The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

be heard calling in the distance:
“Hey Jules!… The soup’s ready…”
Or else a small boy would come boldly in to look for his father and pull him
by the hand.
“Well, aren’t we going to have a game?”
“It’s too late.”
It was explained to Maigret that after the bowls it was cards, but that the latter
hadn’t taken place because of him. The sailor from the Cormorant, a huge dumb
fellow with immense bare feet, who smiled at the Chief Inspector with all his
teeth, now and again raised his glass and made a strange gobbling noise which
took the place of: “Here’s to you.”
“Do you want to eat right away?”
“Have you seen the Inspector?”
“He went out while you were upstairs. He didn’t say anything. That’s his way.
He’s marvelous, you know. After the three days he’s been ferreting about the
island, he knows almost as much as I do about all the families.”
Leaning forward, Maigret could see that the De Greefs had left, and the
Englishman was alone in front of the chessmen.
“We eat in half an hour,” he announced.
Paul asked him in a low voice, indicating the Scotland Yard detective:
“Do you think he likes our cooking?”
Several minutes later Maigret and his colleague were walking and, quite
naturally, walking toward the harbor. They had fallen into the habit. The sun had
disappeared, and there was a feeling, as it were, of an immense release in the air.
The noises were no longer the same. One could hear the faint lapping of the
water against the stone of the jetty, and the stone had become a harder gray, like
the rocks. The greenery was dark, almost black, mysterious, and a torpedo boat
with a huge number painted in white on the hull slid silently toward the open sea
at what appeared to be a giddying speed.
“I just beat him,” Mr. Pyke had declared at the outset. “He’s very good, very
much his own master.”
“It was he that suggested the game?”
“I had taken the chessmen to practice (he didn’t add: ‘while you were upstairs
with Ginette’), not expecting to find an opponent. He had sat down at the next
table with his girl friend and I realized, from his way of looking at the pieces,
that he wanted to pit his wits against mine.”