in it.

[Dr. Boyne]

And a great many other things beside that, I'll be bound.

[Father Brown]

Quite so. They say Streake was an amazing scoundrel, an astounding liar. But that might be a natural prejudice in the light of what happened when the old man died. It was found that he'd left practically everything to the adopted son. The three real sons disputed the will. They said that the father had been frightened into making such a deposition and, not to put too fine a point on it, driven into a state of gibbering idiocy.

[Dr. Boyne]

Ah, dear me. These family quarrels are always most distressing.

[Father Brown]

Anyhow, they seem to have proved something about the dead man's mental condition, for the court set aside the will and the sons inherit it.

[Dr. Boyne]

A meet and proper decision, no doubt. Not to the liking of the adopted son, I imagine.

[Father Brown]

No, indeed. From all accounts, he reacted violently as he straight broke out in the most dreadful fashion and swore he would kill all three of them one after the other, and that nothing could hide them from his vengeance. It is the third or last of the brothers, Arnold Aylmer, who's asking for police protection.

[Dr. Boyne]

Third and last.

[Father Brown]

Yes. The other two are dead. Oh, that is where the doubt comes in. There's no proof that they were murdered, but they might possibly have been. The eldest, who took up his position as squire, was supposed to have committed suicide in his garden. The second, who went into trade as a manufacturer, was knocked on the head by machinery in his factory. We might very well have taken a false step and fallen. But if Streake did kill them, he's certainly very cunning in his manner of getting to work and getting away again.

[Dr. Boyne]

On the other hand, I suppose it could be that the whole thing is a mania of conspiracy founded on coincidence.

[Father Brown]

That is where you come into it, Father Brown. I want someone of sense who isn't an official. To go up and have a Talk with this Mr. Arnold Aylmer and form an impression of him. You know what a man with a delusion is like and how a man looks when he's telling the truth. I want you to be the advance guard before we take the matter up.

[Dr. Boyne]

It seems rather odd that you haven't had to take it up before. Is there any particular reason why he should send for you now?

[Father Brown]

He does give a reason. He declares that all his servants have suddenly gone on strike and left him so that he's obliged to call on the police to look after his house.

[Dr. Boyne]

Would you suppose there's any truth in his claim? The whole thing sounds like the whim of some half witted crank.

[Father Brown]

The inquiries have made confirm that there has been a general exodus of servants from that house on the hill. Apparently the servants account of the matter is that their employer had become quite impossible in his fidgets and fears that he wanted them to guard his house like sentries or sit up like night nurses in hospital. So with one voice they announced that he was a lunatic and left. Of course that doesn't prove he is a lunatic. But it does seem rather rum in these days for a man to expect his valet or his parlourmaid to act as an armed guard.

[Dr. Boyne]

So he wants a policeman to act as his parlourmaid because his parlourmaid won't act as a policeman.

[Father Brown]

I thought that rather thick too. But I can't take the responsibility of a flat refusal till I've tried to compromise. You are the compromise.

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, very well. I'll go and call on him now. If you like.

[Narrator]

Good man.

[Father Brown]

I felt sure I could count on you.

[Dr. Boyne]

I could have done with a thicker overcoat. It's getting colder at every step. And it's about to snow again by the look of those great livid clouds. Oh, slippery too. Dear me, the snow has started to fall already. I'd better put up my brolly. Ah, at last. These must be the entrance gates. Good luck. I should reach the house before this first flurry becomes a blizzard. An ornate enough piece of iron work, in all conscience more suitable I'd say, as the approach to some Italian villa than to an English country house. I suppose the gates have not been locked. So far so good. A drop of oil might not come amiss. Point was right. The place does appear to have been somewhat neglected. Those shrubs and evergreens have been allowed to run riot, no mistake. Too northern to be called luxuriant. More like an arctic jungle.

[Narrator]

So it was in some sense with the house that now came into Father Brown's view. It stood as if waist high in a stunted forest of shrubs and bushes. Its classical facade and row of columns might have looked out on the Mediterranean, but now seemed to be withering in the wind of the North Sea. Carved masks of comedy and tragedy looked down upon the grey confusion of the garden paths now rapidly disappearing under a layer of snow. But the faces seemed to be frostbitten. The very volutes of the capitals might have curled up with the cold. Father Brown mounted the steps to a square porch flanked by pillars and knocked at the door. But four minutes afterwards, he knocked again.

[Dr. Boyne]

I hope I'm not to be kept standing out here all day. After all, I'm not an Eskimo. No one in front of the house, apparently. Perhaps there's a side door somewhere. I'll try there. Bless my soul, how thickly the snow's lying already. Ah. Ah, here we are. Is it locked, I wonder? Bolted or fastened in some way? Perhaps the eccentric Mr. Aylmer has barricaded himself too deep in the house to hear any kind of summons. Well, perhaps he assumes that any summons must signal the arrival of the avenging John Strake. Oh, dear. Oh, well. It's unlikely the departing servants will have seen too carefully to the defenses. They may easily have overlooked A window. If nothing else, it's worth trying. At any rate, not such a large place after all.

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[Dr. Boyne]

Perhaps a trifle pretentious. Ah, what have we here? Behind this creeper, a French window, and left ajar. Oh, dear. I dislike entering another man's house in this fashion. But needs must, when the devil leads.

[Narrator]

The room or hall in which our friend found himself was comfortable enough in an old fashioned way, with a staircase leading up from it on one side and a door leading out from it on the other. Facing him was another door with red stained glass let into it. On a table to the right stood a sort of aquarium in which fishes and similar things moved about in the greenish water. Opposite it, in an ornamental pot, a large plant of the palm variety. By contrast, a telephone in a curtained alcove came as something of a surprise to Father Brown.

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, I'm blessed to find so modern an instrument in such dusty and Victorian surroundings. That's incongruous, to say the least.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Who is that?

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, could I see Mr. Aylmer?

[Arnold Aylmer]

I am Mr. Aylmer. You must excuse my dressing gown. I have got out of the way of expecting visitors.

[Dr. Boyne]

I'm wondering whether it is quite true that you never expect visitors.

[Arnold Aylmer]

You're right. I always expect one visitor and he may be the last.

[Dr. Boyne]

I sincerely hope not, but at least I'm relieved to infer that I do not look like him.

[Arnold Aylmer]

You certainly do not. From your habit, I assume you are a man of God.

[Dr. Boyne]

Yes. My name is Father Brian. Some friends of mine have told me about your trouble and asked me to see if I could do anything to help you. The truth is, I have some little experience in affairs like these.

[Arnold Aylmer]

There are no affairs like this.

[Dr. Boyne]

You mean that the tragedies in your unfortunate family were not normal deaths?

[Arnold Aylmer]

I mean, they weren't even normal murders. The man who is hounding us all to death is a devil incarnate and his power is from hell.

[Dr. Boyne]

All evil has one origin. But how do you know they were not normal murders?

[Arnold Aylmer]

Why are we talking in the hall? Come in and sit down. Be seated, if you please, and I will endeavor to explain.

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, thank you.

[Arnold Aylmer]

I have come to these conclusions by reason because, unfortunately, reason really leads there. I have read a great many books on this subject. But what I tell you does not rest on what I have read, but what I have seen. Do I make myself clear?

[Dr. Boyne]

Perfectly.

[Arnold Aylmer]

In my elder brother's case, I was not certain at first there were no marks or footprints where he was found shot on the lawn here, the pistol beside him. But that morning he had received a threatening letter, certainly from our enemy. For it was marked with a sign, like a winged dagger.

[Dr. Boyne]

A dagger with wings.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Just another of his infernal cabalistic tricks.

[Dr. Boyne]

But is it not possible that your brother may have taken his own life?

[Arnold Aylmer]

That was the verdict at the time. Although a servant in the house swore she had seen a figure moving along a garden wall, shortly after she had heard a shot. She said whatever it was, it was too large to be a cat or a prowling dog.

[Dr. Boyne]

She could have been mistaken.

[Arnold Aylmer]

That is possible, of course. All I can say is that if the murderer came, he left no traces.

[Dr. Boyne]

But your other brother, Stephen, How?

[Arnold Aylmer]

When he died, it was different. Before that, I had only surmised. Since then, I have known. On the day of his death, a machine was working in an open scaffolding under the factory tower. I scaled the platform. A moment or two after he had fallen under the iron hammer that struck him. I did not see anything else strike him. But I saw what I saw. You must take my word for what I'm going to tell you now. A great drift of factory smoke was rolling between me and the tower above. But through a rift, I saw, standing at the very top of it, a dark human figure muffled in what looked like a black cloak. Then the smoke came between us. When it cleared, I looked up again at the distant chimney. There was nobody there. I'm a rational man, Father Brown. But how, I ask you, had he reached that dizzy, inapproachable turret? And how did he leave it? My brother's head was smashed beyond recognition, but his body was not much damaged. In his pocket we found one of those warning messages, dated the previous day and stamped with the same flying dagger.

[Dr. Boyne]

This symbol of the flying dagger. Might not its use be merely arbitrary? Accidentally?

[Arnold Aylmer]

Nothing about that abominable man is accidental. He is all design, though it is indeed a dark and intricate design, woven out of all sorts of secret languages and signs and nameless evils. I do not pretend to know all that is conveyed by this symbol, but it seems surely it must have some relation to all that has befallen my unfortunate family.

[Dr. Boyne]

The coincidence is certainly very great.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Is that all? Is there no connection, then, between the idea of a winged weapon and the mystery by which my brother Philip was struck dead on his own lawn, without the slightest trace of any footprint or disturbance of the grass? Is there no connection between the dagger and that figure which hung on the far top of that chimney tower, clad in a cloak for wings?

[Dr. Boyne]

Do you mean that he is in a perpetual state of levitation?

[Arnold Aylmer]

It was a common prediction of the Dark Ages that the Antichrist would be able to fly. Anyhow, there was the flying dagger on the warnings. And whether or not it could fly, it could certainly strike.

[Dr. Boyne]

What sort of paper were these messages written on?

[Arnold Aylmer]

Oh, you can see what they're like for yourself, for I got one this very morning. I have it in my pocket now. Yes, here it is.

[Dr. Boyne]

Torn from an artist's sketchbook, I would say. There's no mistaking the symbol. It clearly represents a dagger adorned with wings. Death comes the day after this, as it came to your brother. Mr. Aylmer, you must not let this sort of stuff stupefy you. These devils always try to make us helpless by making us hopeless.

[Arnold Aylmer]

You're right. And the devil shall find that I'm not so hopeless after all. Nor so helpless. Perhaps I have more hope and better help than you fancy.

[Dr. Boyne]

I don't follow you, I'm afraid.

[Arnold Aylmer]

My unfortunate brothers failed because they used the wrong weapons. Philip carried a revolver, and that was how his death came to be called suicide.

[Dr. Boyne]

The weapon was found beside his body, you said.

[Arnold Aylmer]

That is so. With one chamber empty, I believe my brother tried to defend himself, not to take his own life.

[Dr. Boyne]

And the other brother, Stephen, had police.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Protection, but he had too great a sense of the ridiculous to allow a policeman to follow him up a ladder to a scaffolding where he stood only for a moment. My brothers were both scoffers. Sceptics, if you like. And for that they paid with their lives.

[Dr. Boyne]

Sceptics? Sceptical of what, may I ask?

[Arnold Aylmer]

Of the strange mysticism of my father's last days. I always knew there was more in the old man than they understood by studying magic. He fell at last under the blight of black magic. The black magic of this scoundrel Strake. And that is where my brothers were wrong. The antidote to black magic is not brute force or worldly wisdom. The antidote to black magic is white magic.

[Dr. Boyne]

That rather depends on what you mean by white magic.

[Arnold Aylmer]

I mean silver magic. Do you know what I mean by silver magic?

[Dr. Boyne]

I must confess that I don't.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Come, then. I will show you. This way, please.

[Narrator]

The door with the red glass opened into a long, narrow corridor, ending in another door into the garden. Through its glazed panels, Father Brown could see that the lawns and the sweeping fall of the country beyond were covered with the shining pallor of snow.

[Dr. Boyne]

Here is white magic, anyhow.

[Arnold Aylmer]

What do you mean?

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, look for yourself.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Oh, yes, the snow. It's going to lie, without a doubt. But pray, follow me.

[Narrator]

As they made their way along the passage, Father Brown noticed that on one side was an ordinary hat. Stand with the ordinary Dingy cluster of old hats and overcoats. And beside it, a single door leading no doubt from the proprietor's bedroom. On the other side of the passage was something more interesting. A dark oak sideboard laid out with some old silver and overhung by a trophy of old weapons. Pistols and other firearms. Here, Arnold Elmer halted.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Do you see this long, antiquated sort of pistol with the wide mouth?

[Dr. Boyne]

Yeah.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Do you know why I choose this old blunderbuss?

[Dr. Boyne]

I can't say I do.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Because I can load it with this kind of bullet.

[Dr. Boyne]

A silver teaspoon?

[Father Brown]

Yes.

[Arnold Aylmer]

A silver apostle spoon. I merely have to break off the small figure at the top.

[Dr. Boyne]

So.

[Arnold Aylmer]

And I have my silver bullet. Now let us go back into the other room. Sit down, won't you?

[Dr. Boyne]

Thank you.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Tell me, did you ever read about the death of Dundee?

[Dr. Boyne]

Dundee? Oh, you mean the man who persecuted the Scottish Covenanters?

[Arnold Aylmer]

No, no. Did you know that he could only be shot with a silver bullet because he had sold himself to the devil?

[Dr. Boyne]

So it was said.

[Arnold Aylmer]

That's one comfort about you, Father Brown. At least you know enough to believe in the devil.

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, yes, I believe in the devil. What I don't believe in is the Dundee. Have you ever heard of Dalrymple of Stair?

[Arnold Aylmer]

No.

[Dr. Boyne]

At any rate, you've heard of what he did. He was the man who made the Massacre of Grand Co.

[Arnold Aylmer]

But I always thought it was the Campbell.

[Dr. Boyne]

Maybe. Yet it was Dalrymple who instigated the slaughter. He was a very learned man and a lucid lawyer. Quiet man with a very refined intellectual face. Now, that's the sort of man who sells himself to the devil.

[Arnold Aylmer]

By God, you are right. A refined intellectual face. That is the face of John Strake. If you will wait here a little while, I will show you something.

[Dr. Boyne]

Dear me. A madman, without a doubt. And one impelled by a single crazy obsession. I suppose he's gone back to that old sideboard. Or possibly to his bedroom. But why? What can be in his mind?

[Narrator]

Father Brown gazed abstractedly at the carpet where a faint red glimmer shone from the glass in the doorway. Once it seemed to brighten like a ruby, and then it darkened again as if the sun of that stormy day had passed from cloud to cloud. Nothing moved except the aquatic creatures which floated to and fro in the dim green bowl. Father Brown was thinking hard. A minute or two later he got up and slipped quietly to the alcove of the telephone.

[Dr. Boyne]

Dr. Boyne? It's me, Father Brown.

[Father Brown]

Ah, yes. What's the trouble, old chap?

[Dr. Boyne]

I wanted to tell you about Aylmer and his affairs.

[Father Brown]

Oh, good. So you've managed to see it?

[Dr. Boyne]

Yes, I'm in his house at the moment.

[Father Brown]

Did you get anything out?

[Dr. Boyne]

Yes, I did. It's a queer story, but I rather think there's something in it. I haven't time to go into details now, but if I were you, I'd send some men up here straight away. Four or five, I think. And surround the house.

[Father Brown]

Surround the house? Why? What are you expecting to happen?

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, I can't tell. But if anything does happen, there'll probably be something startling in the way of an escape. My advice to your people is to send your men up here at once. We've no time to lose.

[Father Brown]

Very well. I'll take your word for it.

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, thank you, Doctor. Well, that's all for the present. Goodbye. No sign of Elmer? Oh, just as well, since his absence gave me time to make my call. Ah, well, nothing for it but to wait. Impatience. Curious how the light filters through that glass door, shedding its blood red pattern on the carpet. Bloody. That's an ill omen. In the circumstances, I might say. Now it's disappeared again. Strange how it comes and goes. Angels defend us.

[Arnold Aylmer]

What can glory be to the white magic? Glory. Bit of the silver bullet. That hellhound is hunted once too often. And my brothers are avenged at last.

[Dr. Boyne]

Merciful heaven. What mischief have you done? Aylmer. No one here. Ah. The bedroom perhaps? Locked. That's odd. The keyhole? No, nothing to be seen except a bare room outside. Then it must be there, if anywhere. Dear God. What have we here?

[Narrator]

In the field of snow, which had been so blank a little before, lay a black object. At first glance it looked like an enormous bat. But approaching nearer, Father Brown saw that it was the body of a man fallen on its face, the head covered by a broad black hat. The appearance of bat's wings came from the loose sleeves of a vast black cloak spread out to their utmost length on either side. Peering beneath the hat, Father Brown got a glimpse of the face. It was indeed as Aylmer had described. Refined, intellectual, even skeptical and austere.

[Dr. Boyne]

John Strake. The face of John Strake. Well, I'm Jiggit. It really does look like some vast vempt that has swooped down like a bird.

[Arnold Aylmer]

How else could he have come?

[Dr. Boyne]

Ail me, you startle me.

[Arnold Aylmer]

No doubt, but you haven't answered my question. If he had not flown, how could he have come?

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, I suppose he could have walked.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Walked? Look at the snow it's unspotted, pure as the white magic you yourself called it. There are no footsteps, but a few of yours and mine. There are none approaching the house from anywhere.

[Dr. Boyne]

You're right. There are none.

[Arnold Aylmer]

I'll tell you something else. That cloak he flies with. It's too long to walk with. He was not a tall man and it would trail behind him like a royal train. Stretch it out over his body if you like and see.

[Dr. Boyne]

How did it happen?

[Arnold Aylmer]

I looked out of the door and was turning back when there came a kind of rushing of wind all around me. As if I were being buffeted by a wheel revolving in mid air. I spun round somehow and fired blindly. And then I saw nothing but what you see here before you. Nor would you have seen it now if I'd not had a silver shot in my gun. But for that it would have been another body than John Strake's lying there.

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, what shall we do? Leave it lying here in the snow? Or would you like it taken into your room? I suppose that is your bedroom in the passage.

[Arnold Aylmer]

No, no. We must leave it there until the police have seen it.

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, yes.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Besides, I've had as much of such things as I can stand for the moment. Whatever else happens, I'm going to have a drink. After that they can hang me if they like. There must be brandy somewhere in the house. Where are those blasted servants hidden it?

[Dr. Boyne]

Why not try that small cupboard in the corner there?

[Arnold Aylmer]

Yes, of course. Why didn't I think of that before? Ah, here we are. A full decanter. And glasses as well.

[Dr. Boyne]

Yes.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Brandy all right. That's better. Care for a drink yourself?

[Dr. Boyne]

Thank you, no.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Well, it's up to you. Nothing like a drop of spirit to restore a man's confidence. Damnation.

[Dr. Boyne]

Gideon. You very nearly upset that bowl of fish.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Not myself, you know. Not myself at all. Legs, let me down. You see, it's only to be expected after what I've gone through. Sure you won't join me?

[Dr. Boyne]

Not for me, thanks.

[Arnold Aylmer]

I see you are still doubtful, though you have seen the thing with your own eyes. Believe me, Father Brown, there was something more behind the quarrel between the spirit of Strake and the spirit of the house of Aylmer. It's your business to believe in things.

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, I do believe in some things, of course. And therefore, of course I don't believe in other things.

[Arnold Aylmer]

You do believe it. You believe everything. We all believe everything. Even when we deny everything. The soul goes round upon a wheel of stars and all things return. Perhaps Drake and I have Striven in many shapes, beast against beast and bird against bird. And perhaps we shall strive forever. We seek and need each other. Even that eternal hatred is an eternal love.

[Dr. Boyne]

No.

[Arnold Aylmer]

What is the good of saying no? You have seen part of that eternal drama with your own eyes. You have seen the threat of John Strake to slay Arnold Aylmer by black magic. You have seen Arnold Aylmer slay John Strake by white magic. You see Arnold Aylmer alive and talking to you now. And yet you do not believe it.

[Dr. Boyne]

No, I do not believe it.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Why not?

[Dr. Boyne]

Because you are not Arnold Aylmer. I know who you are. Your name is John Strake.

[Father Brown]

And.

[Dr. Boyne]

And you have murdered the last of the brothers who is lying outside in the snow. What?

[Arnold Aylmer]

What are you saying? By heavens.

[Dr. Boyne]

I'll have your life for this. Ah. Put that pistol down. You'll not help yourself by adding one more victim to your crime. The place is surrounded and there's no way of escape.

[Arnold Aylmer]

This house surrounded?

[Dr. Boyne]

I'll not believe you.

[Arnold Aylmer]

The police?

[Narrator]

That's right, sir.

[Father Brown]

Inspector Collins of the Essays Constabulary. And if you take my advice, you'd.

[Narrator]

Better let one of my men take.

[Father Brown]

Charge of that pistol. See to it, will you, Robinson? Very good, sir.

[Dr. Boyne]

By what right do you.

[Father Brown]

We'll come to that in due course, Mr. Strake, if that in truth be your name. Meanwhile, perhaps Father Brown here would explain.

[Narrator]

Matters rather more fully.

[Dr. Boyne]

Certainly, Inspector. That man there is none other than John Strake. And I accuse him of the murder of Arnold Aylmer, as well as of his two brothers, and the attempted murder of myself.

[Narrator]

Thank you, Father Brown. That's all I needed to know. John Strake, I'm taking you into custody on a charge of willful murder. And it is my duty to warn you that anything you say now will be taken down and may be used in evidence.

[Father Brown]

You know, what beats me is the mentality of a man like Strake. Not only does he appear to have confessed his crimes with very little prompting by the police, but from what Inspector Collins tells me, he even seemed inclined to boast to them as victories.

[Dr. Boyne]

Instead of weaving all that wild romance about winged vampires and silver bullets, he might have put an ordinary leaden bullet into me and walked out of the house.

[Father Brown]

I wonder he didn't. Coffee, Father?

[Dr. Boyne]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Father Brown]

I don't understand it. But then, I don't understand anything yet. How on earth did you discover what you did?

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, you yourself, Doctor, provided me with very valuable information. Especially the one piece of information that really counted. And what was that, your statement? That Streake was an inventive and imaginative liar with great presence of mind in producing his lies. And this afternoon he needed it. His mistake, perhaps. His only one was in choosing a preternatural story. He had a notion that because I'm a clergyman, I would believe anything.

[Father Brown]

Other folk have little notions of that kind too, you know. But you must really begin at the beginning.

[Dr. Boyne]

The beginning of it was a dressing gown.

[Father Brown]

A dressing gown? Yes.

[Dr. Boyne]

It's quite the bestest guys I've ever known.

[Father Brown]

How so?

[Dr. Boyne]

When you meet a man in a house with a dressing gown on, you assume quite automatically that he's in his own house. I assumed it myself. But afterwards, queer little things began to happen.

[Father Brown]

Such as?

[Dr. Boyne]

When he took the pistol down in the hall. He clicked it at arm's length as a man does to make sure a strange weapon isn't loaded.

[Father Brown]

But surely he would know whether the pistols in his hole were loaded enough.

[Dr. Boyne]

Precisely. Then later on, I didn't like the way he had to look for the brandy or the way he barged into the bowl of fishes. Now, a man who has a fragile thing of that sort in his rooms gets a quite mechanical habit of avoiding it. But the first real point was this. He came out of the passage between the two doors and in that passage there's only one other door leading to a room. So I assumed it was the bedroom he'd just come from. I tried the handle, but it was locked. I thought, this is odd. And then I looked through the keyhole. It was an utterly bare room. No bed, no anything. Therefore, he had not come from inside any room but from outside the house. And when I saw that, I think I saw the whole picture as I do now, just as it happened.

[Father Brown]

Go on. Don't keep in suspense.

[Dr. Boyne]

Poor Arnold Aylmer doubtless slept and perhaps lived upstairs. But this afternoon he came out of his room in his dressing gown, descended the stairs and passed through the red glass door at the end of the passage, black against the winter daylight, he saw a tall bearded man in a broad brimmed black hat and a large flapping black cloak. He did not see much more in this world.

[Father Brown]

Strake.

[Arnold Aylmer]

Yes, John Strake, your family's sworn and mortal foe.

[Narrator]

What do you seek here? Your life.

[Arnold Aylmer]

That is what I seek. Aylmer. I have come here to kill you. You can't do that. No. Stay where you are. To kill you, I say.

[Dr. Boyne]

No.

[Arnold Aylmer]

I've done you no wrong.

[Dr. Boyne]

I've done all kill you.

[Arnold Aylmer]

And so at last the score is settled. Arnold Aylmer has paid his debt. The last of the foes who robbed me of my inheritance.

[Dr. Boyne]

What's that? Footsteps.

[Arnold Aylmer]

There's someone in the house. What do I do now? I can't be caught here with a body in my feet. I must act and act quickly.

[Dr. Boyne]

Those footsteps, Doctor, were mine. I had just entered by the French window. The murderer's reaction was a miracle of promptitude. He took off his big black hat and cloak and put on the dead man's dressing gown. Then he did a thing that affects my fancies even more grisly than the rest. He hung the corpse like a coat on one of the hat pegs. He draped it in the long cloak and covered the head entirely with his own wide hat.

[Father Brown]

Hung the corpse in a coat peg. Holy Moose is the mad must have the strength of the very devil he has.

[Dr. Boyne]

But it was the only way of hiding a body in that little passage with the locked door.

[Father Brown]

You Maze. Me?

[Dr. Boyne]

I myself walked past that hat stand once without thinking it was anything but a hat stand. I think that unconsciousness of mine will always give me a shiver.

[Father Brown]

Your story has done that to me already. But what next? Surely he must have realized that you might discover the corpse at any moment and hung where it was. It was a corpse calling for a certain amount of explanation. Was it?

[Dr. Boyne]

Oh, quite so. And therefore he adopted the boldest stroke of discovering and explaining it himself.

[Father Brown]

How do you mean?

[Dr. Boyne]

He had already assumed the part of Arnold. Why should not his dead enemy assume the part of John Strake?

[Father Brown]

I'm reminded of that old tale of some frightful fancy dress ball to which two mortal enemies went dressed up as each other.

[Dr. Boyne]

Only in this case, the fancy dress ball was to be a dance of death and one of the dancers would be dead. That is why I can imagine him smiling.

[Father Brown]

Smiling?

[Dr. Boyne]

All things are from God, Doctor, above all reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. We must not forget their origin, even in their perversion. Now, this man had in him a very noble power to be perverted. The power of telling stories. He was a great novelist. Only he twisted his fictive power to practical evil ends.

[Father Brown]

Yes, go on.

[Dr. Boyne]

Well, it all began with his deceiving old Aylmer with elaborate falsehoods and inventions. And gradually the urge grew stronger and he became more and more vain of his skill in developing them. That is what the young Aylmers meant by saying that he could always cast a spell over their father. It was the sort of spell that the storyteller cast over the tyrant in the Arabian Nights. He could always produce more Arabian Nights if ever his neck was in danger. And today his neck was in danger.

[Father Brown]

But I'm still not clear where this side tracking is getting us. Surely the fellow's a cold blooded and callous murderer and that's all there is to it.

[Dr. Boyne]

That may be so, but I'm sure, as I say, that he enjoyed it as fantasy as well as a conspiracy. He set about the task of telling the true story the wrong way round. Of treating the dead man as living and the live man as dead. He'd already got into Aylmer's dressing gown. He now proceeded to get into Aylmer's body and soul. He looked at that corpse as if it were his own. And he decked it out not only in his own dark garments, but in a whole dark fairy tale about the black bird that could only fall by the silver bullet. He completed the exchange by flinging the corpse out on the snow as the corpse of Streak it spread eagled in that strange fashion that suggested the sweeping descent of a bird of prey. From this he did his best to work up a creepy conception of Strake to explain the absence of footprints.

[Father Brown]

What a rogue.

[Dr. Boyne]

And for one piece of artistic impudence, I hugely admire him. He actually turned one of the contradictions in his case into an argument for it.

[Father Brown]

Oh, how was that?

[Dr. Boyne]

He pointed out that the man's cloak, being too long for him, proved that he never walked the ground like an ordinary mortal. But he looked at me very hard while he said that. And something told me at that moment he was trying a very big bluff.

[Father Brown]

Had you discovered the truth by then, I wonder, when you suspected and when you were sure.

[Dr. Boyne]

I think I really suspected when I telephoned you. And yet it was nothing more than the red light from the closed door brightening and darkening on the carpet, that had set me thinking. I was sitting alone. And as I gazed down at that crimson patch at my feet, it looked like a splash of blood that grew vivid as it cried for vengeance. Why, I asked myself, should it change like that? I knew the sun had not come out. It could only be because the second door behind it had been opened and shut. Someone had gone out into the garden, letting daylight shine along the passage. I began to feel that that person had gone out to do something. It was then I decided to call you. But as to when I was certain, that's a different matter. You see, if he had gone out and seen his enemy, then he would at once have raised the alarm. He did not. It was only some moments later that the fracas occurred.

[Father Brown]

The cry, the pistol shot and strake sentence with the pistol in his hand.

[Dr. Boyne]

Yes, indeed.

[Father Brown]

It boils down to this. Then you say that Arnold Aylmer was killed before you appeared on the scene.

[Dr. Boyne]

Before or immediately after. That is so.

[Father Brown]

But that his body was not thrown out onto the snow until some time later.

[Dr. Boyne]

Yes.

[Father Brown]

And that the pistol shot you heard later still had nothing to do with his death?

[Dr. Boyne]

Nothing whatsoever. It was all part and parcel of Streake's crazy notion to hoodwink me. I knew that right at the end he was trying to hypnotize me. Just as once he did with old Aylmer, no doubt. But it wasn't only the way he said it. It was what he said. It was the religion and the philosophy of it.

[Father Brown]

Oh, I'm afraid I'm a practical man and I don't bother much about religion and philosophy.

[Dr. Boyne]

You'll never be a practical man till you do. There's just one simple little fact that I've learned simply as a practical man. I've scarcely ever met a criminal who, if he philosophized at all, didn't philosophize along those lines of Orientalism, reincarnation and the wheel of destiny, and so forth. It is the religion of rascals. I knew it was a rascal who was speaking.

[Father Brown]

I should have thought that a rascal could pretty well profess any religion he chose.

[Dr. Boyne]

It was his whole game with me to be as idealistic as possible. That sort of man may be dripping with gore, but he will always be able to tell you sincerely that Buddhism is better than Christianity. Nay. He will tell you in all sincerity that Buddhism is more Christian than Christianity. That alone is enough to throw a ghastly ray of light on his notion of Christianity.

[Father Brown]

Upon my soul, I can't make out whether you're denouncing or defending him.

[Dr. Boyne]

It isn't offending a man to say he's a genius. Far from it. And it is simply a psychological fact that an artist will always betray himself by some sort of sincerity.

[Father Brown]

I'll take your word for that.

[Dr. Boyne]

You'll have to, Doctor, for I must be on my way. Thank you for your excellent coffee and for putting me in the way of an extremely interesting experience.

[Father Brown]

Thank you, Father Brandon.

[Dr. Boyne]

Good night.

[Father Brown]

Good night.

[Narrator]

When Father Brown set his face homeward the cold had grown more intense and yet was somehow intoxicating. It was a piercing cold, but it was not a killing cold. It tingled with truth and it divided truth from error with a blade like ice. My friend hardly understood his own mood as he drank deeper and deeper draughts of that virginal vivacity of the air. Some forgotten muddle and morbidity seemed to be left behind, or wiped out, as the snow had painted out the footprints of the man of blood. And as he shuffled onwards through the snow, our little priest muttered to himself.

[Dr. Boyne]

And yet he's right about there being a white magic, if he only knows where to look. For.

[Father Brown]

That was the Dagger with Wings by G.K. chesterton. Adapted by Archie Campbell, with Leslie French as Father Brown and William Rushton as G.K. chesterton. Dr. Boyne was played by Hugh Ross, John Strake by Peter Yap, Arnold Aylmer by Sam Dastore, and Inspector Collins by Stephen Thorne. The production was by Christopher Venning.