And I’ve got a hunch about that man.
He’s next door to me and I don’t like it.
I put my grips against the communicating door last night.
I thought I heard him trying the handle.
Duo you know, I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if that man turned out to be a murderer – one of these train robbers you read about.
I daresay I’m foolish, but there it is.
I’m absolutely scared to death of the man!
My daughter said I’d have an easy journey, but somehow I don’t feel happy about it.
It may be foolish, but I feel as if anything might happen – anything at all.
And how that nice young fellow can bear to be his secretary, I can’t think.”
Colonel Arbuthnot and MacQueen were coming towards them down the corridor.
“Come into my carriage,” MacQueen was saying. “It isn’t made up for the night yet.
Now what I want to get right about your policy in India is this–”
The two men passed and went on down the corridor to MacQueen’s carriage.
Mrs. Hubbard said good night to Poirot.
“I guess I’ll go right to bed and read,” she said. “Good night.”
“Good night, Madame.”
Poirot passed into his own compartment, which was the next one beyond Ratchett’s.
He undressed and got into bed, read for about half an hour and then turned out the light.
He awoke some hours later, awoke with a start.
He knew what it was that had wakened him – a loud groan, almost a cry, somewhere close at hand.
At the same moment the ting of a bell sounded sharply.
Poirot sat up and switched on the light.
He noticed that the train was at a standstill – presumably at a station.
That cry had startled him.
He remembered that it was Ratchett who had the next compartment.
He got out of bed and opened the door just as the Wagon Lit conductor came hurrying along the corridor and knocked on Ratchett’s door.
Poirot kept his door open a crack and watched.
The conductor tapped a second time.
A bell rang and a light showed over another door farther down.
The conductor glanced over his shoulder.
At the same moment a voice from within the next compartment called out:
“Ce n’est rien.
Je me suis trompe.”
“Bien, Monsieur.” The conductor scurried off again, to knock at the door where the light was showing.
Poirot returned to bed, his mind relieved, and switched off the light. He glanced at his watch.
It was just twenty-three minutes to one.
5.
The Crime
He found it difficult to go to sleep again at once.
For one thing he missed the motion of the train.
If it was a station outside, it was curiously quiet.
By contrast the noises on the train seemed unusually loud.
He could hear Ratchett moving about next door – a click as he pulled down the washbasin, the sound of the tap running, a splashing noise, then another click as the basin shut to again.
Footsteps passed up the corridor outside, the shuffling footsteps of someone in bedroom slippers.
Hercule Poirot lay awake staring at the ceiling.
Why was the station outside so silent?
His throat felt dry.
He had forgotten to ask for his usual bottle of mineral water.
He looked at his watch again.