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"Well, we have made a start and drawn a blank," observed M. Bouc. "Whom shall we tackle next?"

"It would be simplest, I think, just to proceed along the train carriage by carriage. That means that we start with No. 16-- the amiable M. Hardman."

M. Bouc explained the object of their visit, and the big detective nodded comprehendingly.

Mr. Hardman, who was smoking a cigar, welcomed them affably.

"That's O. K. To tell the truth, I've been wondering you didn't get down to it sooner. Here are my keys, gentlemen and if you like to search my pockets too, why, you're welcome. Shall I reach the grips down for you?"

"Come right in, gentlemen -- that is, if it's humanly possible. It's just a mite cramped in here for a party."

"The conductor will do that. Michel!"

The contents of Mr. Hardman's two "grips" were soon examined and passed. They contained perhaps an undue proportion of spirituous liquor. Mr. Hardman winked.

Having delivered himself of various polite insincerities, and having told Mrs. Hubbard that he would order coffee to be brought to her, Poirot was able to take his leave accompanied by his two friends.

"And at Paris?"

"It's not often they search your grips at the frontiers -- not if you fix the conductor. I handed out a wad of Turkish notes right away, and there's been no trouble so far."

"By the time I get to Paris," he said, "what's left over of this little lot will go into a bottle labelled hairwash."

Mr. Hardman winked again.

"Ah!" said M. Bouc. "The speakeasy." He pronounced the word with care, savouring it. "Your American terms are so quaint, so expressive," he said.

"You are not a believer in Prohibition, Monsieur Hardman," said M. Bouc with a smile.

"Well," said Hardman. "I can't say Prohibition has ever worried me any."

"Me, I would much like to go to America," said Poirot.

"It is true that America is the country of progress," agreed Poirot. "There is much that I admire about Americans. Only -- I am perhaps old-fashioned -- but me, I find the American woman less charming than my own countrywomen. The French or Belgian girl, coquettish, charming -- I think there is no one to touch her."

"You'd learn a few go-ahead methods over there," said Hardman. "Europe wants waking up. She's half asleep."

"Perhaps you're right, M. Poirot," he said. "But I guess every nation likes its own girls best." He blinked as though the snow hurt his eyes.

Hardman turned away to peer out at the snow for a minute.

Like most Army men, the Colonel was a neat packer. The examination of his baggage took only a few minutes. Poirot noted a packet of pipe cleaners.

"The true Western spirit of hustle," said Poirot with a smile.

Poirot explained their errand. The Colonel made no demur. He had two heavy leather suitcases.

"Kind of dazzling, isn't it?" he remarked. "Say, gentlemen, this business is getting on my nerves. Murder and the snow and all, and nothing doing. Just hanging about and killing time. I'd like to get busy after someone or something."

"Usually. If I can get 'em."

The conductor replaced the bags and they moved on to the next compartment. Colonel Arbuthnot was sitting in a corner smoking a pipe and reading a magazine.

"You always use the same kind?" he asked.

"The rest of my kit has gone by long sea," he explained.

"Ah!" Poirot nodded.

These pipe cleaners were identical with the one he had found on the floor of the dead man's compartment.

The door of the next compartment was closed. It was that occupied by Princess Dragomiroff. They knocked on the door and the Princess's deep voice called, "Entrez."

"Certainly, Monsieur."

The Princess listened to him in silence, her small toad-like face quite impassive.

"And if during the night at one of the frontiers the Customs officials should require a piece of luggage to be opened?"

"Tout de même," murmured Poirot, "I can hardly believe it. It is not dans son caractère, and when you have said that you have said everything."

M. Bouc was spokesman. He was very deferential and polite as he explained their errand.

"If it is necessary, Messieurs," she said quietly when he had finished, "that is all there is to it. My maid has the keys. She will attend to it with you."

"Does your maid always carry your keys, Madame?" asked Poirot.

Dr. Constantine remarked as much when they were out in the corridor again.

The old lady shrugged her shoulders. "It is very unlikely. But in such a case this conductor would fetch her."

"You trust her, then, implicitly, Madame?"

"I have told you so already," said the Princess quietly. "I do not employ people whom I do not trust."

"Yes," said Poirot thoughtfully. "Trust is indeed something in these days. It is, perhaps, better to have a homely woman whom one can trust than a more chic maid -- for example, some smart Parisienne."

He saw the dark intelligent eyes come slowly round and fasten themselves upon his face. "What exactly are you implying, M. Poirot?"

"But yes. You think, do you not, that I should have a smart Frenchwoman to attend to my toilet?"

"It would be, perhaps, more usual, Madame."

"Nothing, Madame. I? Nothing."

She shook her head. "Schmidt is devoted to me." Her voice dwelt lingeringly on the words. "Devotion -- c'est impayable."

The German woman had arrived with the keys. The Princess spoke to her in her own language, telling her to open the valises and help the gentlemen in their search. She herself remained in the corridor looking out at the snow and Poirot remained with her, leaving M. Bouc to the task of searching the luggage.

He looked at her with a very direct glance. "I think, Madame, that your strength is in your will -- not in your arm."

"And yet I knew and loved Sonia Armstrong. What do you think, then? That I would not soil my hands with killing such canaille as that man Cassetti? Well, perhaps you are right."

She looked at him with a sudden impetuosity. "You do not say anything, M. Poirot. What is it that you are thinking, I wonder?"

She glanced down at her thin, black-clad arms ending in those claw-like yellow hands with the rings on the fingers.

"Well, Monsieur, do you not wish to see what my valises contain?"

"Are you so sure?"

Still he did not speak, just listened attentively.

"In your case, yes."

She regarded him with a grim smile.

She was silent a minute or two, then she said: "With such a man as that, do you know what I should have liked to have done? I should have liked to call to my servants: "Flog this man to death and fling him out on the rubbish heap." That is the way things were done when I was young. Monsieur."

He shook his head. "Madame, it is a formality, that is all."

"From Customs examination, yes. But a murder is different."

Then she turned abruptly back towards her carriage, where the maid was busily packing up the cases.

"I know. All the same -- we do not want to have complications --"

The doors of the next two carriages were shut. M. Bouc paused and scratched his head.

"There is not need for you to apologize, Monsieur," she said. "A murder has been committed. Certain actions have to be performed. That is all there is to it."

"It is true," she said. "I have no strength in these -- none. I do not know if I am sorry or glad."

The Princess cut short M. Bouc's apologies.

She inclined her head slightly as they departed.

"Diable!" he said. "This may be awkward. These are diplomatic passports. Their baggage is exempt."

"Vous êtes bien amiable, Madame."

"Do not distress yourself, my friend. The Count and Countess will be reasonable. See how amiable Princess Dragomiroff was about it."

"She is truly grande dame. These two are also of the same position, but the Count impressed me as a man of somewhat truculent disposition. He was not pleased when you insisted on questioning his wife. And this will annoy him still further. Suppose -- eh -- we omit them. After all, they can have nothing to do with the matter. Why should I stir up needless trouble for myself."

"I do not agree with you," said Poirot. "I feel sure that Count Andrenyi will be reasonable. At any rate, let us make the attempt."

A voice from within cried, "Entrez."

And, before M. Bouc could reply, he rapped sharply on the door of No. 13.

"Thank you," he said. "But I do not think that I care for an exception to be made in my case. I should prefer that our baggage should be examined like that of the other passengers."

"Pardon, Monsieur le Comte," began Poirot. "Pray forgive this intrusion. It is that we are making a search of all the baggage on the train. In most cases a mere formality. But it has to be done. M. Bouc suggests that, as you have a diplomatic passport, you might reasonably claim to be exempt from such a search."

He turned to his wife. "You do not object, I hope, Elena?"

The Count was sitting in the corner near the door reading a newspaper. The Countess was curled up in the opposite corner near the window. There was a pillow behind her head, and she seemed to have been asleep.

The Count considered for a moment.

Then, with polite remarks on either side, the search party withdrew.

"Not at all," said the Countess without hesitation.

Poirot finished his search by opening the little cupboard above the washbasin and taking a rapid glance at its contents -- a sponge, face cream, powder and a small bottle labelled trional.

The Countess did not reply to this observation. She seemed, indeed, rather bored by the whole proceeding, remaining curled up in her corner, staring dreamily out through the window whilst the men searched her luggage in the compartment next door.

A rapid and somewhat perfunctory search followed. Poirot seemed to be trying to mask an embarrassment in making various small pointless remarks, such as: "Here is a label all wet on your suitcase, Madame," as he lifted down a blue morocco case with initials on it and a coronet.

They now came to the second-class carriages. The first one, Nos. 10, 11, was occupied by Mary Debenham, who was reading a book, and Greta Ohlsson, who was fast asleep but woke with a start at their entrance.

Mrs. Hubbard's compartment, that of the dead man, and Poirot's own came next.

Poirot repeated his formula. The Swedish lady seemed agitated, Mary Debenham calmly indifferent.

Poirot addressed himself to the Swedish lady.

"If you permit, Mademoiselle, we will examine your baggage first, and then perhaps you would be so good as to see how the American lady is getting on. We have moved her into one of the carriages in the next coach, but she is still very upset as the result of her discovery. I have ordered coffee to be sent to her, but I think she is of those to whom someone to talk to is a necessity of the first water."

She bustled off. Her possessions were soon examined. They were meagre in the extreme. She had evidently not noticed the missing wires from the hat box.

The good lady was instantly sympathetic. She would go immediately. It must have been indeed a terrible shock to the nerves, and already the poor lady was upset by the journey and leaving her daughter. Ah, yes, certainly she would go at once -- her case was not locked -- and she would take with her some sal ammoniac.

"No, I am not imagining things at all. But it seems to me that a lot of time is wasted by not speaking the truth -- by beating about the bush instead of coming straight out with things."

"An excellent pretext -- but a pretext all the same."

"You are imagining things, Mademoiselle."

"I think you understand me very well." She smiled. "You wanted to get me alone. Wasn't that it?"

"Que s'excuse s'accuse; is that what you were going to say? You must give me the credit for a certain amount of observation and common sense. For some reason or other you have got it into your head that I know something about this sordid business -- this murder of a man I never saw before."

"And ideas into your head? No, I don't think so. The ideas are already there. That is right, isn't it?"

Miss Debenham had put her book down. She was watching Poirot. When he asked her, she handed over her keys. Then, as he lifted down a case and opened it, she said: "Why did you send her away, M. Poirot?"

"You are putting words into my mouth, Mademoiselle."

"I don't understand you, Mademoiselle."

"Mademoiselle, we have a proverb --"

"I, Mademoiselle? Why, to minister to the American lady."

"And you do not like the waste of time. No, you like to come straight to the point. You like the direct method. Eh bien, I will give it to you, the direct method. I will ask you the meaning of certain words that I overheard on the journey from Syria. I had got out of the train to do what the English call 'stretch the legs' at the station of Konya. Your voice and the Colonel's, Mademoiselle, they came to me out of the night. You said to him, 'Not now. Not now. When it's all over. When it's behind us.' What did you mean by those words. Mademoiselle?"

"It is I who am asking you, Mademoiselle."

"And -- you refuse to explain those words?"

She said very quietly: "Do you think I meant -- murder?"

She sighed -- was lost a minute in thought. Then, as though rousing herself, she said: "Those words had a meaning, Monsieur, but not one that I can tell you. I can only give you my solemn word of honour that I had never set eyes on this man Ratchett in my life until I saw him on this train."

"Yes -- if you like to put it that way -- I refuse. They had to do with -- with a task I had undertaken."

"What is curious?"

"It is ended, is it not?"

"Why should you think so?"

"You do not seem to realize that one may have friends awaiting one's arrival in London, and that a day's delay upsets arrangements and causes a lot of annoyance."

"And yet -- it is curious --"

"A task that is now ended?"

Miss Debenham for the first time showed signs of losing her temper.

"Naturally."

"What do you mean?"

"So you said. But, Mademoiselle, the Orient Express leaves Stamboul every day of the week. Even if you had missed the connection it would only have been a matter of twenty-four hours' delay."

"I did not want to miss my connection."

"Ah, it is like that? There are friends awaiting your arrival? You do not want to cause them inconvenience?"

"Listen, Mademoiselle, I will recall to you another incident. There was a delay to the train on the day we were to reach Stamboul. You were very agitated, Mademoiselle. You, so calm, so self-controlled. You lost that calm."

"On this train -- again we have a delay. And this time a more serious delay, since there is no possibility of sending a telegram to your friends or of getting them on the long -- the long --"

"I am sorry. I did not know that there was anything to answer."

"You know Colonel Arbuthnot well, Mademoiselle?"

Mary Debenham flushed and bit her lip. She no longer felt inclined to smile.

Mary Debenham made no reply.

"You do not answer, Mademoiselle?"

"The explanation of your change of attitude, Mademoiselle."

Mary Debenham smiled a little in spite of herself. "Trunk call," she corrected. "Yes, as you say, it is extremely annoying not to be able to get any word through, either by telephone or telegraph."

"And yet, mademoiselle, this time your manner is quite different. You no longer betray the impatience. You are calm and philosophical."

Poirot spread out his hands in an apologetic gesture.

"Don't you think that you are making rather a fuss about nothing, M. Poirot?"

"Ah, yes, the portmanteau call, as you say in England."

"It is perhaps a fault with us detectives. We expect the behaviour to be always consistent. We do not allow for changes of mood."

"The long distance? The telephone, you mean."

He said very gently: "You still refuse to tell me the meaning of those words --'When it's behind us?'"

She shook her head decisively. "I am quite sure he didn't."

"Why are you sure?"

He watched her narrowly, but she displayed neither surprise nor emotion, merely said: "Nonsense. It's absurd. Colonel Arbuthnot is the last man in the world to be mixed up in a crime -- especially a theatrical kind of crime like this."

"And yet, Mademoiselle, we found a pipe cleaner on the floor of the dead man's compartment. And Colonel Arbuthnot is the only man on the train who smokes a pipe?"

He fancied that she was relieved by the change of subject.

"Have you any reason to suspect that he may have known this man Ratchett?"

"I met him for the first time on this journey."

"By the way he spoke."

It was so much what Poirot himself thought that he found himself on the point of agreeing with her. He said instead: "I must remind you that you do not know him very well, Mademoiselle."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I know the type well enough."

"Mon ami, if you wish to catch a rabbit you put a ferret into the hole, and if the rabbit is there he runs. That is all I have done."

The stolidity of the German woman underwent a sudden change.

"It does not matter," said Hercule Poirot. "I shall find out."

He bowed and left the compartment, closing the door after him.

"It is not locked, Monsieur."

She said coldly: "I have nothing more to say."

"Was that wise, my friend?" asked M. Bouc. "You have put her on her guard -- and through her you have put the Colonel on his guard also."

They entered the compartment of Hildegarde Schmidt.

The woman was standing in readiness, her face respectful but unemotional.

"The keys?" he said.

Poirot undid the hasps and lifted the lid.

"Aha!" he said, and turning to M. Bouc, "You remember what I said? Look here a little moment!"

On the top of the suitcase was a hastily rolled up brown Wagon Lit uniform.

Poirot took a quick glance through the contents of the small case on the seat. Then he motioned to the attendant to get down the bigger suitcase from the rack.

Bewildered, the woman smiled in spite of herself. "Yes, indeed, all my ladies have said so. I --"

"Ach!" she cried. "That is not mine. I did not put it there. I have never looked in that case since we left Stamboul. Indeed, indeed, it is true." She looked from one to another pleadingly.

His glance went to M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine, who were listening attentively.

Poirot took her gently by the arm and soothed her.

"No, no all is well. We believe you. Do not be agitated. I am as sure you did not hide the uniform there as I am sure that you are a good cook. See. You are a good cook, are you not?"

"There is the snow, you see. The snow which confuses all his plans. Where can he hide these clothes? All the compartments are full. No, he passes one where the door is open and shows it to be unoccupied. It must be the one belonging to the woman with whom he has just collided. He slips in, removes the uniform and jams it hurriedly into a suitcase on the rack. It may be some time before it is discovered."

She stopped, her mouth open, looking frightened again.

"No, no," said Poirot. "I assure you all is well. See, I will tell you how this happened. This man, the man you saw in Wagon Lit uniform, comes out of the dead man's compartment. He collides with you. That is bad luck for him. He has hoped that no one will see him. What to do next? He must get rid of his uniform. It is now not a safeguard, but a danger."

"And then?" said M. Bouc.

He held up the tunic. A button, the third down, was missing. Poirot slipped his hand into the pocket and took out a conductor's pass key, used to unlock the doors of the compartments.

"Here is the explanation of how our man was able to pass through locked doors," said M. Bouc. "Your questions to Mrs. Hubbard were unnecessary. Locked or not locked, the man could easily get through the communicating door. After all, if a Wagon Lit uniform, why not a Wagon Lit key?"

"That we must discuss," said Poirot with a warning glance.

"Why not, indeed," said Poirot.

"That is so, Monsieur," said the conductor. "That is why I thought the lady must have been dreaming."

"We might have known it, really. You remember Michel said that the door into the corridor of Mrs. Hubbard's compartment was locked when he came in answer to her bell."

"But now it is easy," continued M. Bouc. "Doubtless he meant to relock the communicating door also, but perhaps he heard some movement from the bed and it startled him."

"We have now," said Poirot, "only to find the scarlet kimono."

Hector MacQueen acquiesced willingly in the search. "I'd just as soon you did," he said with a rueful smile. "I feel I'm just definitely the most suspicious character on the train. You've only got to find a will in which the old man left me all his money, and that'll just about fix things."

"True. And these last two compartments are occupied by men."

"Oh! assuredly. Besides, I remember what you said."

"We will search all the same."

Poirot emerged. "Nothing," he said. "Not even a compromising bequest!"

His voice was a little louder than usual. It was as though he was slightly uneasy at the search in spite of his willingness.

M. Bouc bent a suspicious glance upon him.

"That's just my fun," said MacQueen hastily. "He'd never have left me a cent, really. I was just useful to him -- languages and so on. You're apt to be done down, you know, if you don't speak anything but good American. I'm no linguist myself, but I know what I call shopping and hotel snappy bits in French and German and Italian."

The three men stood at the end of the coach looking at each other.

He felt in his pocket for his cigarette case. It was empty.

"I will join you in a moment," he said. "I shall need the cigarettes. This is a very difficult, a very curious affair. Who wore that scarlet kimono? Where is it now? I wish I knew. There is something in this case -- some factor -- that escapes me! It is difficult because it has been made difficult. But we will discuss it. Pardon me a moment."

He got it down and snapped back the lock.

He went hurriedly along the corridor to his own compartment. He had, he knew, a further supply of cigarettes in one of his valises.

"So," he murmured. "It is like that. A defiance. Very well. I take it up."

They moved on to the last compartment. The examination of the luggage of the big Italian and of the valet yielded no result.

Neatly folded on the top of the case was a thin scarlet silk kimono embroidered with dragons.

"We will go back to the dining car," said Poirot. "We know now all that we can know. We have the evidence of the passengers, the evidence of their baggage, the evidence of our eyes. We can expect no further help. It must be our part now to use our brains."

Then he sat back on his heels and stared.

"What next?" asked M. Bouc.

MacQueen sighed. "Well, that's a load off my mind," he said humorously.