OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

242 MAINLY MAIGRET
always like this, drinking, shouting, fighting, breaking windows.
On board ship they work like demons. Yes, even P'tit Louis. . ..
The chief engineer of the Ocian told me only yesterday that he does
the work of two men. ... At sea a boiler feed-pipe exploded. . ..
It was dangerous to repair. . . . Nobody wanted to go. . .. It was
P'tit Louis who took it on. . .. Once they stop drinking . .."
L6on lowered his voice and looked mistrustfully at his customers.
" This time they've maybe got other reasons for putting away
their liquor. They won't tell you anything because you're not from
the sea.... But I hear them talking. . . . I'm an old pilot. . . . There
are things ..."
"Things?"
" It's difficult to explain. . . . You know there aren't enough
fishers in Fecamp for all the trawlers. . . . They get them from
Brittany. . . . These chaps have queer ideas, and they're superstitious.
..."
He lowered his voice until it was scarcely audible.
" It seems that this time it was the evil eye. It began even in port
when they were getting off. A sailor climbed up a derrick to wave
to his wife. He was holding on to a rope and it broke, and there he
was on the deck with his leg smashed. They had to take him ashore
in a dinghy. . . . And there was a cabin-boy who didn't want to go,
and howled and wept! Well, three days later there was a wireless
message to say that he'd been swept overboard by a wave! A kid
of fifteen ... a little thin fair-haired kid with a name like a girl's
. .. Jean-Marie. . . . And then . . . Give us some Calvados, Julie.
The bottle on the right. . . . No! not that one ... the one with the
glass stopper. ..."
" The evil eye went on working? "
" I don't know anything definitely. You'd think they were all
afraid to speak. All the same, if the radio operator was arrested it
was because the police had heard that he and the captain hadn't
spoken a word the whole trip. . . . They were like cat and dog! "
" And then what? ..."
" Things . . . things that meant nothing. . . . Listen! The captain
made them take the boat to a part where no cod had ever been seen.
And he roared at them because the head-fisher refused to obey! He
took out his revolver • .. they were mad about it! They didn't take
a ton in a whole month. Then suddenly the fishing became good.
... All the same, the cod had to be sold at half-price because it was
badly salted. Everything! Even coming into port they made two