8 THE EVIDENCE OF COLONEL ARBUTHNOT
Poirot roused himself with a slight start. His eyes twinkled a little as they met the eager ones of M. Bouc.
“Ah! my dear old friend,” he said, “you see I have become what they call the snob¹! The first class, I feel it should be attended to before the second class. Next, I think, we will interview the good-looking Colonel Arbuthnot.”
Finding the Colonel’s French to be of a severely² limited description, Poirot conducted his interrogatory in English.
Arbuthnot’s name, age, home address and exact military standing³ were all ascertained⁴. Poirot proceeded:
“It is that you come home from India on what is called the leave—what we can call en permission?”
Colonel Arbuthnot, uninterested in what a pack of foreigners called anything, replied with true British brevity, “Yes.”
“But you do not come home on the P. & O. boat?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I chose to come by the overland route for reasons of my own.”
(“And that,” his manner seemed to say, “is one for you, you interfering⁵ little jackanapes.”)“You came straight through from India?”
The Colonel replied drily: “I stopped for one night to see Ur of the Chaldees, and for three days in Baghdad with the A.O.C., who happens to be an old friend of mine.”
“You stopped three days in Baghdad. I understand that the young English lady, Miss Debenham, also comes from Baghdad. Perhaps you met her there?”
“No, I did not. I first met Miss Debenham when she and I shared the railway convoy⁶ car from Kirkuk to Nissibin.”
Poirot leaned forward. He became persuasive⁷ and a little more foreign than he need have been.
“Monsieur, I am about to appeal to you. You and Miss Debenham are the only two English people on the train. It is necessary that I should ask you each your opinion of the other.”

分享到：