OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE SAILORS' RENDEZVOUS 249
" Yet you lived for nearly three months on the same boat without
saying a word to him. Everyone noticed it. There are rumours that
at certain times Fallut gave the impression that he'd gone mad. ..."
" I don't know "
Marie Leonnec tried to keep from sobbing under the nervous
strain.
" When the Ocian came into port, you went ashore with the
others. In your hotel room you burned some papers... ."
" Yes. That was of no importance...."
" You have a habit of keeping a diary of everything you see.
Wasn't it the diary of this trip that you burned? "
He stood there hanging his head like a schoolboy who hasn't
learned the lesson and stares fixedly at the ground.
"Why?"'
" I don't know now."
" And you don't know why you went back on board? But not
straight away! . . . You were seen hiding behind a truck fifty yards
from the boat. ..."
The girl looked at the inspector, then at her fiance, then back
again at the inspector. This was beginning to be beyond her.
" Yes. . .."
" The captain came down the gangway and set foot on the quay.
It was at that moment that he was attacked. ..."
He still said nothing.
" Damn it, rrerfi, can't you answer? "
" Yes, answer, Pierre! It's to get you free. I don't understand.
.. . I . . ."
Tears welled up in her eyes.
" Yes. . .."
" Yes what? "
"I was there!"
" Well, then, did you see? . . ."
" Not very well. . . . There was a pile of barrels, and some
trucks. There was a struggle between two men, then one of them
ran off and a body fell into the water. ..."
" What did the man who ran away look like? "
" I don't know."
" Was he in sailor's clothes? "
" No."
" Well, then, you know how he was dressed? "