orridor,
and two at the ends communicating with the corridor by a small door."

"I know," said Juve; "the lavatory is in the centre, and the end
compartments are like the ordinary noncorridor compartments, except that
they have only seven seats, and also have the little door communicating
with the narrow passage down one side of the carriage."

"That's it. I got into the smoking compartment at the end."

"Don't go too quick," said Juve. "Tell me whom you saw in the various
compartments. Let us go even farther back. You were on the platform,
waiting for the train; it came in; what happened then?"

"You want to be very precise," Gervais Aventin remarked. "Well, when the
train pulled up I looked for the first-class carriage; it was a few
yards away from me, and the corridor was alongside the platform. I got
into the corridor and wanted to choose my compartment. I remember
clearly that I went first to the rear compartment, the last one in the
carriage. I could not get into that, for the door opening into it from
the corridor was locked."

"That is correct," Juve nodded. "I know from the guard that that
compartment was empty. What did you do then?"

"I turned back and, passing the ladies' compartment and the lavatory,
decided to take my seat in the one next it communicating with the
corridor. But luck was against me: a pane of glass was broken and it was
bitterly cold there; so I had to fall back on the only compartment left,
the smoking one towards the front of the train."

"Were there many of you there?"

"I thought at first that I was going to have a fellow-traveller, for
there was some luggage and a rug arranged on the seat. But the passenger
must have been in the lavatory, for I didn't see him. I lay down on the
other seat and went to sleep. When I got out of the train at Limoges, my
fellow-traveller must have been in the lavatory again, for I remember
quite distinctly that he was not on the opposite seat. I thought at the
time how easy it would have been for me to steal his luggage and walk
off with his valise: nobody would have seen me."

Juve had listened intently to every word of the story. He asked for one
further detail with a certain anxiety in his tone.

"Tell me, sir, when you woke up did you have any impression that the
baggage arranged on the seat opposite yours had been disturbed at all?
Might the traveller, whom you did not see, have come in for a sleep
while you yourself were asleep?"

Gervais