The buzzing of the over-heated boiler was heard, and the steam was escaping from the valves.

The engineer whistled, the train started, and soon disappeared, mingling its white smoke with the eddies of the densely falling snow.
The detective had remained behind.
Several hours passed.

The weather was dismal, and it was very cold.
Fix sat motionless on a bench in the station; he might have been thought asleep.

Aouda, despite the storm, kept coming out of the waiting-room, going to the end of the platform, and peering through the tempest of snow, as if to pierce the mist which narrowed the horizon around her, and to hear, if possible, some welcome sound.

She heard and saw nothing.