OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

126 MAINLY MAIGRET
The camera-men got busy,
" One more shot. Get as near as you can, skipper."
The sailor asked:
" Have you spotted him? "
But she kept silent. She had seen nothing except a number of
men who, in the distance, all looked exactly the same, like a procession
of black ants crawling up the ship's side. In her coat of
dazzling white paint, bathed in sunlight, La Martiniere might have
been a luxurious steam-yacht, and the sea was dappled with silvery
glints.
" Let's go straight back to La Rochelle," a camera-man said.
" I mustn't miss my train/'
For a good hour yet the convicts would go on streaming up the
ladder, but it made a monotonous picture; a few dozen feet of film
sufficed.
No more notice was taken of the woman in black, who remained
seated on a hatch, a vague smile on her lips as she gazed across the
sea. Only when they were making fast at La Rochelle and she went
up to the skipper, opening a shabby black purse, did they notice
her again.
" How much db I owe you? " she asked.
" Nothing at all. These gentlemen are paying for the trip."
She murmured some words of thanks; then enquired :
" How does one get to the station? "
" Walk along the wharf a hundred yards, and you'll find it just
in front of you."
" Thank you. ... You're most kind...."
And Madame Baron went on smiling to herself, perhaps because
it was such an exceptionally fine day. They had told her that calm
weather would prevail in the Atlantic. "Anyhow, that blanket
looked nice and warm," she reflected.
The train did not leave till nine in the evening, and it was now
only six. She had plenty of time to look r6und the town, or, anyhow,
to stroll about the station. But she did neither. She settled down in
the third-class waiting-room, feeling a little ill at ease, perhaps
because she hadn't her handbag with her. It had remained on the
He de RL She bought a sandwich at the buffet, after first enquiring
the price.
She did not notice Esther, who came back by the eight o'clock
ferry and dined in the Refreshment Room.
The two women travelled in the same train, one in a second-class