OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE SAILORS' RENDEZVOUS 32I
His voice was weary. And yet it rose as he exclaimed:
" It is the most frightful thing I have ever known, Inspector.
... But who has been talking? Tell me. ..."
He closed his eyes as he had closed them when he was waiting
to fire a bullet into his stomach from his pocket.
" Nobody. The captain was walking up and down, nervously,
I imagine, as he had been since you sailed. .. . But there was someone
at the helm, I suppose? .. ."
" A steersman! But he couldn't see us, in the darkness,..."
" Then the cabin-boy turned up. . . ."
He was interrupted by Le Clinche half-raising himself with his
hands clutching at the ropes which hung from the ceiling to
facilitate his movements.
" Where is Marie? "
" At the hotel. Her father has just come. . . ."
" To take her away! That's good! ... He ought to take her
away.. .. And above all, she mustn't come here! ..."
He was working himself up to a fever. His voice was duller, his
utterance jerky.
One could see that his temperature was rising. His eyes grew
brighter.
" I don't know who's been talking. . .. But now I must tell you
everything. ..."
He was so wildly excited that it almost seemed as if he were in
a delirium.
" A most extraordinary thing. . .. You didn't know the kid. . . •
Quite skinny. . . . And dressed in clothes cut down from one of his
father's old suits. . . . The first day he was frightened and he cried.
. . . How can I explain? . . . Afterwards he made up for it by dirty
tricks. It was only to be expected at his age. . . . But you know what
I mean by a dirty-minded kid. ... He was one. .. . Twice I caught
him reading letters I had written to my fiancee. ... And he just
said impudently: ' Is that your skirt? '
" That evening ... I expect the captain was walking up and
down because he was too nervous to sleep. . . . The sea was pretty
choppy.... Every now and then a big wave would come over the
side and wet the deck-plates.. ..
" I was perhaps ten yards away.... I only heard a few words.
... But I could see their figures.... The kid swanking and laughing.
... The captain with his head sunk in his jersey and his hands
in his pockets. . ..