4. A Cry in the Night

The Simplon Orient Express arrived at Belgrade at a quarter to nine that evening. It was not due to depart again until 9.15, so Poirot descended to the platform. He did not, however, remain there long. The cold was bitter and though the platform itself was protected, heavy snow was falling outside. He returned to his compartment. The conductor, who was on the platform stamping his feet and waving his arms to keep warm, spoke to him.

‘Your valises have been moved, Monsieur, to the compartment No. 1, the compartment of M. Bouc.’

‘But where is M. Bouc, then?’

‘He has moved into the coach from Athens which has just been put on.’

Poirot went in search of his friend. M. Bouc waved his protestations aside.

‘It is nothing. It is nothing. It is more convenient like this. You are going through to England, so it is better that you should stay in the through coach to Calais. Me, I am very well here. It is most peaceful. This coach is empty save for myself and one little Greek doctor. Ah! my friend, what a night! They say there has not been so much snow for years. Let us hope we shall not be held up. I am not too happy about it, I can tell you.’

At 9.15 punctually the train pulled out of the station, and shortly afterwards Poirot got up, said goodnight to his friend and made his way along the corridor back into his own coach which was in front next to the dining-car.

On this, the second day of the journey, barriers were breaking down. Colonel Arbuthnot was standing at the door of his compartment talking to MacQueen.

MacQueen broke off something he was saying when he saw Poirot. He looked very surprised.

‘Why,’ he cried, ‘I thought you’d left us. You said you were getting off at Belgrade.’

‘You misunderstood me,’ said Poirot, smiling. ‘I remember now, the train started from Stamboul just as we were talking about it.’

‘But, man, your baggage—it’s gone.’

‘It has been moved into another compartment—that is all.’

‘Oh, I see.’

He resumed his conversation with Arbuthnot and Poirot passed on down the corridor.

Two doors from his own compartment, the elderly American lady, Mrs Hubbard, was standing talking to the sheep-like lady who was a Swede. Mrs Hubbard was pressing a magazine on the other.

‘No, do take it, my dear,’ she said. ‘I’ve got plenty other things to read. My, isn’t the cold something frightful?’ She nodded amicably to Poirot.

‘You are most kind,’ said the Swedish lady.

‘Not at all. I hope you’ll sleep well and that your head will be better in the morning.’

‘It is the cold only. I make now myself a cup of tea.’

‘Have you got some aspirin? Are you sure, now? I’ve got plenty. Well, goodnight, my dear.’

She turned to Poirot conversationally as the other woman departed.

‘Poor creature, she’s a Swede. As far as I can make out, she’s a kind of missionary—a teaching one. A nice creature, but doesn’t talk much English. She was most interested in what I told her about my daughter.’

Poirot, by now, knew all about Mrs Hubbard’s daughter. Everyone on the train who could understand English did! How she and her husband were on the staff of a big American college in Smyrna and how this was Mrs Hubbard’s first journey to the East, and what she thought of the Turks and their slipshod ways and the condition of their roads.

The door next to them opened and the thin, pale manservant stepped out. Inside Poirot caught a glimpse of Mr Ratchett sitting up in bed. He saw Poirot and his face changed, darkening with anger. Then the door was shut.

Mrs Hubbard drew Poirot a little aside.

‘You know, I’m dead scared of that man. Oh, not the valet—the other—his master. Master, indeed! There’s something wrong about that man. My daughter always says I’m very intuitive. “When Momma gets a hunch, she’s dead right,” that’s what my daughter says. 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. Do you know, I shouldn’t be surprised if that man turns out to be a murderer—one of these train robbers you read about. I dare say I’m foolish, but there it is. I’m downright scared 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 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 men passed and went on down the corridor to MacQueen’s carriage.

Mrs Hubbard said goodnight to Poirot.

‘I guess I’ll go right to bed and read,’ she said. ‘Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight, 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, and 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-door compartment called out:

‘Ce n'est rien. Je me suis trompé.’

‘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. Just after a quarter-past one. He would ring for the conductor and ask him 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.

Ting…

Whoever it was was keeping their finger solidly on the push.

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:

‘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 plaît.’

‘Bien, Monsieur.' Perhaps a twinkle in Poirot’s eye led him to unburden himself.

‘La Dame américaine—’

‘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 VincovI and Brod.’

‘ Là là,’ 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.

He was just dropping off when something again woke him. This time it was as though something heavy had fallen with a thud against the door.

He sprang up, opened it and looked out. Nothing. But to his right some way down the corridor a woman wrapped in a scarlet kimono was retreating from him. At the other end, sitting on his little seat, the conductor was entering up figures on large sheets of paper. Everything was deathly quiet.

‘Decidedly I suffer from the nerves,’ said Poirot and retired to bed again. This time he slept till morning.

When he awoke the train was still at a standstill. He raised a blind and looked out. Heavy banks of snow surrounded the train.

He glanced at his watch and saw that it was past nine o’clock.

At a quarter to ten, neat, spruce, and dandified as ever, he made his way to the restaurant-car, where a chorus of woe was going on.

Any barriers there might have been between the passengers had now quite broken down. All were united by a common misfortune. Mrs Hubbard was loudest in her lamentations.

‘My daughter said it would be the easiest way in the world. Just sit in the train until I got to Parrus. And now we may be here for days and days,’ she wailed. ‘And my boat sails the day after tomorrow. How am I going to catch it now? Why, I can’t even wire to cancel my passage. I feel too mad to talk about it.’

The Italian said that he had urgent business himself in Milan. The large American said that that was ‘too bad, Ma’am,’ and soothingly expressed a hope that the train might make up time.

‘My sister—her children wait me,’ said the Swedish lady and wept. ‘I get no word to them. What they think? They will say bad things have happen to me.’

‘How long shall we be here?’ demanded Mary Debenham. ‘Doesn’t anybody know?’

Her voice sounded impatient, but Poirot noted that there were no signs of that almost feverish anxiety which she had displayed during the check to the Taurus Express.

Mrs Hubbard was off again.

‘There isn’t anybody knows a thing on this train. And nobody’s trying to do anything. Just a pack of useless foreigners. Why, if this were at home, there’d be someone at least trying to do something.’

Arbuthnot turned to Poirot and spoke in careful British French.

‘Vous êtes un directeur de la ligne, je crois, Monsieur. Vous pouvez nous dire—’

Smiling Poirot corrected him.

‘No, no,’ he said in English. ‘It is not I. You confound me with my friend M. Bouc.’

‘Oh! I’m sorry.’

‘Not at all. It is most natural. I am now in the compartment that he had formerly.’

M. Bouc was not present in the restaurant-car. Poirot looked about to notice who else was absent.

Princess Dragomiroff was missing and the Hungarian couple. Also Ratchett, his valet, and the German lady’s-maid.

The Swedish lady wiped her eyes.

‘I am foolish,’ she said. ‘I am baby to cry. All for the best, whatever happen.’

This Christian spirit, however, was far from being shared.

‘That’s all very well,’ said MacQueen restlessly. ‘We may be here for days.’

‘What is this country anyway?’ demanded Mrs Hubbard tearfully.

On being told it was Yugoslavia she said:

‘Oh! one of these Balkan things. What can you expect?’

‘You are the only patient one, Mademoiselle,’ said Poirot to Miss Debenham.

She shrugged her shoulders slightly.

‘What can one do?’

‘You are a philosopher, Mademoiselle.’

‘That implies a detached attitude. I think my attitude is more selfish. I have learned to save myself useless emotion.’

She was not even looking at him. Her gaze went past him, out of the window to where the snow lay in heavy masses.

‘You are a strong character, Mademoiselle,’ said Poirot gently. ‘You are, I think, the strongest character amongst us.’

‘Oh, no. No, indeed. I know one far far stronger than I am.’

‘And that is—?’

She seemed suddenly to come to herself, to realize that she was talking to a stranger and a foreigner with whom, until this morning, she had only exchanged half a dozen sentences.

She laughed a polite but estranging laugh.

‘Well—that old lady, for instance. You have probably noticed her. A very ugly old lady, but rather fascinating. She has only to lift a little finger and ask for something in a polite voice—and the whole train runs.’

‘It runs also for my friend M. Bouc,’ said Poirot. ‘But that is because he is a director of the line, not because he has a masterful character.’

Mary Debenham smiled.

The morning wore away. Several people, Poirot amongst them, remained in the dining-car. The communal life was felt, at the moment, to pass the time better. He heard a good deal more about Mrs Hubbard’s daughter and he heard the lifelong habits of Mr Hubbard, deceased, from his rising in the morning and commencing breakfast with a cereal to his final rest at night in the bed-socks that Mrs Hubbard herself had been in the habit of knitting for him.

It was when he was listening to a confused account of the missionary aims of the Swedish lady that one of the Wagon Lit conductors came into the car and stood at his elbow.

‘Pardon, Monsieur.’

‘Yes?’

‘The compliments of M. Bouc, and he would be glad if you would be so kind as to come to him for a few minutes.’

Poirot rose, uttered excuses to the Swedish lady and followed the man out of the dining-car.

It was not his own conductor, but a big fair man.

He followed his guide down the corridor of his own carriage and along the corridor of the next one. The man tapped at a door, then stood aside to let Poirot enter.

The compartment was not M. Bouc’s own. It was a second-class one—chosen presumably because of its slightly larger size. It certainly gave the impression of being crowded.

M. Bouc himself was sitting on the small seat in the opposite corner. In the corner next the window facing him was a small, dark man looking out at the snow. Standing up and quite preventing Poirot from advancing any farther was a big man in blue uniform (the chef de train) and his own Wagon Lit conductor.

‘Ah, my good friend,’ cried M. Bouc. ‘Come in. We have need of you.’

The little man in the window shifted along the seat, Poirot squeezed past the other two men and sat down facing his friend.

The expression on M. Bouc’s face gave him, as he would have expressed it, furiously to think. It was clear that something out of the common had happened.

‘What has occurred?’ he asked.

‘You may well ask that. First this snow—this stoppage. And now—’

He paused—and a sort of strangled gasp came from the Wagon Lit conductor.

‘And now what?’

‘And now a passenger lies dead in his berth—stabbed.’

M. Bouc spoke with a kind of calm desperation.

‘A passenger? Which passenger?’

‘An American. A man called—called—’ he consulted some notes in front of him. ‘Ratchett—that is right—Ratchett?’

‘Yes, Monsieur,’ the Wagon Lit man gulped.

Poirot looked at him. He was as white as chalk.

‘You had better let that man sit down,’ he said. ‘He may faint otherwise.’

The chef de train moved slightly and the Wagon Lit man sank down in the corner and buried his face in his hands.

‘Brr!’ said Poirot. ‘This is serious!’

‘Certainly it is serious. To begin with, a murder—that by itself is a calamity of the first water. But not only that, the circumstances are unusual. Here we are, brought to a standstill. We may be here for hours—and not only hours—days! Another circumstance. Passing through most countries we have the police of that country on the train. But in Yugoslavia—no. You comprehend?’

‘It is a position of great difficulty,’ said Poirot.

‘There is worse to come. Dr Constantine—I forgot, I have not introduced you—Dr Constantine, M. Poirot.’

The little dark man bowed and Poirot returned it.

‘Dr Constantine is of the opinion that death occurred at about 1 a.m.’

‘It is difficult to say exactly in these matters,’ said the doctor, ‘but I think I can say definitely that death occurred between midnight and two in the morning.’

‘When was this M. Ratchett last seen alive?’ asked Poirot.

‘He is known to have been alive at about twenty minutes to one, when he spoke to the conductor,’ said M. Bouc.

‘That is quite correct,’ said Poirot. ‘I myself heard what passed. That is the last thing known?’

‘Yes.’

Poirot turned toward the doctor, who continued?

‘The window of M. Ratchett’s compartment was found wide open, leading one to suppose that the murderer escaped that way. But in my opinion that open window is a blind. Anyone departing that way would have left distinct traces in the snow. There were none.’

‘The crime was discovered—when?’ asked Poirot.

‘Michel!’

The Wagon Lit conductor sat up. His face still looked pale and frightened.

‘Tell this gentleman exactly what occurred,’ ordered M. Bouc.

The man spoke somewhat jerkily.

‘The valet of this M. Ratchett, he tapped several times at the door this morning. There was no answer. Then, half an hour ago, the restaurant-car attendant came. He wanted to know if Monsieur was taking déjeuner. It was eleven o’clock, you comprehend.

‘I open the door for him with my key. But there is a chain, too, and that is fastened. There is no answer and it is very still in there, and cold—but cold. With the window open and snow drifting in. I thought the gentleman had had a fit, perhaps. I got the chef de train. We broke the chain and went in. He was—Ah! c'était terrible!’

He buried his face in his hands again.

‘The door was locked and chained on the inside,’ said Poirot thoughtfully. ‘It was not suicide—eh?’

The Greek doctor gave a sardonic laugh.

‘Does a man who commits suicide stab himself in ten— twelve—fifteen places?’ he asked.

Poirot’s eyes opened.

‘That is great ferocity,’ he said.

‘It is a woman,’ said the chef de train, speaking for the first time. ‘Depend upon it, it was a woman. Only a woman would stab like that.’

Dr Constantine screwed up his face thoughtfully.

‘She must have been a very strong woman,’ he said. ‘It is not my desire to speak technically—that is only confusing— but I can assure you that one or two of the blows were delivered with such force as to drive them through hard belts of bone and muscle.’

‘It was not, clearly, a scientific crime,’ said Poirot.

‘It was most unscientific,’ said Dr Constantine. ‘The blows seem to have been delivered haphazard and at random. Some have glanced off, doing hardly any damage. It is as though somebody had shut their eyes and then in a frenzy struck blindly again and again.’

‘C’est une femme’ said the chef de train again. ‘Women are like that. When they are enraged they have great strength.’ He nodded so sagely that everyone suspected a personal experience of his own.

‘I have, perhaps, something to contribute to your store of knowledge,’ said Poirot. ‘M. Ratchett spoke to me yesterday. He told me, as far as I was able to understand him, that he was in danger of his life.’

‘“Bumped off”—that is the American expression, is it not?’ said M. Bouc. ‘Then it is not a woman. It is a “Gangster” or a “gunman.”’

The chef de train looked pained at his theory having come to naught.

‘If so,’ said Poirot, ‘it seems to have been done very amateurishly.’

His tone expressed professional disapproval.

‘There is a large American on the train,’ said M. Bouc, pursuing his idea—‘a common-looking man with terrible clothes. He chews the gum which I believe is not done in good circles. You know whom I mean?’

The Wagon Lit conductor to whom he had appealed nodded.

‘Oui, Monsieur, the No. 16. But it cannot have been he. I should have seen him enter or leave the compartment.’

‘You might not. You might not. But we will go into that presently. The question is, what to do?’ He looked at Poirot.

Poirot looked back at him.

‘Come, my friend,’ said M. Bouc. ‘You comprehend what I am about to ask of you. I know your powers. Take command of this investigation! No, no, do not refuse. See, to us it is serious—I speak for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits. By the time the Yugoslavian police arrive, how simple if we can present them with the solution! Otherwise delays, annoyances, a million and one inconveniences. Perhaps, who knows, serious annoyance to innocent persons. Instead—you solve the mystery! We say, “A murder has occurred—this is the criminal!”’

‘And suppose I do not solve it?’

‘Ah! mon cher.’ M. Bouc’s voice became positively caressing. ‘I know your reputation. I know something of your methods. This is the ideal case for you. To look up the antecedents of all these people, to discover their bona fides—all that takes time and endless inconvenience. But have I not heard you say often that to solve a case a man has only to lie back in his chair and think? Do that. Interview the passengers on the train, view the body, examine what clues there are and then—well, I have faith in you! I am assured that it is no idle boast of yours. Lie back and think—use (as I have heard you say so often) the little grey cells of the mind—and you will know!’

He leaned forward, looking affectionately at his friend.

‘Your faith touches me, my friend,’ said Poirot emotionally. ‘As you say, this cannot be a difficult case. I myself, last night—but we will not speak of that now. In truth, this problem intrigues me. I was reflecting, not half an hour ago, that many hours of boredom lay ahead whilst we are stuck here. And now—a problem lies ready to my hand.’

‘You accept then?’ said M. Bouc eagerly.

‘C’est entendu. You place the matter in my hands.’

‘Good—we are all at your service.’

‘To begin with, I should like a plan of the Istanbul-Calais coach, with a note of the people who occupied the several compartments, and I should also like to see their passports and their tickets.’

‘Michel will get you those.’

The Wagon Lit conductor left the compartment.

‘What other passengers are there on the train?’ asked Poirot.

‘In this coach Dr Constantine and I are the only travellers. In the coach from Bucharest is an old gentleman with a lame leg. He is well known to the conductor. Beyond that are the ordinary carriages, but these do not concern us, since they were locked after dinner had been served last night. Forward of the Istanbul-Calais coach there is only the dining-car.’

‘Then it seems,’ said Poirot slowly, ‘as though we must look for our murderer in the Istanbul-Calais coach.’ He turned to the doctor. ‘That is what you were hinting, I think?’

The Greek nodded.

‘At half an hour after midnight we ran into the snowdrift. No one can have left the train since then.’

M. Bouc said solemnly.

‘The murderer is with us—on the train now…’