Just after a quarter past one.
He would ring for the conductor and ask for some mineral water.
His finger went out to the bell, but he paused as in the stillness he heard a ting.
The man couldn’t answer every bell at once.
Ting… Ting… Ting… It sounded again and again.
Where was the man?
Somebody was getting impatient.
Ti-i-i-ing!
Whoever it was, was keeping a finger solidly on the push-button.
Suddenly with a rush, his footsteps echoing up the aisle, the man came.
He knocked at a door not far from Poirot’s own.
Then came voices – the conductor’s, deferential, apologetic; and a woman’s, insistent and voluble.
Mrs. Hubbard!
Poirot smiled to himself.
The altercation – if it was one – went on for some time.
Its proportions were ninety per cent of Mrs. Hubbard’s to a soothing ten per cent of the conductor’s.
Finally the matter seemed to be adjusted.
Poirot heard distinctly a
“Bonne nuit, Madame,” and a closing door.
He pressed his own finger on the bell.
The conductor arrived promptly.
He looked hot and worried.
“De l’eau minerale, s’il vous Plait.”
“Bien, Monsieur.”
Perhaps a twinkle in Poirot’s eye led him to unburden himself.
“La dame americaine–”
“Yes?”
He wiped his forehead.
“Imagine to yourself the time I have had with her!
She insists – but insists – that there is a man in her compartment!
Figure to yourself, Monsieur. In a space of this size.” He swept a hand round. “Where would he conceal himself?
I argue with her. I point out that it is impossible.
She insists. She woke up, and there was a man there.
And how, I ask, did he get out and leave the door bolted behind him?
But she will not listen to reason.
As though there were not enough to worry us already.
This snow–”
“Snow?”
“But yes, Monsieur.
Monsieur has not noticed?
The train has stopped.
We have run into a snowdrift.
Heaven knows how long we shall be here.
I remember once being snowed up for seven days.”
“Where are we?”
“Between Vincovci and Brod.”
“La-la,”said Poirot vexedly.
The man withdrew and returned with the water.
“Bon soir, Monsieur.”
Poirot drank a glass of water and composed himself to sleep.