The other complied.
“There is no one, I suppose, who can confirm your story of your identity, Mr. Hardman?”
“On this train? Well, not exactly. Unless it might be young MacQueen. I know him well enough—I’ve seen him in his father’s office in New York. But that’s not to say he’ll remember me from a crowd of other operatives. No, Mr. Poirot, you’ll have to wait and cable New York when the snow lets up. But it’s O.K. I’m not telling the tale. Well, so long, gentlemen. Pleased to have met you, Mr. Poirot.”
Poirot proffered his cigarette case. “But perhaps you prefer a pipe?”
“Not me.” He helped himself, then strode briskly off.
The three men looked at each other.
“You think he is genuine?” asked Dr. Constantine.
“Yes, yes. I know the type. Besides, it is a story that would be very easy to disprove.”
“He has given us a piece of very interesting evidence,” said M. Bouc.
“Yes, indeed.”
“A small man—dark—with a high-pitched voice,” said M. Bouc thoughtfully.
“A description which applies to no one on the train,” said Poirot.
10
THE EVIDENCE OF THE ITALIAN
“And now,” said Poirot with a twinkle in his eye, “we will delight the heart of M. Bouc and see the Italian.”
Antonio Foscarelli came into the dining-car with a swift, cat-like tread. His face beamed. It was a typical Italian face, sunny-looking and swarthy.
He spoke French well and fluently with only a slight accent.
“Your name is Antonio Foscarelli?”
“Yes, Monsieur.”
“You are, I see, a naturalised American subject?”
The American grinned. “Yes, Monsieur. It is better for my business.”
“You are an agent for Ford motor cars?”
“Yes, you see—”
A voluble exposition followed. At the end of it anything that the three men did not know about Foscarelli’s business methods, his journeys, his income, and his opinion of the United States and most European countries seemed a negligible factor. This was not a man who had to have information dragged from him. It gushed out.
His good-natured, childish face beamed with satisfaction as, with a last eloquent gesture, he paused and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.
“So you see,” he said. “I do big business. I am up to date. I understand salesmanship!”
“You have been in the United States, then, for the last ten years on and off.”
Yes, Monsieur. Ah! well do I remember the day I first took the boat—to go to America, so far away! My mother, my little sister—”
Poirot cut short the flood of reminiscence.
“During your sojourn in the United States, did you ever come across the deceased?”
“Never. But I know the type. Oh! yes.” He snapped his fingers expressively. “It is very respectable, very well-dressed, but underneath it is all wrong. Out of my experience I should say he was the big crook. I give you my opinion for what it is worth.”
“Your opinion is quite right,” said Poirot drily. “Ratchett was Cassetti, the kidnapper.”
“What did I tell you? I have learned to be very acute—to read the face. It is necessary. Only in America do they teach you the proper way to sell. I—”
“You remember the Armstrong case?”
“I do not quite remember. The name, yes? It was a little girl, a baby, was it not?”
“Yes, a very tragic affair.”
The Italian seemed the first person to demur to this view.
“Ah! well, these things they happen,” he said philosophically, “in a great civilisation such as America—”
Poirot cut him short. “Did you ever come across any members of the Armstrong family?”
“No, I do not think so. It is difficult to say. I will give you some figures. Last year alone, I sold—”
“Monsieur, pray confine yourself to the point.”
The Italian’s hands flung themselves out in a gesture of apology. “A thousand pardons.”
“Tell me, if you please, your exact movements last night from dinner onwards.”
“With pleasure. I stay here as long as I can. It is more amusing. I talk to the American gentleman at my table. He sells typewriter ribbons. Then I go back to my compartment. It is empty. The miserable John Bull who shares it with me is away attending to his master. At last he comes back—very long face as usual. He will not talk—says yes and no. A miserable race, the English—not sympathetic. He sits in the corner, very stiff, reading a book, Then the conductor comes and makes our beds.”