OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE SAILORS' RENDEZVOUS 323
" We must have spent about a quarter of an hour there, not
knowing what to do, miserable, our shoulders frozen, with the
spray occasionally dashing in our faces.. ..
" The captain was a different man. You would have thought that
something had cracked in him too. ...
" When he spoke, it was in a cold, incisive voice: * The crew
mustn't know the truth! • .. For the sake of discipline!'
" And it was he who, in my presence, lifted up the boy. There
was only one thing to do. . •. Wait! I remember that with his
thumb he made the sign of the cross on his forehead. . ..
" Twice the sea hurled the body against the hull. We were still
standing there in the darkness. We didn't dare look at each other.
We didn't dare speak. . . ."
Maigret had just lit a pipe and was gripping the stem hard with
his teeth.
A nurse came in. The two men turned such absent-minded eyes
on her that she stammered out in embarrassment:
" I just came to take his temperature. ..."
Vina minute!"
As the door closed the inspector murmured:
" It was then he spoke to you of his mistress? "
" From that time he was never the same again. ... I don't think
he was really mad.. . . But there was something wrong.... He
started by touching me on the shoulder. . . .
" ' All because of a woman, young man! . . .' he murmured.
" I was cold and yet feverish. I couldn't help looking at the sea
on the side where the body had been thrown over.. . .
" You've heard what the captain was like? A dry, little man with
an energetic expression. He talked rapidly in short unfinished
sentences. ...
" ' There you are! Fifty-five years old. Nearly retired. A solid
reputation. Saved a bit. Now I'm finished! Done for! In a minute!
In less than a minute. Because of a kid who ... Or rather because
of a woman. .. .'
" And so, in the night, in a dull and angry voice, he told me
everything, bit by bit. ... A woman from Le Havre. ... A woman
who was pretty worthless, he realized that. . . . But he couldn't get
over her....
" He had taken her on board. ... At the same time he had the
feeling that her presence would provoke trouble... •
" She was there ... asleep...."