A Cry in the Night

At 8:45 that evening, the Simplon Orient Express arrives in Belgrade and will not leave again for thirty minutes. Poirot leaves the train but does not stay long on the platform because it is snowing. As he returns to his berth, Poirot meets the conductor who tells him his suitcases have been moved to compartment number one. Bouc has moved into the coach from Athens which has just been connected to the train.

Poirot protests the change, but Bouc insists this is for the best. Poirot is going all the way to England and should stay in the coach to Calais; Bouc is happier in the quieter coach, which is empty except for a little Greek doctor. He tells Poirot that more snow is predicted and he hopes the train will not be held up by it. The train leaves punctually at nine fifteen, and shortly after that Poirot tells Bouc goodnight and returns to his own coach next to the dining car.

This is the second day of the journey, and barriers between passengers have begun to fall. Colonel Arbuthnot is standing in the compartment doorway talking to MacQueen. When he sees Poirot, MacQueen stops what he is saying and seems surprised to see the older man here. He thought Poirot was leaving the train at Belgrade and he noticed Poirot’s baggage was not in his berth. Poirot explains that he has moved compartments. Two doors before his new room, Poirot meets the elderly American, Mrs. Hubbard, who is talking to the woman in tweed and trying to give her a magazine. She hopes the woman in tweed will recover from her headache and cold; the woman thanks Hubbard for the magazine and leaves to brew herself a cup of tea.

Hubbard tells Poirot the woman in tweed is Swedish, some kind of a teaching missionary, she thinks. According to Hubbard, the Swedish woman was quite interested in what Hubbard said about her daughter. By now, everyone on the train who understands English knows about Hubbard’s daughter. The daughter and her husband are on the staff of a major American college in Smyrna; this was Hubbard’s first trip to the East and she does not think very highly of how the Turks maintain their roads.

The door next to them opens and a thin, pale manservant steps out of the door; inside, Ratchett is sitting up in his bed. When he sees Poirot, Ratchett’s face darkens with anger before the door is shut. Hubbard pulls Poirot aside and tells him she is quite frightened of Ratchett. In fact, she put her grips against the connecting door as a precaution last night, and she thought she heard him trying the handle. Her daughter tells her she is quite intuitive, and Hubbard would not be surprised to learn that Ratchett is a murderer. It may be foolishness, but she “feels as if anything might happen—anything at all.”

Arbuthnot and MacQueen are coming down the corridor, and MacQueen invites the colonel to come into his carriage as they talk about India politics. Poirot and Hubbard say good night and Poirot finally enters his own compartment, next to Ratchett’s. Poirot undresses for bed and reads for about half an hour before turning off the light. Several hours later he wakes with a start as he hears “a loud groan, almost a cry,” somewhere nearby. At the same time a bell rings sharply.

Poirot turns on the light and notices the train is stopped, presumably at a station. The cry had startled him, and now he remembers that Ratchett...