The Innocence of Father Brown
The Blue Cross
Between the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, among whom the man we must follow was by no means conspicuous — nor wished to be. There was nothing notable about him, except a slight contrast between the holiday gaiety of his clothes and the official gravity of his face. His clothes included a slight, pale grey jacket, a white waistcoat, and a silver straw hat with a grey-blue ribbon. His lean face was dark by contrast, and ended in a curt black beard that looked Spanish and suggested an Elizabethan ruff. He was smoking a cigarette with the seriousness of an idler. There was nothing about him to indicate the fact that the grey jacket covered a loaded revolver, that the white waistcoat covered a police card, or that the straw hat covered one of the most powerful intellects in Europe. For this was Valentin himself, the head of the Paris police and the most famous investigator of the world; and he was coming from Brussels to London to make the greatest arrest of the century.
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Nevinost oca Browna
Plavi križ
Između srebrne vrpce od jutra i blještavo zelene vrpce mora, brod dotaknuo Harwich i pustiti roj folk kao muha, među kojima čovjek moramo slijediti nipošto nije bila upadljiva - ni želio biti. Nije bilo ničega ističe o njemu, osim blagi kontrast između odmor dobro raspoloženje njegovih odjeće i službene ozbiljnosti njegova lica. Njegova odjeća je uključen neznatan, blijedo sivi sako, bijeli prsluk i šešir slamnati srebrni s sivo-plavom vrpcom. Njegovo lice bilo lean tamno nasuprot tome, a završio u crnom bradom Curt koji je izgledao španjolski i ukazuju na elizabetanskog okovratnik. Pušio je cigaretu s ozbiljnošću jednog natezača. Nije bilo ništa o njemu ukazati na činjenicu da je siva jakna prekrivena Učitava revolver, da je bijeli prsluk pokrivena policijsku iskaznicu, ili da slamnati šešir pokriven jedan od najsnažnijih umova u Europi. Za to je Valentin sam, šef policije u Parizu i najpoznatiji istraživač u svijetu, a on dolazi iz Bruxellesa u London kako bi najveći uhićenje stoljeća.
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Nevinost oca Browna
Plavi križ
Između srebrne vrpce jutra i blještavo zelene vrpce mora, brod je dotaknuo Harwich i pustio roj ljudi poput roja muhâ, a među njima čovjek koga pratimo nipošto nije bio sumnjiv – niti je on to želio biti. Na njemu nije bilo ništa upadljivo, osim laganog kontrasta između praznične vedrine njegove odjeće i službene ozbiljnosti njegovog lica. Njegovu odjeću je činio neugledan, izblijedjeli sivi sako, bijeli prsluk i srebrni slamnati šešir sa sivo-plavom vrpcom. Njegovo suhonjavo lice je bilo tamno i u kontrastu s odjećon, a završavalo je kratkom crnom bradom koja je izgledala španjolski i prizivala u sjećanje nabrane ovratnike. Pušio je cigaretu ozbiljnošću besposličara. Ništa na njemu nije upućivalo na činjenicu da je sivi sako pokrivao napunjeni revolver, da je bijeli prsluk pokrvao policijsku iskaznicu, ili da je slamnati šešir pokrivao jednu od najintelektualnih glava u Evropi. Bio je to, naime, glavom Valentin, šef pariške policije i najpoznatiji isljednik na svijetu, a doputovao je iz Bruxellesa u London kako bi napravio hapšenje stoljeća.
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Flambeau was in England. The police of three countries had tracked the great criminal at last from Ghent to Brussels, from Brussels to the Hook of Holland; and it was conjectured that he would take some advantage of the unfamiliarity and confusion of the Eucharistic Congress, then taking place in London. Probably he would travel as some minor clerk or secretary connected with it; but, of course, Valentin could not be certain; nobody could be certain about Flambeau.
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Flambeau bio u Engleskoj.Policija tri zemlje su pratili veliku zločinca na posljednji iz Ghentu u Bruxelles, iz Bruxellesa u Hook of Holland, a to je pretpostavio da će on uzeti neki prednost Nepoznavanje i zbunjenosti euharistijskog kongresa, onda se odvijaju u Londonu . Vjerojatno je da će putovati neke manje službenik ili tajnica povezan s njim, ali, naravno, Valentin nije mogao biti siguran, nitko nije mogao biti siguran o flambeau.
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Flambeau je bio u Engleskoj. Policija triju zemalja pratila je velikog kriminalca na kraju iz Ghenta do Bruxellesa, od Bruxellesa do Hooka u Nizozemskoj, i pretpostavljalo se je da će na neki način iskoristiti gužvu i zbrku oko Euharistijskog kongresa, koji se je tada održavao u Londonu. Vjerojatno će putovati kao neki niži svećenik ili tajnik na putu za kongres; međutim, Valentin, naravno, nije mogao biti siguran; nitko nije mogao biti siguran kad je u pitanju Flambeau.
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It is many years now since this colossus of crime suddenly ceased keeping the world in a turmoil; and when he ceased, as they said after the death of Roland, there was a great quiet upon the earth. But in his best days (I mean, of course, his worst) Flambeau was a figure as statuesque and international as the Kaiser. Almost every morning the daily paper announced that he had escaped the consequences of one extraordinary crime by committing another. He was a Gascon of gigantic stature and bodily daring; and the wildest tales were told of his outbursts of athletic humour; how he turned the juge d’instruction upside down and stood him on his head, “to clear his mind”; how he ran down the Rue de Rivoli with a policeman under each arm. It is due to him to say that his fantastic physical strength was generally employed in such bloodless though undignified scenes; his real crimes were chiefly those of ingenious and wholesale robbery. But each of his thefts was almost a new sin, and would make a story by itself. It was he who ran the great Tyrolean Dairy Company in London, with no dairies, no cows, no carts, no milk, but with some thousand subscribers. These he served by the simple operation of moving the little milk cans outside people’s doors to the doors of his own customers. It was he who had kept up an unaccountable and close correspondence with a young lady whose whole letter-bag was intercepted, by the extraordinary trick of photographing his messages infinitesimally small upon the slides of a microscope. A sweeping simplicity, however, marked many of his experiments. It is said that he once repainted all the numbers in a street in the dead of night merely to divert one traveller into a trap. It is quite certain that he invented a portable pillar-box, which he put up at corners in quiet suburbs on the chance of strangers dropping postal orders into it. Lastly, he was known to be a startling acrobat; despite his huge figure, he could leap like a grasshopper and melt into the tree-tops like a monkey. Hence the great Valentin, when he set out to find Flambeau, was perfectly aware that his adventures would not end when he had found him.
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