"Well," said the secretary, "Muggleton looks a dingy down-and-out-sort of cove to me. There's no story but his about what happened on the pier, and his story consists of a giant who vanished; quite a fairy-tale. It isn't a very creditable tale, even as he tells it. By his own account, he bungled his case and let his patron be killed a few yards away. He's a pretty rotten fool and failure, on his own confession."
"Yes," said Father Brown. "I'm rather fond of people who are fools and failures on their own confession."
"I don't know what you mean," snapped the other.
"Perhaps," said Father Brown, wistfully, "it's because so many people are fools and failures without any confession."
Then, after a pause, he went on: "But even if he is a fool and a failure, that doesn't prove he is a liar and a murderer.
And you've forgotten that there is one piece of external evidence that does really support his story. I mean the letter from the millionaire, telling the whole tale of his cousin and his vendetta. Unless you can prove that the document itself is actually a forgery, you have to admit there was some probability of Bruce being pursued by somebody who had a real motive. Or rather, I should say, the one actually admitted and recorded motive."
"I'm not quite sure that I understand you," said the Inspector, "about the motive."
"My dear fellow," said Father Brown, for the first time stung by impatience into familiarity, "everybody's got a motive in a way. Considering the way that Bruce made his money, considering the way that most millionaires make their money, almost anybody in the world might have done such a perfectly natural thing as throw him into the sea. In many, one might almost fancy, it would be almost automatic. To almost all it must have occurred at some time or other. Mr. Taylor might have done it."
"What's that?" snapped Mr. Taylor, and his nostrils swelled visibly.
"I might have done it," went on Father Brown, "nisi me constrinderet ecclesiæ auctoritas. Anybody, but for the one true morality, might be tempted to accept so obvious, so simple a social solution. I might have done it; you might have done it; the Mayor or the muffin-man might have done it. The only person on this earth I can think of, who probably would not have done it, is the private inquiry agent whom Bruce had just engaged at five pounds a week, and who hadn't yet had any of his money."
The secretary was silent for a moment; then he snorted and said:
"If that's the offer in the letter, we'd certainly better see whether it's a forgery. For really, we don't know that the whole tale isn't as false as a forgery. The fellow admits himself that the disappearance of his hunchbacked giant is utterly incredible and inexplicable."
"Yes," said Father Brown; "that's what I like about Muggleton. He admits things."
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