OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

XJO MAINLY MAIGRET
were the sort of strokes and flourishes one makes when one has
nothing better to do.
The comic note was struck by two stags' antlers which had been
drawn over the name " Octave,"
The girl sat on the edge of the bed, which had been dragged into
the middle of the cabin. She was still weeping silently.
" Curious!" growled Maigret. " I should very much like to
know whether ..."
She rose vehemently.
" Of course! That's what it was! There was a woman here! She
hid. But it didn't keep men from finding her. . . . Wasn't Captain
Fallut's name Octave? "
The inspector had rarely been so embarrassed.
" Don't draw hasty conclusions! " he said, without the slightest
conviction.
" But it's written! The whole story's there! Four men who . . ."
What could he say to calm her?
" Take it from my experience. In police matters you must always
wait before you jump to conclusions. You told me just yesterday
that Le Clinche is incapable of killing anyone. ..."
" Yes! " she sobbed. " Yes! I believe it! That's true! "
She clung to this hope in spite of everything.
" But his name's Pierre! "
" I know. . . . Well? Every tenth sailor is called Pierre, and there
were fifty men on board. . . . There is also the matter of a Gaston
and a Henry ..."
" What do you think? "
"Nothing!"
" Are you going to show this to the magistrate? .. . When I
think that it was I who . . ."
" Keep calm! We have discovered nothing at all yet, except that
the bed has been raised for some reason or another, and that someone
has written those Christian names on the bulkhead. . . ."
" There was a woman. . . ."
" Why a woman? "
" But. .."
" Come along! Madame Maigret is waiting for us on the
quay. . . ."
" That's true "
She wiped her tears obediently between sniffs.
" I shouldn't have come, •.. And I thought. . . But it's not