A Cry in the Night

A Cry in the Night is the pivotal event in which Hercule Poirot is awakened by a loud groan from the adjacent compartment of Samuel Edward Ratchett, hears the conductor summoned, and overhears a voice claiming a mistake—a moment that later proves to be a staged performance by the conspirators to create a false alibi and mislead the investigation.

The Awakening and the Cry

At twenty-three minutes to one on the second night of the journey, Poirot awoke with a start to a loud groan, almost a cry, coming from somewhere close at hand. At the same moment, the sharp ting of a bell sounded. The train was at a standstill, presumably at a station. Poirot sat up, switched on the light, and got out of bed. He opened his door a crack and watched as the Wagon Lit conductor, Pierre Michel, came hurrying along the corridor and knocked on Ratchett's door. The conductor tapped a second time. A bell rang and a light showed over another door farther down. Then a voice from within the next compartment called out in French: "Ce n'est rien. Je me suis trompé." The conductor replied, "Bien, Monsieur," and scurried off to answer the other bell. Poirot returned to bed, his mind relieved, and switched off the light. He glanced at his watch: it was just twenty-three minutes to one.

The Staged Performance

This entire episode, Poirot later realized, was a carefully staged comedy played for his benefit. The conspirators knew that Ratchett could speak no French, yet the voice that spoke was fluent and idiomatic. The phrase "Ce n'est rien. Je me suis trompé" was not one a man knowing only a few words of French would have selected. Poirot concluded that the device was designed to make him believe that Ratchett must have been already dead at that time, since the voice could not have been his. In reality, Ratchett was still lying in his drugged sleep. The conspirators assumed that Poirot would see through the watch business—a common enough device in detective stories—and, pluming himself on his own cleverness, would go on to assume that since Ratchett spoke no French, the voice he heard could not have been his, and that Ratchett must have been already dead. But the device succeeded: Poirot opened his door and looked out, actually hearing the French phrase used. If he were so unbelievably dense as not to realize the significance of that phrase, it would be brought to his attention—if necessary, MacQueen could come right out in the open and say, "Excuse me, M. Poirot, that can't have been Mr. Ratchett speaking. He couldn't speak French."

The Conspirators' Design

The cry and the bell were part of the elaborate plan orchestrated by the twelve passengers who had condemned Ratchett to death. Each person played an allotted part, and every minute detail of their evidence was worked out beforehand. The whole thing was a very cleverly planned jigsaw puzzle, so arranged that every fresh piece of knowledge that came to light made the solution of the whole more difficult. The cry in the night was intended to create a false timeline, suggesting that the murder had occurred earlier than it actually did, and to provide an alibi for the conspirators. The device was a comedy played for Poirot's benefit, designed to mislead him and to confuse the issue.

The Aftermath and Significance

Poirot's awakening and the subsequent exchange with the conductor became a key piece of evidence in his investigation. He later realized that the cry and the voice were not what they seemed, and that the entire episode was a deliberate attempt to mislead him. The event highlighted the conspirators' careful planning and their willingness to stage an elaborate deception to protect themselves. The cry in the night was not a genuine alarm but a calculated move in a larger scheme of justice and revenge.