three in the morning
`` Berlin ... Berne ... Paris ... Cerbère ... Barcelona ... Madrid ... Aranjuez and the world '' ; and back again , reversing the order : `` Madrid ... Barcelona ... Cerbère ... Paris ... Berne ... Berlin . '' But the throb of the train set the interrogation at the end of the string of names . So that the sequence of them was like a question demanding confirmation ... . Towards three in the morning , when there was no movement in the corridor and the lights were blue and dim , Hillyard silently folded back his bedclothes and rose . In the darkness he groped gently for the door of the lavatory between his compartment and the compartment of the manufacturer of Perpignan . He found the handle , and pressed it down slowly ; without a creak or a whine of the hinges the door swung open towards him . Through the clatter he could hear that the manufacturer of Perpignan was snoring .