A Collection

Father Brown - The Blue Cross

From The Innocence of Father Brown by

G. K. Chesterton, 1911

A prolific writer of all genres, G. K. Chesterton, wrote five

collections of Father Brown stories from 1911 to 1 935. These two

stories are the first two, from the very first book. If you’re

unfamiliar with Father Brown, this is your change to meet him for

the first time, just as the readers did in 1911. You’ll see shades of

television’s Father Dowling in Father Brown. And there have been

two films and one television series adapted from his famous

priestly character. Ironically, Mr. Chesterton was not a Catholic

when he created Father Brown. It was only in 1922 that he

converted to Catholicism, and went on to write many books on

spirituality.

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.