OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

354 MAINLY MAIGRET
" Never He had his own ink for his fountain-pen. Special
ink, blue-black."
Maigret rose and made for the door.
" You'll excuse me? "
A few minutes later he was on board the Ocian rummaging in
the operator's cabin, then in the captain's, which was dirty and
disorderly.
There was no red ink on board, and the fishers had never seen
any.
As he left the ship Maigret got a dirty look from the owner, who
was still vituperating against the world.
" Is there any red ink in your offices? "
" Red ink? What for? We don't keep a school "
But, as if he remembered something, he added brusquely:
" Fallut was the only one who used red ink when he was at home
in the Rue d'Etretat. Is it still this same story? . . . Mind the truck
down there! ... It just needs an accident. .. Well, what do you
want with your red ink? ..."
" Nothing! Thank you "
P'tit Louis was coming back without his boots but with a pair
of spectacles on his nose, a cadet's cap on his head, and old downat-heel
shoes on his feet.
3. The Portrait Without a Head
" WHICH could not be said of me in any circumstances y as I have savings
which are quite equal to a captains pay. ..."
Maigret left Madame Bernard on the doorstep of her little house
in the Rue d'Etretat. She was a well-preserved woman in her fifties,
and she had just talked for a solid half-hour about her first husband,
her widowhood, the captain who had been her boarder, the rumours
that had gone round about their relationship, and finally about the
unknown who was certainly a " loose-living woman."
The inspector had been shown round the whole house, which
was well kept but full of objects in bad taste. Captain Fallut's room
was still as it had been arranged in preparation for his return.
Few personal possessions: some clothes in a trunk, some books
—mostly adventure novels, and photographs of boats.