Read The Carter of ’La Providence’ for Free Online Page B

around sixty years of age. His hair, thick and badly cut, was white. A beard three or four centimetres long covered his chin and most of his cheeks, and he had very thick eyebrows. He
looked as hairy as an animal.
    In contrast, his eyes were bright but without expression.
    â€˜It’s your carter I’d like to talk to.’
    The woman laughed.
    â€˜Talk to Jean? I warn you, he don’t talk much to anyone. He’s our tame bear! Look at the way he’s eating! But he’s also the best carter you could hope to find.’
    The old man’s fork stopped moving. He looked at Maigret with eyes that were disturbingly clear.
    Village idiots sometimes have eyes like that. And also animals who are used to being treated with kindness and then without warning are beaten without pity.
    There was something vacant about them. But something else too, something beyond words, almost withdrawn.
    â€˜What time did you get up to see to your horses?’
    â€˜Same time as always …’
    Jean’s shoulders were unusually broad and looked even broader because his legs were short.
    â€˜Jean gets up every day at half past two!’ the woman broke in. ‘Take a look at the horses. They are groomed every day like they’re thoroughbreds. And of an evening, you won’t get him to go near a drop of white wine
until he’s rubbed them down.’
    â€˜Do you sleep in the stable?’
    Jean did not seem to understand. So it was again the woman who pointed to a structure, taller than the rest, in the middle of the boat.
    â€˜That’s the stable,’ she said. ‘He always sleeps there. Our cabin is in the stern. Would you like to see it?’
    The deck was spotlessly clean, the brasses more highly polished than those on the
Southern Cross
. And when the woman opened a double door made of pine with a skylight of coloured glass over it, Maigret saw a touching sight.
    Inside was a small parlour. It contained exactly the same oak Henri III-style furniture as is found in the most traditional of lower-middle-class front rooms. The table was covered with a cloth embroidered with silks of various colours, and on it
were vases, framed photographs and a stand overflowing with green-leaved plants.
    There was more embroidery on a dresser. Over the armchairs were draped thin dust covers.
    â€˜If Jean had wanted, we could have rigged up a bed for him near us … But he always says he can only sleep in the stable, though we’re afraid that he’ll get kicked one of these days. No good saying the horses know him,
is it? When they’re sleeping …’
    She had started eating, like the housewife who makes other people’s dinners and gives herself the worst portion without a second thought …
    Jean had stood up and kept staring at his horses and then at the inspector while the skipper rolled a cigarette.
    â€˜And you didn’t see anything, or hear anything?’ asked Maigret, looking the carter directly in the eye.
    The man turned to the skipper’s wife, who replied with her mouth full:
    â€˜If he’d seen something, he’d have said, ’course he would.’
    â€˜Here’s the
Marie
!’ said her husband anxiously.
    The chugging of an engine had become audible in the last few moments. Now the form of a barge could be made out astern of the
Providence
.
    Jean looked at the woman, who was looking uncertainly at Maigret.
    â€˜Listen,’ she said finally, ‘if you’ve got to talk to Jean, would you mind doing it as we go? The
Marie
has got an engine, but she’s slower than us. If she gets in front of us before we get to the lock,
she’ll hold us up for two days.’
    Jean had not waited to hear her last words. He had already taken the feedbags containing the horses’ oats from over their heads and was now driving them a hundred metres ahead of the barge.
    The bargee picked up a tin trumpet and blew a few quavering