The train was moving out after the briefest stop at a place so unimportant, and he swung himself into one of the carriages gliding past him.

At first he thought the compartment was empty, but as the train emerged from a tunnel immediately beyond the station gates he observed a man with glasses reading a newspaper in the opposite corner seat.

That reminded him to buy an evening paper at the next stopping place, a town of some importance, where a number of intending passengers were waiting on the platform.

Several pushed past him into the compartment.

He did not heed them.