Transcript for:
Exploring Psychological Themes in Christie's Novel

and then there were none by agatha christie ten little soldier boys went out to dine one choked his little self and then there were nine nine little soldier boys sat up very late one overslept himself and then there were eight eight little soldier boys traveling in devon one said he'd stay there and then there were seven seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks one chopped himself in halves and then there were six six little soldier boys playing with a hive a bumblebee stung one and then there were five five little soldier boys going in for law one got in chancery and then there were four four little soldier boys going out to sea a red herring swallowed one and then there were three three little soldier boys walking in the zoo a big bear hugged one and then there were two two little soldier boys sitting in the sun one got frizzled up and then there was one one little soldier boy left all alone he went and hanged himself and then there were none frank green 1869 chapter one in the corner of a first-class smoking carriage mr justice wargrave lately retired from the bench puffed a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in the times he laid the paper down and glanced out of the window they were running now through somerset he glanced at his watch another two hours to go he went over in his mind all that had appeared in the papers about soldier island there had been its original purchase by an american millionaire who was crazy about yachting and an account of the luxurious modern house he had built on this little island off the devon coast the unfortunate fact that the new third wife of the american millionaire was a bad sailor had led the subsequent putting up of the house and island for sale various glowing advertisements of it had appeared in the papers then came the first bald statement that had been bought by a mr owen after that the rumors of the gossip writers had started soldier island had really been bought by miss gabrielle turl the hollywood film star she wanted to spend some months there free from all publicity busy bee had hinted delicately that it was to be an abode for royalty mr merryweather had had it whispered to him that had been bought for a honeymoon young lord l had surrendered to cupid at last jonas knew for a fact that had been purchased by the admiralty with a view to carrying out some very hush-hush experiments definitely soldier island was news from his pocket mr justice wargrave drew out a letter the handwriting was practically illegible but words here and there stood out with unexpected clarity dearest lawrence such years since i heard anything of you must come to soldier island the most enchanting place so much to talk over old days communion with nature bask in sunshine 1240 from paddington meet you at oak bridge and his correspondent signed herself with a flourish his ever constance comington mr justice wargrave cast back in his mind to remember when exactly he had last seen lady constance comington it must be seven no eight years ago she had then been going to italy to bask in the sun and be at one with nature and the contadini later he had heard she had proceeded to syria where she proposed to basque and a yet stronger son and live at one with nature in the bedouin constance comington he reflected to himself was exactly the sort of woman who would buy an island and surround herself with mystery nodding his head in gentle approval of his logic mr justice wargrave allowed his head to nod he slept vera claythorne in a class carriage with five other travelers in it leaned her head back and shut her eyes how hot it was traveling by train today it would be nice to get to the sea really a great piece of luck getting this job when you wanted a holiday post it nearly always meant looking after a swarm of children secretarial holiday posts were much more difficult to get even the agency hadn't held out much hope and then the letter had come i have received your name from the skilled woman's agency together with their recommendation i understand they know you personally i shall be glad to pay you the salary you ask and shall expect you to take up your duties on august the eighth the train is the twelve forty from paddington and you will be met at oak bridge station i enclose five one pound notes for expenses yours truly oona nancy owen and at the top was the stamped address soldier island stickelhaven devon soldier island why there had been nothing else in the papers lately all sorts of hints and interesting rumors though probably they were mostly untrue but the house had certainly been built by a millionaire and was said to be absolutely the last word in luxury vera claythorne tired by a recent strenuous term at school thought to herself being a games mistress in a third class school isn't much of a catch if only i could get a job at some decent school and then with a cold feeling around her heart she thought but i'm lucky to have even this after all people don't like a coroner's inquest even if the coroner did acquit me of all blame he had even complimented her on her presence of mind and courage she remembered for an inquest it couldn't have gone better and mrs hamilton had been kindness itself to her only hugo that she wouldn't think of hugo suddenly in spite of the heat in the carriage she shivered and wished she wasn't going to the sea a picture rose clearly before her mind cyril's head bobbing up and down swimming to the rock up and down up and down and herself swimming in easy practiced strokes after him cleaving her way through the water but knowing only too surely that she wouldn't be in time the sea its deep warm blue morning spent lying out on the sands hugo hugo who had said he loved her she must not think of hugo she opened her eyes and frowned across at the man opposite her a tall man with a brown face light eyes set rather close together and an arrogant almost cruel mouth she thought to herself i bet he's been to some interesting parts of the world and seen some interesting things philip lombard summing up the girl opposite in a mere flash of his quick moving eyes thought to himself quite attractive a bit school mysteriously perhaps a cool customer he should imagine and one who could hold her own in love or war he'd rather like to take her on he frowned no cut out all that kind of stuff this was business he got to keep his mind on the job what exactly was up he wondered that little jew had been damn mysterious take it or leave it captain lombard he had said thoughtfully a hundred guineas eh he had said it in a casual way as though a hundred guineas was nothing to him a hundred guineas when he was literally down to his last square meal he had fancied though that the little jew had not been deceived that was the damnable part about jews you couldn't deceive them about money they knew he said in the same casual tone and you can't give me any further information mr isaac morris had shaken his little bald head very positively no captain lombard the matter rests there it is understood by my client that your reputation is that of a good man in a tight place i'm empowered to hand you 100 guineas in return for which you will travel to stickelhaven devon the nearest station is oak bridge you will be met there and moted to sticklehaven where a motor launch will convey you to soldier island there you will hold yourself at the disposal of my client lombard had said abruptly for how long not longer than a week at most fingering his small moustache captain lombard said you understand i can't undertake anything illegal he had darted a very sharp glance at the other as he had spoken there had been a very faint smile on the thick semitic lips of mr morris as he answered gravely if anything illegal is proposed you will of course be at perfect liberty to withdraw damn the smooth little brute he had smiled it was as though he knew very well that in lombard's past actions legality had not always been a cynic unknown lombard's own lips parted in a grin by jove he'd sailed pretty near the wind once or twice but he'd always got away with it there wasn't much he drew the line at really no there wasn't much he'd draw the line at he fancy that he was going to enjoy himself at soldier island in a non-smoking carriage miss emily brent sat very upright as was her custom she was 65 and she did not approve of lounging her father a colonel of the old school had been particular about deportment the present generation was shamelessly lacks in their carriage and in every other way enveloped in an aura of righteousness and unyielding principles miss brent sat in her crowded third class carriage and triumphed over its discomfort and its heat everyone made such a fuss over things nowadays they wanted injections before they had teeth pulled they took drugs if they couldn't sleep they wanted easy chairs and cushions and the girls allowed their figures to slop about anyhow and lay about half naked on the beaches in summer miss brent's lips said closely she would like to make an example of certain people she remembered last year's summer holiday this year however it would be quite different soldier island mentally she reread the letter which he had already read so many times dear miss brent i do hope you remember me we were together at belhaven guest house in august some years ago and we seem to have so much in common i am starting a guest house of my own on an island off the coast of devon i think there is really an opening for a place where there is good plane cooking and a nice old-fashioned type of person none of this nudity and gramophones half the night i shall be very glad if you could see your way to spending your summer holiday on soldier island quite free as my guest would early in august suit you perhaps the eighth you're sincerely uno what was the name the signature was rather difficult to read emily brent thought impatiently so many people write their signatures quite illegibly she let her mind run back over the people at belhaven she had been there two summers running there had been that nice middle-aged woman miss miss now what was her name her father had been a cannon and there had been a mrs alton orman no surely it was oliver yes oliver soldier island there have been things in the paper about soldier island something about a film star or was it an american millionaire of course often those places weren't very cheap islands didn't suit everybody they thought the idea was romantic but when they came to live there they realized the disadvantages and we're only too glad to sell emily brent thought to herself i shall be getting a free holiday at any rate with her income so much reduced and so many dividends not being paid that was indeed something to take into consideration if only she could remember a little more about mrs or was it miss oliver general macarthur looked out of the carriage window the train was just coming into exeter where he had to change damnable these slow branch line trains this place soldier island was really no distance at all as the crow flies he hadn't got it clear who this fellow owen was a friend of spoof legards apparently and of johnny dyers one or two of your old cronies are coming would like to have a talk over old times well he'd enjoy a chat about old times he had a fancy lately that fellows were rather fighting shy of him all owing to that damned rumor by god it was pretty hard nearly 30 years ago now armitage had talked he supposed damned young pup what did he know about it well no good brooding about these things one fancy thing sometimes fancied a fellow was looking at you clearly this soldier island now he'd be interested to see it a lot of gossip flying about looked as though there might be something in the rumor that the admiralty or the war office or the air force had got hold of it young elmer robson the american millionaire had actually built the place spent thousands on it so it was said every mortal luxury exeter and an hour to wait and he didn't want to wait he wanted to get on dr armstrong was driving his morris across salisbury plain he was very tired success had its penalties there had been a time when he had sat in his consulting room in harley street correctly apparel surrounded with the most up-to-date appliances in the most luxurious furnishings and waited waited through the empty days for his venture to succeed or fail well it had succeeded he'd been lucky lucky and skillful of course he was a good man at his job but that wasn't enough for success you had to have luck as well and he'd had it an accurate diagnosis a couple of grateful women patients women with money in position and word had got about you ought to try armstrong quite a young man but so clever pam had been to all sorts of people for years and he put his finger on the trouble at once the ball had started rolling and now dr armstrong had definitely arrived his days were full he had little leisure and so on this august morning he was glad that he was leaving london and going to be for some days on an island off the devon coast not that it was exactly a holiday the letter he had received had been rather vague in its terms but there was nothing vague about the accompanying check a whacking fee these owens must be rolling in money some little difficulty it seemed a husband who was worried about his wife's health and wanted to report on it without her being alarmed she wouldn't hear of seeing a doctor her nerves nerves the doctor's eyebrows went up these women and their nerves well it was good for business after all half the women who consulted him had nothing to matter with them but boredom but they wouldn't thank you for telling them so and one could usually find something a slightly uncommon condition of the some long word nothing at all serious but it needs just putting right a simple treatment well medicine was mostly faith healing when it came to it and he had a good manner he could inspire hope and belief lucky that he'd managed to pull himself together in time after that business 10 no 15 years ago it had been a near thing then he'd been going to pieces the shock had pulled him together he'd cut out drink altogether by joe it had been a near thing though with a devastating ear splitting blast on the horn an enormous super sports dalmain car rushed past him at 80 miles an hour dr armstrong nearly went into the hedge one of these young fools who tore around the country he hated them that had been a near shave too damn young fool tony marston roaring down into mir thought to himself the amount of cars crawling about the roads is frightful always something blocking your way and they will drive in the middle of the road pretty hopeless driving in england anyway not like france where you really could let out should he stop here for a drink or push on heaps of time only another hundred miles and a bit to go he'd have a gin and ginger beer fizzing hot day this island place ought to be rather good fun if the weather lasted who were these owens he wondered rich and stinking probably badger was rather good at nosing people like that out of course he had to poor old chap with no money of his own hope they do one well in drinks never knew with these fellows who'd made their money and weren't born to it pity that story about gabrielle turl having bought soldier island wasn't true he'd like to have been in with that film star crowd oh well he supposed there'd be a few girls there coming out of the hotel he stretched himself yawned looked up at the blue sky and climbed into the dalman several young women looked at him admiringly his six feet of well-proportioned body his crisp hair tanned face and intensely blue eyes he let in the clutch with a roar and left up the narrow street old men and erin boys jumped for safety the latter looked after the car admiringly anthony martin proceeded on his triumphal progress mister bloor was in the slow train from plymouth there was only one other person in his carriage an elderly seafaring gentleman with a bleary eye at the present moment he had dropped off to sleep mr bloor was writing carefully in a little notebook that's the lot he muttered to himself emily brent vera claythorne dr armstrong anthony martin old justice wargrave philip lombard general macarthur cmg dso manservant and wife mr and mrs rogers he closed the notebook and put it back in his pocket he glanced over at the corner and the slumbering man and one over the eight diagnosed mr bloor accurately he went over things carefully and conscientiously in his mind job ought to be easy enough he ruminated don't see how i can slip up on it hope i look alright he stood up and scrutinized himself anxiously in the glass the face reflected there was of a slightly military cast with a moustache there was very little expression in it the eyes were gray and set rather close together might be a major said mr bloor no i forgot there's that old military jen he'd spot me at once south africa said mr bloor that's my line none of these people have anything to do with south africa and i've just been reading that travel folder so i can talk about it all right fortunately there were all sorts and types of colonials as a man of means from south africa mr bloor felt that he could enter into any society unchallenged soldier island he remembered soldier island as a boy smelly sort of rock covered with gulls stood about a mile from the coast funny idea to go and build a house on it awful in bad weather but millionaires were full of whims the old man in the corner woke up and said you can't never tell at sea never mr bloor said soothing me that's right you can't the old man hiccup twice and said there's plaintively squall coming mr bloor said no no mate it's a lovely day the old man said angrily there is a squall head i can smell it you're right said mr bloor pacifically the train stopped at the station and the old fellow rose unsteadily there's he fumbled with the window mr bloor helped him the old man stood in the doorway he raised a solemn hand and blinked his blurry eyes watch and pray he said watch and pray the day of judgment is his hand he collapsed through the doorway onto the platform from a recumbent position he looked up at mr bloor and said with immense dignity i'm talking to you young man the day of judgment is very close at hand subsiding onto his seat mr bloor thought to himself he's nearer the day of judgment than i am but there as it happens he was wrong chapter 2 outside oak bridge station a little group of people stood in momentary uncertainty behind them stood porters with suitcases one of these called jim the driver of one of the taxis stepped forward um for soldier island maybe he asked in a soft devin voice four voices gave a cent and then immediately afterwards gave quick surreptitious glances at each other the driver said addressing his remarks to mr justice wargrave is the senior member of the party there are two taxis here sir one of them must wait till the slow train from exeter gets in a matter of five minutes there's one gentleman coming by that perhaps one of you wouldn't mind waiting you'll be more comfortable that way vera claythorne her own secretarial position clear in her mind spoke at once i'll wait she said if you will go on she looked at the other three her glance and voice had that slight suggestion of command in it that comes from having occupied a position of authority she might have been directing which tennis sets the girls were to play in miss brent said stiffly thank you bent her head and entered one of the taxis the door of which the driver was holding open mister justice wargrove followed her captain lombard said i'll wait with miss clayton said vera my name is lombard philip lombard the porters were piling luggage on the taxi inside mr justice wargrove said with due legal caution beautiful weather we are having miss brent said yes indeed a very distinguished old gentleman she thought to herself quite unlike the usual type of man in seaside guest houses evidently mrs or miss oliver had good connections mr justice wargrave inquired do you know this part of the world well i have been to cornwall and torquay but this is my first visit to this part of devon the judge said i also am unacquainted with this part of the world the taxi drove off the driver of the second taxi said like to sit inside while you're waiting vera said decisively not at all captain lombard smiled he said that sunny wall looks more attractive unless you'd rather go inside the station no indeed it's so delightful to get out of that stuffy train he answered yes traveling by train is rather trying in this weather vera said conventionally i do hope it lasts the weather i mean our english summers are so treacherous with a slight lack of originality lombard said do you know this part of the world well no i've never been here before she added quickly conscientiously determined to make her position clear at once i haven't even seen my employer yet your employer yes i'm mrs owens secretary oh i see just imperceptibly his manner changed it was slightly more assured easier in turn he said isn't that rather unusual vera laughed oh no i don't think so her own secretary was suddenly taken ill and she wired to an agency for a substitute and they sent me so that was it and suppose you don't like the post when you got there vera laughed again oh it's only temporary a holiday post i've got a permanent job at a girls school as a matter of fact i'm frightfully thrilled at the prospect of seeing soldier island there's been such a lot about it in the papers is it really very fascinating lombard said i don't know i haven't seen it oh really the owens are frightfully keen on it i suppose what do they like do tell me lombard thought awkward this am i supposed to have met them or not he said quickly there's a wasp crawling up your arm no keep quite still he made a convincing pounce there it's gone oh thank you there are a lot of wasps about this summer yes i suppose it's the heat who are we waiting for do you know i haven't the least idea the loud drawn out scream of an approaching train was heard lombard said that will be the train now it was a tall soldierly old man who appeared at the exit from the platform his gray hair was clipped close and he had a neatly trimmed white moustache his porter staggering slightly under the weight of the solid leather suitcase indicated vera and lombard vera came forward in a competent manner she said i am mrs owen secretary there is a car here waiting she added this is mr lombard the faded blue eyes shrewd in spite of their age sized up lombard for a moment a judgment showed in them had there been anyone to read it good looking fellow something just a little bit wrong about him the three of them got into the waiting taxi they drove through the sleepy streets of little oak bridge and continued about a mile on the main plymouth road then they plunged into a maze of cross-country lanes steep green and narrow general macarthur said don't know this part of devon at all my little place is in east devon just on the borderline of dorset vera said it really is lovely here the hills and the red earth and everything so green and luscious looking philip lombard said critically it's a bit shut in i like open country myself where you can see what's coming general macarthur said to him you've seen a bit of the world i fancy lombard shrugged his shoulders disparagingly i've knocked about here and there sir he thought to himself he'll ask me now if i was old enough to be in the war those old boys always do but general macarthur did not mention the war they came up over a steep hill and down a zigzag track to sticklehaven a mere cluster of cottages with a fishing boat or two drawn up on the beach illuminated by the setting sun they had their first glimpse of soldier island jutting up out of the sea to the south vera said surprised it's a long way out she had pictured it differently close to shore crowned with a beautiful white house but there was no house visible only the boldly silhouetted rock with its faint resemblance to a giant head there was something sinister about it she shivered faintly outside the little in the seven stars three people were sitting there was the hunched elderly figure of the judge the upright form of miss brent and a third man a big bluff man who came forward and introduced himself thought we might as well wait for you he said make one trip of it allow me to introduce myself names davis natash south africa is my natal spot he laughed breezily mr justice wargrave looked at him with active malevolence he seemed to be wishing that he could order the court to be cleared miss emily brent was clearly not sure if she liked colonials anyone care for a little nip before we embark asked mr davis hospitably nobody ascending to this proposition mr davis turned and held up a finger thus and delay then our good host and hostess will be expecting us he said he might have noticed that a curious constraint came over the other members of the party it was as though the mention of their host and hostess had a curiously paralyzing effect upon the guests in response to davis beckoning finger a man detached himself from a nearby wall against which he was leaning and came up to them his rolling gate proclaimed him as a man of the sea he had a weather beaten face and dark eyes with a slightly evasive expression he spoke in his soft devon voice will you be ready to be starting for the island ladies and gentlemen the boat's waiting there's two gentlemen coming by car but mr owens orders was not to wait for them as they might arrive at any time the party got up their guide led them along a small stone jetty alongside it a motorboat was lying emily brent said that's a very small boat the boat's owner said persuasively she's a fine boat that mom you could go to plymouth in her as easy as mr justice wargraves said sharply there are a good many of us she'd take double the number sir philip lombard said in his pleasant easy voice it's quite all right glorious weather no swell rather doubtfully miss brent permitted herself to be helped into the boat the others followed suit there was as yet no fraternizing among the party it was as though each member of it was puzzled by the other members they were just about to cast loose when their guide paused boat hook in hand down the steep track into the village a car was coming a car so fantastically powerful so superlatively beautiful that it had all the nature of an apparition at the wheel sat a young man his hair blown back by the wind in the blaze of the evening light he looked not a man but a young god a hero god out of some northern saga he touched the horn and a great roar of sound echoed from the rocks of the bay it was a fantastic moment in it anthony martin seemed to be something more than mortal afterwards more than one of those present remembered that moment fred narracot sat by the engine thinking to himself that this was a queer lot not at all his idea of what mr owens guests were likely to be he'd expected something altogether more classy togged up women and gentlemen in yachting costume and all very rich and important looking not at all like mr elmer robson's parties a faint grin came to fred narracot's lips as he remembered the millionaires guests that had been a party if you like and the drink they'd got through this mr owen must be a very different sort of gentleman funny it was thought fred that he'd never set eyes on owen or his misses either never been down here yet he hadn't everything ordered and paid for by that mr morris instructions always very clear and payment prompt but it was odd all the same the papers said there was some mystery about owen mr narrow god agreed with them perhaps after all it was miss gabriel turl who had bought the island but that theory departed from him as he surveyed his passengers not this lot none of them looked likely to have anything to do with a film star he summed them up dispassionately one old maid the sour kind he knew them well enough she was a tartar he could bed old military gentleman real army look about him nice looking young lady but the ordinary kind not glamorous no hollywood touch about her that bluff cheery gent he wasn't a real gentleman retired tradesman that's what he is thought fred narrowcode the other gentleman the lean hungry looking gentleman with the quick eyes he was a queer one he was just possible he might have something to do with the pictures no there was only one satisfactory passenger in the boat the last gentleman the one who had arrived in the car and what a car a car such as had never been seen in sticklehaven before must have cost hundreds and hundreds of car like that he was the right kind born to money he was if the party had been all like him he'd understand it queer business when he came to think of it the whole thing was queer very queer the boat churned its way around the rock now at last the house came into view the south side of the island was quite different it shelved gently down to the sea the house was there facing south low and square and modern looking with rounded windows letting in all the light an exciting house a house that lived up to expectation fred narracot shut off the engine they nosed their way gently into a little natural inlet between rocks philip lombard said sharply must be difficult to land here in dirty weather fred naragot said cheerfully can't land on soldier island when there's a south east lee sometimes just cut off for a week or more fury claythorne thought the catering must be very difficult that's the worst of an island all the domestic problems are so worrying the boat grated against the rocks fred narracot jumped out and he and lombard helped the others to alight narakot made the boat fast to a ring in the rock then he led the way up steps cut in the cliff general macarthur said oh delightful spot but he felt uneasy damned odd sort of place as the party ascended the steps and came out on a terrace above their spirits revived in the open doorway of the house a correct butler was awaiting them and something about his gravity reassured them and then the house itself was really most attractive the view from the terrace magnificent the butler came forward bowing slightly he was a tall lank man grey-haired and very respectable he said will you come this way please in the wide hall drinks stood ready rows of bottles anthony martin's spirits cheered up a little he'd just been thinking this was a rum kind of show none of his lot what could old badger have been thinking about to let him in for this however the drinks were all right plenty of ice too what was it the butler chap was saying mr owen unfortunately delayed unable to get here till tomorrow instructions everything they wanted if they would like to go to their rooms dinner would be at eight o'clock vera had followed mrs rogers upstairs the woman had thrown open a door at the end of a passage and vera had walked into a delightful bedroom with a big window that opened wide upon the sea and another looking east she uttered a quick exclamation of pleasure mrs rogers was saying i hope you've got everything you want miss vera looked round her luggage had been brought up and had been unpacked at one side of the room a door stood open into a pale blue tile bathroom she said quickly yes everything i think you'll ring the bell if you want anything miss mrs rogers had a flat monotonous voice vera looked at her curiously what a white bloodless ghost of a woman very respectable looking with her hair dragged back from her face in her black dress queer light eyes that shifted the whole time from place to place vera thought she looks frightened of her own shadow yes that was it frightened she looked like a woman who walked in mortal fear a little shiver passed down vera's back what on earth was the woman afraid of she said pleasantly i'm mrs owens new secretary i expect you know that mrs rogers said no miss i don't know anything just a list of the ladies and gentlemen and what rooms they were to have vera said mrs owen didn't mention me mrs roger's eyelashes flickered i haven't seen mrs owen not yet we only came here two days ago extraordinary people these owens thought vera allowed she said what staff is there here just me and rogers miss vera frowned eight people in the house ten with the host and hostess and only one married couple to do for them mrs rogers said i'm a good cook and rogers is handy about the house i didn't know of course that there was to be such a large party fiera said but you can manage oh yes miss i can manage if there's to be large parties often perhaps mrs owen could get extra help in vera said i expect so mrs rogers turned to go her feet move noiselessly over the ground she drifted from the room like a shadow vera went over to the window and sat down on the window seat she was faintly disturbed everything somehow was a little queer the absence of the owens the pale ghost like mrs rogers and the guests yes the guests were queer too an oddly assorted party vera thought i wish i'd seen the owens i wish i knew what they were like she got up and walked restlessly about the room a perfect bedroom decorated throughout in the modern style off-white rugs on the gleaming parquet floor faintly tinted walls a long mirror surrounded by lights a mantelpiece pair of ornaments say for an enormous block of white marble shaped like a bear a piece of modern sculpture in which was inset a clock over it in a gleaming chromium frame was a big square of parchment a poem she stood in front of the fireplace and read it it was the old nursery rhyme that she remembered from her childhood days ten little soldier boys went out to dine one choked his little self and then there were nine nine little soldier boys sat up very late one overslept himself and then there were eight eight little soldier boys traveling in devon one said he'd stay there and then there were seven seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks one chopped himself in halves and then there were six six little soldier boys playing with a hive a bumblebee stung one and then there were five five little soldier boys going in for law one got in chancery and then there were four four little soldier boys going out to sea a red herring swallowed one and then there were three three little soldier boys walking in the zoo a big bear hugged one and then there were two two little soldier boys sitting in the sun one got frizzled up and then there was one one little soldier boy left all alone he went and hanged himself and then there were none vera smiled of course this was soldier island she went and sat again by the window looking out to see how big the sea was from here there was no land to be seen anywhere just a vast expanse of blue water rippling in the evening sun the sea so peaceful today sometimes so cruel the sea that dragged you down to its depths drowned found drowned drowned at sea drowned drowned drowned no she wouldn't remember she would not think of it all that was over dr armstrong came to soldier island just as the sun was sinking into the sea on the way across he had chatted to the boatman a local man he was anxious to find out a little about these people who owned soldier island but the man narracot seemed curiously ill-informed or perhaps unwilling to talk so dr armstrong chatted instead of the weather and of fishing he was tired after his long motor drive his eyeballs ached driving west you were driving against the sun yes he was very tired the sea and perfect peace that was what he needed he would like really to take a long holiday but he couldn't afford to do that he could afford it financially of course but he couldn't afford to drop out he was soon forgotten nowadays now now that he had arrived he must keep his nose to the grindstone he thought all the same this evening i'll imagine to myself that i'm not going back i've done with london and harley street and all the rest of it there was something magical about an island the mere word suggested fantasy you lost touch with the world an island was a world of its own a world perhaps from which you might never return he thought i'm leaving my ordinary life behind me and smiling to himself he began to make plans fantastic plans for the future he was still smiling when he walked up the rock cut steps in a chair on the terrace an old gentleman was sitting and the sight of him was vaguely familiar to dr armstrong where had he seen that frog-like face that tortoise-like neck that hunched up attitude yes and those pale shrewd little eyes of course old wargrave he'd given evidence once before him always looked half asleep that was shrewd as could be when it came to a point of law had great power with a jury it was said he could make their minds up for them any day of the week he got one or two unlikely convictions out of them a hanging judge some people said funny place to meet him here out of the world mr justice wargrave thought to himself armstrong remember him in the witness box very correct and cautious all doctors are damned fools harley street ones are the worst of the lot and his mind dwelt malevolently on a recent interview he had had with a suave personage in that very street aloud he granted drinks are in the hall dr armstrong said i must go and pay my respects to my host and hostess mr justice wargrave closed his eyes again looking decidedly reptilian and said you can't do that dr armstrong was startled why not the judge said no host and hostess very curious state of affairs don't understand this place dr armstrong stared at him for a minute when he thought the old gentleman had actually gone to sleep wargraves said suddenly do you know constance calmington uh no i'm afraid i don't it's of no consequence said the judge very vague woman and practically unreadable handwriting i was just wondering if i'd come to the wrong house dr armstrong shook his head and went on up to the house mr justice wargrave reflected on the subject of constance comington undependable like all women his mind went on to the two women in the house the tight-lipped old maid and the girl he didn't care for the girl cold-blooded young hussy no three women if you counted the rogers woman odd creature she looked scared to death respectable pair and knew their job rogers coming out on the terrace that minute the judge asked him is lady constance carmington expected do you know rogers stared at him no sir not to my knowledge the judge's eyebrows rose but he only grunted he thought soldier island a there's a fly in the ointment anthony marston was in his bath he luxuriated in the steaming water his limbs had felt cramped after his long drive very few thoughts passed through his head anthony was a creature of sensation and of action he thought to himself must go through with it i suppose and thereafter dismissed everything from his mind warm steaming water tired limbs presently a shave a cocktail dinner and after mr bloor was tying his tie he wasn't very good at this sort of thing did he look alright he supposed so nobody had been exactly cordial to him funny the way they all eyed each other as though they knew well it was up to him he didn't mean to bungle his job he glanced up at the framed nursery rhyme over the mantelpiece neat touch having that there he thought remember this island when i was a kid never thought i'd be doing this sort of job in a house here good thing perhaps that one can't foresee the future general macarthur was frowning to himself damn it all the whole thing was juiced odd not at all what he'd been led to expect for two pins he'd make an excuse and get away throw up the whole business but the motorboat had gone back to the mainland he'd have to stay that fellow lombard now he was a queer champ not straight he'd swear the man wasn't straight as the gong sounded philip lombard came out of his room and walked to the head of the stairs he moved like a panther smoothly and noiselessly there was something of the panther about him altogether a beast of prey pleasant to the eye he was smiling to himself a week eh he was going to enjoy that week in her bedroom emily brent dressed in black silk ready for dinner was reading her bible her lips moved as she followed the words the heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made in the net which they hid is their own foot taken the lord is known by the judgment which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands the wicked shall be turned into hell her lips tight closed she shot the bible rising she pinned a can-gone brooch at her neck and went down to dinner chapter three dinner was drawing to a close the food had been good the wine perfect rogers waited well everyone was in better spirits they had begun to talk to each other with more freedom and intimacy mr justice wargrave mellowed by the excellent port was being amusing in a caustic fashion dr armstrong and tony marston were listening to him miss brent chatted to general macarthur they had discovered some mutual friends was asking mr davis intelligent questions about south africa mr davis was quite fluent on the subject lombard listened to the conversation once or twice he looked up quickly and his eyes narrowed now and then his eyes played round the table studying the others anthony marston said suddenly quaint these things aren't they in the center of the round table on a circular glass stand with some little china figures soldiers said tony soldier island i suppose that's the idea vera leaned forward i wonder how many are there 10 yes 10 there are vera cried what fun they're the 10 little soldier boys of the nursery rhyme i suppose in my bedroom the rhyme is framed and hung up over the mantelpiece lombard said in my room too and mine and mine everybody joined in the chorus vera said it's an amusing idea isn't it mr justice wargrave grunted remarkably childish and helped himself to port emily brent looked at vera claythorne vera claythorne looked at miss brent the two women rose in the drawing room the french windows were open onto the terrace and the sound of the sea murmuring against the rocks came up to them emily brent said pleasant sound vera said sharply i hate it miss brent's eyes looked at her in surprise vera flushed she said more composedly i don't think this place would be very agreeable in a storm emily brent agreed i've no doubt the house is shut up in winter she said you'd never get servants to stay here for one thing vera murmured it must be difficult to get servants anyway emily brent said mrs oliver has been lucky to get these two the woman's a good cook vera thought funny how elderly people always get names wrong she said yes i think mrs owen has been very lucky indeed emily brent had brought a small piece of embroidery out of her bag now as she was about to thread her needle she paused she said sharply owen did you say owen yes emily brent said sharply i've never met anyone called owen in my life vera stared but surely she did not finish her sentence the door opened and the men joined them rogers followed them into the room with the coffee tray the judge came and sat down by emily brent armstrong came up to vera tony marston strolled to the open window floor studied with naive surprise a statuette in brass wondering perhaps if its bizarre angularities were really supposed to be the female figure general macarthur stood with his back to the mantelpiece he pulled at his little white moustache that had been a damn good dinner his spirits were rising lombard turned over the pages of punch that lay with other papers on a table by the wall rogers went round with the coffee tray the coffee was good really black and very hot the whole party had dined well they were satisfied with themselves and with life the hands of the clock pointed to 20 minutes past nine there was a silence a comfortable replete silence into that silence came the voice without warning inhuman penetrating ladies and gentlemen silence please everyone was startled they looked round at each other at the walls who was speaking the voice went on a high clear voice you are charged with the following indictments edward george armstrong that you did upon the 14th day of march 1925 caused the death of louisa mary cleese emily caroline brent that upon the 5th of november 1931 you were responsible for the death of beatrice taylor william henry bloor that you brought about the death of james stephen landor on october the 10th 1928 vera elizabeth claythorne that on the 11th day of august 1935 you killed cyril ogilvy hamilton philip lombard that upon a date in february 1932 you were guilty of the death of 21 men members of an east african tribe john gordon macarthur that on the 4th of january 1917 you deliberately sent your wife's lover arthur richmond to his death anthony james marston that upon the 14th day of november last you were guilty of the murder of john and lucy coombs thomas rogers and ethel rogers that on the 6th of may 1929 you brought about the death of jennifer brady lawrence john wargrave that upon the 10th day of june 1930 you were guilty of the murder of edward seton prisoners at the bar have you anything to say in your defense the voice had stopped there was a moment's petrified silence and then a resounding crash rogers had dropped the coffee tray at the same moment from somewhere outside the room there came a scream and the sound of a thud lombard was the first to move he left to the door and flung it open outside lying in a huddled mass was mrs rogers lombard called marston anthony sprang to help him between them they lifted up the woman and carried her into the drawing room dr armstrong came across quickly he helped them to lift her onto the sofa and bent over he said quickly it's nothing she's fainted that's all she'll be around in a minute lombard said to rogers get some brandy rogers his face white his hands shaking moment yes sir and slipped quickly out of the room vera cried out who was that speaking where was he it sounded it sounded general macarthur splattered out what's going on here what kind of a practical joke was that his hand was shaking his shoulders sagged he looked suddenly 10 years older glore was mopping his face with a handkerchief only mr justice wargrave and miss brent seemed comparatively unmoved emily brent sat upright her head held high in both cheeks was a spot of hard color the judge sat in his habitual pose his head sunk down into his neck with one hand he gently scratched his ear only his eyes were active darting round and round the room puzzled alert with intelligence again it was lombard who acted armstrong being busy with the collapsed woman lombard was free once more to take the initiative he said that voice it sounded deserved were in the room very cried who was it who was it it wasn't one of us like the judge lombard's eyes wandered slowly around the room they rested a minute on the open window then he shook his head decisively suddenly his eyes lighted up he moved forward swiftly to where a door near the fireplace led to an adjoining room with a swift gesture he caught the handle and flung the door open he passed through and immediately uttered an exclamation of satisfaction he said ah here we are the others crowded after him only miss brent remained alone sitting erect in her chair inside the second room a table had been brought up close to the wall which joined the drawing room on the table was a gramophone an old-fashioned type with a large trumpet attached the mouth of the trumpet was against the wall and lombard pushing it aside indicated where two or three small holes had been unobtrusively bored through the wall adjusting the gramophone he replaced the needle on the record and immediately they heard again you are charged with the following indictments vera cried turn it off turn it off it's horrible lombard obeyed dr armstrong said with a sigh of relief a disgraceful and heartless practical joke i suppose the small clear voice of mr justice wargrave murmured so you think it's a joke do you the doctor stared at him what else could it be the hand of the judge gently stroked his upper lip he said at the moment i'm not prepared to give an opinion anthony martin broke in he said look here there's one thing you've forgotten who the devil turned the thing on and said it going wargrave murmured yes i think we must inquire into that he led the way back into the drawing room the others followed rogers had just come in with a glass of brandy miss brent was bending over the moaning form of mrs rogers at rightly rogers slipped between the two women allow me madam i'll speak to her ethel ethel it's all right all right here pull yourself together mrs rogers breath came in quick gasps her eyes staring frightened eyes went round and round the ring of faces there was urgency in roger's tone pull yourself together ethel dr armstrong spoke to her soothingly you'll be all right now mrs rogers just a nasty turn she said did i faint sir yes it was the voice that awful voice like a judgment her face turned green again her eyelids flooded dr armstrong said sharply where's that brandy rogers had put it down on a little table someone handed it to the doctor and he bent over the gasping woman with it drink this mrs rogers she drank choking a little and gasping the spirit did her good the color returned to her face she said i'm all right now he just gave me a turn rogers said quickly of course it did it gave me a turn too fair made me drop that tray wicked lies it was i'd like to know he was interrupted it was only a cough a dry little cough but it had the effect of stopping him in full cry he stared at mr justice wargrave and the latter coughed again then he said who put on that record on the gramophone was it you rogers rogers cried i didn't know what it was before god i didn't know what it was sir if i had i'd never done it the judge said dryly that is probably true but i think you'd better explain rogers the butler wiped his face with a handkerchief he said earnestly i was just a bane order sir that's all whose orders mr owens justice wargrave said let me get this quite clear mr owens orders were what exactly rogers said i who's to put a record on the gramophone i'd find the record in the drawer and my wife was to start the gramophone when i'd gone into the drawing room with a coffee tree the judge murmured a very remarkable story rogers cried it's the truth sir i swear to god it's the truth i didn't know what it was not for a moment it had a name on it i thought it was just a piece of music wargrave looked at lombard was their title on it lombard nodded he grinned suddenly showing his white pointed teeth he said quite right sir it was entitled swan song general macarthur broke out suddenly he exclaimed the whole thing is preposterous preposterous slinging accusations about like this something must be done about it this fellow owen whoever he is emily brent interrupted she said sharply that's just it who is he the judge interposed he spoke with the authority that a lifetime in the courts had given him he said that is exactly what we must go into very carefully i should suggest that you get your wife to bed first of all rogers then come back here yes sir dr armstrong said i'll give you a hand rogers leaning on the two men mrs rogers tottered out of the room when they had gone tony martin said dead about you sir but i could do with a drink lombard said i agree tony said i'll go and forage he went out of the room he returned a second or two later found the ball waiting on a tray outside ready to be brought in he set down his burden carefully the next minute or two was spent in dispensing drinks general macarthur had a stiff whiskey and so did the judge everyone felt the need of a stimulant only emily brent demanded and obtained a glass of water dr armstrong re-entered the room she's all right he said i've given her a sedative to take what's that a drink i could do with one several of the men refilled their glasses a moment or two later rogers re-entered the room mr justice wargrave took charge of the proceedings the room became an impromptu court of law the judge said now then rogers we must get to the bottom of this who is this mr owen rogers dead he owns this placer i am aware of that fact what i want you to tell me is what you yourself know about the man rogers shook his head i can't say sir you see i've never seen him there was a faint stare in the room general macarthur said you've never seen him what do you mean we've only been here just under a week sir my wife and i we were engaged by letter through an agency the regina agency in plymouth nodded old established firm he volunteered wargraves said have you got that letter the letter engaging us no sir i didn't keep it go on with your story you were engaged as you say by letter yes sir we were to arrive on a certain day we did everything was in order here plenty of food in stock and everything very nice just needed dustin in that what next nothing sir we got orders by letter again to prepare the rooms for a house party and then yesterday by the afternoon post i got another letter from mr owen it said he and mrs owen were detained and to do the best we could and he gave the instructions about dinner and coffee and putting on the gramophone record the judge said sharply surely you've got that letter yes sir i've got it here he produced it from a pocket the judge took it hmm he said headed rich hotel and tight britain with a quick movement bloor was beside him he said if you'll just let me have a look he twitched it out of the other's hand and ran his eye over it he murmured coronation machine quite new no defects ensign paper the most widely used make you won't get anything out of that might be fingerprints but i doubt it wargraves stared at him with sudden attention anthony martin was standing beside bloor looking over his shoulder he said got some fancy christian names hasn't he ooh like norman owen quite a mouthful the old judge said with a slight start i am obliged to you mr marston you have drawn my attention to a curious and suggestive point he looked round at the others and thrusting his neck forward like an angry tortoise he said i think the time has come for us all to pull our information it would be well i think for everybody to come forward with all the information they have regarding the owner of this house he paused and then went on we are all his guests i think it would be profitable if each one of us were to explain exactly how that came about there was a moment's pause and then emily brent spoke with decision there's something very peculiar about all this she said i received a letter with a signature that was not very easy to read it purported to be from a woman i had met at a certain summer resort two or three years ago i took the name to be either ogden or oliver i am acquainted with the mrs oliver and also with the miss ogden i am quite certain that i have never met or become friendly with anyone of the name of owen mr justice wargrave said you have that letter miss brent yes i will fetch it for you she went away and returned a minute later with the letter the judge read it he said i begin to understand miss claythorne vera explained the circumstances of her secretarial engagement the judge said marston anthony said got a wire from a pal of mine badger barkley surprised me at the time because i had an idea the old horse had gone to norway told me to roll up here again wargrave nodded he said dr armstrong i was called in professionally i see you had no previous acquaintanceship with the family no a colleague of mine was mentioned in the letter the judge said to give verisimilitude and that colleague i presume was momentarily out of touch with you well uh yes lombard who had been staring at bloor said suddenly look here i've just thought of something the judge lifted a hand in a minute but i we will take one thing at a time mr lombard we are at present inquiring into the causes which have resulted in our being assembled here tonight general macarthur pulling at his moustache the general muttered got a letter from this fellow owen mentioned some old pals of mine who would be here hoped i'd excuse informal invitation haven't kept the letter i'm afraid wargrave said mr lombard lombard's brain had been active was he to come out in the open or not he made up his mind same sort of thing he said invitation mention of mutual friends i fell for it all right i've torn up the letter mr justice wargrave turned his attention to mr bloor his forefinger stroked his upper lip and his voice was dangerously polite he said just now we had a somewhat disturbing experience an apparently disembodied voice spoke to us all by name uttering certain precise accusations against us we will deal with those accusations presently at the moment i am interested in a minor point amongst the names recited was that of william henry blauer but as far as we know there is no one named bloor amongst us the name of davies was not mentioned what have you to say about that mr davis bloor said sulkily cat's out of the bag it seems i suppose i'd better admit that my name isn't davis you are william henry bloor that's right i will add something said lombard not only are you here under a false name mr bloor but in addition i've noticed this evening you're a first class liar you claim to have come from natal south africa i know south africa and natal and i'm prepared to swear that you'd never set foot in south africa in your life all eyes were turned on law angry suspicious eyes anthony martin moved a step nearer to him his fists clenched themselves now then you swine he said any explanation floor flung back his head and set his square jaw you gentlemen have got me wrong he said i've got my credentials and you can see them i'm an ex-cid man i run a detective agency in plymouth i was put on this job mr justice wargrave asked by whom this man owen enclosed a handsome money order for expenses and instructed me as to what he wanted done i was to join the house party posing as a guest i was given all your names i was to watch you all any reason given floor said bitterly mrs owens jewels misses oh in my foot i don't believe there's any such person again the forefinger of the judge stroked his lip this time appreciatively your conclusions are i think justified he said norman owen in miss brent's letter though the signature of the surname is a mere scroll the christian names are reasonably clear una nancy in either case you'll notice the same initials ulik norman owen una nancy owen each time that is to say u and owen all by a slight stretch of fancy unknown vera cried but this is fantastic mad the judge nodded gently he said oh yes i've no doubt in my own mind that we have been invited here by a madman probably a dangerous homicidal lunatic chapter four there was a moment silence a silence of dismay and bewilderment then the judge's small clear voice took up the thread once more we will now proceed to the next stage of our inquiry first however i will just add my own credentials to the list he took a letter from his pocket and tossed it onto the table this purports to be from an old friend of mine lady constance culmington i have not seen her for some years she went to the east it is exactly the kind of vague incoherent letter she would write urging me to join her here and referring to her host and hostess in the vaguest of terms the same technique you will observe i only mention it because it agrees with the other evidence from all of which emerges one interesting point whoever it was who enticed us here that person knows or has taken the trouble to find out a good deal about us all he whoever he may be is aware of my friendship for lady constance and is familiar with her epistolary style he knows something about dr armstrong's colleagues and their present whereabouts he knows the nickname of mr marston's friend and the kind of telegrams he sends he knows exactly where miss brent was two years ago for her holiday and the kind of people she met there he knows all about general macarthur's old cronies he paused then he said he knows you see a good deal and out of his knowledge concerning us he has made certain definite accusations immediately a babble broke out general macarthur shouted a pack of damn lies slander vera cried out it's iniquitous her breath came fast wicked rogers said hoarsely a lie a wicked lie we never did neither of us anthony martin growled don't know what the damn fool was getting at the upraised hand of mr justice wargrave calmed the tumhold he said picking his words with care i wish to say this our unknown friend accuses me of the murder of one edward seaton i remember satan perfectly well he came up before me for trial in june of the year 1930 he was charged with the murder of an elderly woman he was very ably defended and made a good impression on the jury in the witness box nevertheless on the evidence he was utterly guilty i summed up accordingly and the jury brought in a verdict of guilty in passing sentence of death i concurred with the verdict an appeal was lodged on the grounds of misdirection the appeal was rejected and the man was duly executed i wish to say before you all that my conscience is perfectly clear on the matter i did my duty and nothing more i passed sentence on a rightly convicted murderer armstrong was remembering now the seton case the verdict had come as a great surprise he had met matthews kc on one of the days of the trial dining at a restaurant matthews had been confident not a doubt of the verdict acquittal practically certain and then afterwards he had heard comments judge was dead against him turned the jury right round and they brought him in guilty quite legal though old wargrave knows his law it was almost as though he had a private down on the fellow all these memories rushed through the doctor's mind before he could consider the wisdom of the question he had asked impulsively did you know satan at all i mean previous to the case the hooded reptilian eyes met his in a clear cold voice the judge said i knew nothing of seton previous to the case armstrong said to himself the fellow's lying i know he's lying vera claythorne spoke in a trembling voice she said i'd like to tell you about that child cyril hamilton i was nursery governors to him he was forbidden to swim out far one day when my attention was distracted he started off i swam after him i couldn't get there in time it was awful but it wasn't my fault at the inquest the coroner exonerated me and his mother she was so kind if even she didn't play me why should why should this awful thing be said it's not fair not fair she broke down weeping bitterly general macarthur patted her shoulder he said wherever my dear of course it's not true fellow's a madman a man gotta be in his bonnet got hold of the wrong end of the stick all round he stood erect squaring his shoulders he barked out best really to leave this sort of thing unanswered however fellaini no truth no truth what everybody said about uh young arthur richmond richmond was one of my officers i sent him on a reconnaissance he was killed natural course of events in wartime wish to say resent very much slur on my wife this woman in the world absolutely sees his wife general macarthur sat down his shaking hand pulled at his moustache the effort to speak had cost him a good deal lombard spoke his eyes were amused he said about those natives marston said what about them philip lombard grinned sorry it's quite true i left him matter of self preservation we were lost in the bush i and a couple of other fellas took what food there was and cleared out general macarthur said sternly you abandoned your men left them to starve lombard said not quite the act of a pakis i'm afraid but self-preservation's a man's first duty and natives don't mind dying you know they don't feel about it as europeans do vera lifted her face from her hands she said staring at him you left them to die lombard answered i left them to die his amused eyes looked into her horrified ones anthony martin said in a slow puzzled voice i've just been thinking john and lucy coombs must have been a couple of kids i ran over near cambridge beastly bad luck mr justice wargraves said acidly for them or for you anthony said well i was thinking for me but of course you're right sir it was damn bad luck on them of course it was a pure accident they rushed out of some cottage or other i had my license suspended for a year beastly nuisance dr armstrong said warmly miss speeding's all wrong all wrong young men like you are a danger to the community anthony shrugged his shoulders he said speeds come to stay english roads are hopeless of course can't get a decent pace on them he looked round vaguely for his glass picked it up off a table and went over to the side table and helped himself to another whiskey and soda he said over his shoulder well anyway it wasn't my fault just an accident the manservant rogers had been moistening his lips and twisting his hands he said now in a low deferential voice if i might just say a word sir lombard said go ahead rogers rogers cleared his throat and passed his tongue once more over his dry lips there was a mention sir of me and mrs rogers and of miss brady there is no word of truth in it sir my wife and i were with miss brady till she died she was always in poor health sir always from the time we came to her there was a storm sir that night the night she was taken bad the telephone was out of order we couldn't get the doctor to her i went for him sir on foot but he got there too late we'd done everything possible for us sir devoted to her we were anyone will tell you the same there was never a word said against us not a word lombard looked thoughtfully at the man's twitching face his dry lips the fright in his eyes he remembered the crash of the falling coffee tray he thought but did not say oh yeah bloor spoke spoke in his hearty bullying official manner he said came into a little something at her death though eh rogers drew himself up he said stiffly miss brady left us a legacy in recognition of our faithful services and why not i'd like to know lombard said what about yourself mr bloor what about me your name is included in the list bloor went purple landor you mean that was the bank robbery london commercial mr justice wargraves stirred he said i remember it didn't come before me but i remember the case landor was convicted on your evidence you were the police officer in charge of the case bloor said i was landor got penal servitude for life and died on dartmoor a year later he was a delicate man bloor said he was a crook it was he you knocked out the night watchman the case was quite clear against him wargrave said slowly you were complimented i think on your able handling of the case bloor said sulkily i got my promotion he added in a thick voice i was only doing my duty lombard laughed a sudden ringing laugh he said what a duty-loving law-abiding lot we all seem to be myself accepted what about you doctor and your little professional mistake illegal operation was it emily brent glanced at him in sharp distaste and drew herself away a little dr armstrong very much master of himself shook his head good humidly i'm at a loss to understand the matter he said the name meant nothing to me when it was spoken what was it please close i really can't remember having a patient of that name or being connected with the death in any way the thing's a complete mystery to me of course it's a long time ago it might possibly be one of my operation cases in hospital they come too late so many of these people then when the patient dies they always consider it's the surgeon's fault he sighed shaking his head he thought drunk that's what i was drunk and i operated nerves all the pieces hand shaking i killed her all right poor devil elderly woman simple job if i'd been sober lucky for me there's loyalty in our profession the sister knew of course but she held her tongue god it gave me a shock pulled me up but who could have known about it after all these years there was a silence in the room everybody was looking covertly or openly at emily brent it was a minute or two before she became aware of the expectation her eyebrows rose on her narrow forehead she said are you waiting for me to say something i have nothing to say the judge said nothing miss brent nothing her lips closed tightly the judge stroked his face he said mildly you reserve your defense miss brent said coldly there is no question of defense i have always acted in accordance with the dictates of my conscience i have nothing with which to reproach myself there was an not one to be unsatisf by public opinion she sat unyielding the judge cleared his throat once or twice then he said our inquiry rests there now rogers who else is there on this island besides ourselves and you and your wife nobody sir nobody at all you're sure of that quite sure sir wargrave said i am not yet clear as to the purpose of our unknown host in getting us to assemble here but in my opinion this person whoever he may be is not sane in the accepted sense of the word he may be dangerous in my opinion it would be well for us to leave this place as soon as possible i suggest that we leave tonight roger said i beg your pardon sir but there's no boat on the island no boat at all no sir how do you communicate with the mainland bret naracot he comes over every morning sir he brings the bread in the milk and the post and takes the oars mr justice wargrave said then in my opinion it would be well if we all left tomorrow morning as soon as narakot's boat arrives there was a chorus of agreement with only one dissentient voice it was anthony martin who disagreed with the majority a bit sporting what he said want to ferret out the mystery before we go whole thing is like a detective story positively thrilling the judge said acidly at my time of life i have no desire for thrills as you call them anthony said with a grin the legal life's narrowing i'm all for crime here's to it he picked up his drink and drank it off at a gulp too quickly perhaps he choked choked badly his face contorted turned purple he gasped for breath then slid down off his chair the glass falling from his hand chapter five it was so sudden and so unexpected that it took everyone's breath away they remained stupidly staring at the crumpled figure on the ground then dr armstrong jumped up and went over him kneeling beside him when he raised his head his eyes were bewildered he said in a low or struck whisper my god he's dead they didn't take it in not at once dead dead that young norse god in the prime of his health and strength struck down all in a moment healthy young men didn't die like that choking over a whiskey and soda no they couldn't take it in dr armstrong was peering into the dead man's face he sniffed at the blue twisted lips then he picked up the glass from which anthony marston had been drinking general macarthur said dead do you mean the fellow just choked and died the physician said you can call it choking if you like he died of asphyxiation right enough he was sniffing now at the glass he dipped a finger into the dregs and very cautiously just touched the finger with the tip of his tongue his expression altered general macarthur said never knew a man could die like that just a choking fit emily brent said in a clear voice in the midst of life we are in death dr armstrong stood up he said brusquely no a man doesn't die of a mere choking fit marston's death wasn't what we call a natural death vera said almost in a whisper was there something in the whiskey armstrong nodded yes can't say exactly everything points to one of the cyanides no distinctive smell of prostic acid probably potassium cyanide it acts pretty well instantaneously the judge said sharply it was in his glass yes the doctor strode to the table where the drinks were he removed the stopper from the whiskey and smelt and tasted it then he tasted the soda water he shook his head they're both all right lombard said you mean he must have put the stuff in his glass himself armstrong nodded with a curiously dissatisfied expression he said seems like it glor said suicide a that's a queer go vera said slowly you'd never think that he would kill himself he was so alive he was oh enjoying himself when he came down the hill in his car this evening he looked he looked oh i can't explain but they knew what she meant anthony marston in the height of his youth and manhood had seemed like a being who was immortal and now crumpled and broken he lay on the floor dr armstrong said is there any possibility other than suicide slowly everyone shook their heads there could be no other explanation the drinks themselves were untampered with they had all seen anthony martin go across and help himself it followed therefore that any cyanide in the drink must have been put there by anthony martin himself and yet why should anthony martin commit suicide bloor said thoughtfully you know doctor it doesn't seem right to me i shouldn't have said mr marston was a suicidal type of gentleman armstrong answered i agree they had left it like that what else was there to say together armstrong and lombard had carried the inert body of anthony martin to his bedroom and had laid him there covered over with a sheet when they came downstairs again the others were standing in a group shivering a little though the night was not cold emily brent said we'd better go to bed it's late it was past 12 o'clock the suggestion was a wise one yet everyone hesitated it was as though they clung to each other's company for reassurance the judge said yes we must get some sleep rogers said i haven't cleared yet in the dining room lombard said curtly do it in the morning armstrong said to him is your wife all right i'll go and see sir he returned a minute or two later sleeping beautiful she is good said the doctor don't disturb her no sir i'll just put things straight in the dining room and make sure everything's locked up right and then i'll turn it he went across the hall into the dining room the others went upstairs a slow unwilling procession if this had been an old house with creaking wood and dark shadows and heavily paneled walls there might have been an eerie feeling but this house was the essence of modernity there were no dark corners no possible sliding panels it was flooded with electric light everything was new and bright and shining there was nothing hidden in this house nothing concealed it had no atmosphere about it somehow that was the most frightening thing of all they exchanged good nights on the upper landing each of them went into his or her own room and each of them automatically almost without conscious thought locked the door in his pleasant softly tinted room mr justice wargrave removed his garments and prepared himself for bed he was thinking about edward seaton he remembered seton very well his fair hair his blue eyes his habit of looking you straight in the face with a pleasant air of straightforwardness that was what had made so good an impression on the jury clewellin for the crown had bungled it a bit he had been over vehement had tried to prove too much matthews on the other hand for the defense had been good his points had told his cross-examinations had been deadly his handling of his client in the witness box had been masterly and seton had come through the ordeal of cross-examination well he had not got excited or over vehement the jury had been impressed it had seemed to matthew's perhaps as though everything had been over by the shouting the judge wound up his watch carefully and placed it by the bed he remembered exactly how he had felt sitting there listening making notes appreciating everything tabulating every scrap of evidence that told against the prisoner he'd enjoyed that case matthew's final speech had been first class clewellin coming after it had failed to remove the good impression that the defending council had made and then had come his own summing up carefully mr justice wargrave removed his false teeth and dropped them into a glass of water the shrunken lips fell in it was a cruel mouth now cruel and predatory hooding his eyes the judge smiled to himself he'd cooked seton's goose all right with a slightly romantic grunt he climbed into bed and turned out the electric light downstairs in the dining room rogers stood puzzled he was staring at the china figures in the center of the table he muttered to himself that's a rum go i could have sworn there were ten of them general macarthur tossed from side to side sleep would not come to him in the darkness he kept seeing arthur richmond's face he'd liked arthur he'd been damned fond of arthur he'd been pleased that leslie liked him too leslie was so capricious lots of good fellows that leslie would turn up her nose out and pronounce dull dull just like that but she hadn't found arthur richmond dull they'd got on well together from the beginning they talked of plays and music and pictures together she teased him made fun of him ragged him and he macarthur had been delighted at the thought that leslie took quite a motherly interest in the boy motherly indeed damn fool not to remember that richmond was 28 to leslie 29 loved leslie he could see her now her heart-shaped face and her dancing deep grey eyes and the brown curling mass of her hair he'd loved leslie and he believed in her absolutely out there in france in the middle of all the hell of it he'd sat thinking of her taken her picture out of the breast pocket of his tunic and then he'd found out it had come about exactly in the way things happened in books the letter in the wrong envelope she'd been writing to them both and she'd put her letter to richmond in the envelope addressed to her husband even now all these years after he could feel the shock of it the pain god it had hurt and the business had been going on sometime the letter made that clear weekends richmond's last leave leslie leslie and arthur god damn the fellow damn his smiling face is brisk yes sir liar and hypocrite stealer of another man's wife it had gathered slowly that cold murderous rage he'd managed to carry on as usual to show nothing he tried to make his manner to richmond just the same had he succeeded he thought so richmond hadn't suspected inequalities of temper were easily accounted for out there where men's nerves were continually snapping under the strain only young armitage had looked at him curiously once or twice quite a young chap but he had perceptions that boy armitage perhaps had guessed when the time came he'd sent richmond deliberately to death only a miracle could have brought him through unhurt that miracle didn't happen yes he'd sent richmond to his death and he wasn't sorry it had been easy enough mistakes were being made all the time officers being sent to death needlessly always confusion panic people might say afterwards old macarthur lost his nerve a bit made some colossal blunders sacrificed some of his best men they couldn't say more but young armitage was different he'd looked at his commanding officer very oddly he'd known perhaps that richmond was being deliberately sent to death after the war was over had armitage talked leslie hadn't known leslie had wept for her lover he supposed but her weeping was over by the time he'd come back to england he'd never told her that he'd found her out they'd gone on together only somehow she hadn't seemed very real anymore and then three or four years later she'd got double pneumonia and died that had been a long time ago 15 years 16 years and he'd left the army and come to live in devon bought the sort of little place he'd always meant to have nice neighbors pleasant part of the world there was a bit of shooting and fishing he'd gone to church on sundays but not the day that the lesson was read about david putting uriah in the forefront of the battle somehow he couldn't face that gave him an uncomfortable feeling everybody had been very friendly at first that is later he'd had an uneasy feeling that people were talking about him behind his back they eyed him differently somehow as though they'd heard something some lying rumor armitage supposing armitage had talked he devoided people after that withdrawn into himself unpleasant to feel that people were discussing you and all so long ago so so purposeless now leslie had faded into the distance and arthur richmond too nothing of what had happened seemed to matter anymore it made life lonely though he'd taken to shunning his old army friends if armitage talked they'd know about it and now this evening a hidden voice had blurred out that old hidden story had he dealt with it all right kept a stiff upper lip betrayed the right amount of feeling indignation disgust but no guilt no discomfort difficult to tell surely nobody could have taken the accusation seriously there had been a pack of other nonsense just as far fetched that charming girl the voice had accused her of drowning a child idiotic some madman throwing crazy accusations about emily brent too actually a niece of old tom brent of the regiment it accused her of murder anyone could see with half an eye that the woman was as pious as could be the kind that was hand in glove with parsons damned curious business the whole thing crazy nothing less ever since they had got here when was that right damn it was only this afternoon seemed a good bit longer than that he thought i wonder when we shall get away again tomorrow of course when the motorboat came from the mainland funny just this minute he didn't want much to get away from the island to go back to the mainland back to his little house back to all the troubles and worries through the open window he could hear the waves breaking on the rocks a little louder now than earlier in the evening wind was getting up too he thought peaceful sound peaceful place he thought best of an island is once you get there you can't go any farther you've come to the end of things he knew suddenly that he didn't want to leave the island vera claythorne lay in bed wide awake staring up at the ceiling the light beside her was on she was frightened of the dark she was thinking hugo hugo why do i feel you're so near to me tonight somewhere quite close where is he really i don't know i never shall know he just went away right away out of my life it was no good trying not to think of hugo he was close to her she had to think of him to remember cornwall the black rocks the smooth yellow sand mrs hamilton's stout good humid cyril whining a little always pulling at her hand i want to swim out to the rock miss claythorn why can't i swim out to the rock looking up meeting hugo's eyes watching her the evenings after cyril was in bed come out for a stroll miss claythorn i think perhaps i will the decorous stroll down to the beach the moonlight the soft atlantic air and then hugo's arms around her i love you i love you you know i love you vera yes she knew or thought she knew i can't ask you to marry me i've not got a penny it's all i can do to keep myself queer you know once for three months i had the chance of being a rich man to look forward to cyril wasn't born until three months after morris died if he'd been a girl if the child had been a girl hugo would have come into everything he'd been disappointed he admitted i hadn't built on it of course but it was a bit of a knock oh well lux luck cyril's a nice kid i'm awfully fond of him and he was fond of him too always ready to play games or amuse his small nephew no rancor in hugo's nature cyril wasn't really strong a puny child no stamina the kind of child perhaps who wouldn't live to grow up and then miss claythorne why can't i swim to the rock irritating whiny repetition it's too far cyril but miss clay thorne vera got up she went to the dressing table and swallowed three aspirins she thought i wish i had some proper sleeping stuff she thought if i were doing away with myself i'd take an overdose of vernal or something like that not cyanide she shuddered as she remembered anthony marston's convulsed purple face as she passed the mantelpiece she looked up at the framed doggerel ten little soldier boys went out to dine one choked his little self and then there were nine she thought to herself it's horrible just like us this evening why had anthony martin wanted to die she didn't want to die she couldn't imagine wanting to die death was for the other people chapter six dr armstrong was dreaming it was very hot in the operating room surely they got the temperature too high the sweat was rolling down his face his hands were clammy difficult to hold the scalpel firmly how beautifully sharp it was easy to do a murder with a knife like that and of course he was doing a murder the woman's body looked different it had been a large unwieldy body this was a spare meager body and the face was hidden who was it that he had to kill he couldn't remember but he must know should he ask sister sister was watching him no he couldn't ask her she was suspicious he could see that but who was it on the operating table they shouldn't have covered up the face like that if he could only see the face ah that was better a young probationer was pulling off the handkerchief emily brent of course it was emily brent that he had to kill how malicious her eyes were her lips were moving what was she saying in the midst of life we are in death she was laughing now no nurse don't put the handkerchief back i've got to see i've got to give the anaesthetic where's the ether i must have brought the ether with me what have you done with the ether sister shatter enough to pap yes that will do quite as well take the handkerchief away nurse of course i knew it all the time it's anthony martin his face is purple and convulsed but he's not dead he's laughing i tell you he's laughing he's shaking the operating table look out man look out nurse steady it steady it with a start dr armstrong woke up it was morning sunlight was pouring into the room and someone was leaning over him shaking him it was rogers rogers with a white face saying doctor doctor dr armstrong woke up completely he sat up in bed he said sharply what is it it's the wife doctor i can't get it to wait my god i can't get it to wake and she don't look right to me dr armstrong was quick and efficient he wrapped himself in his dressing gown and followed rogers he bent over the bed where the woman was lying peacefully on her side he lifted the cold hand raised the eyelid it was some few minutes before he straightened himself and turned from the bed rogers whispered is she she he passed a tongue over dry lips armstrong nodded yes she's gone his eyes rested thoughtfully on the man before him then they went to the table by the bed to the wash stand then back to the sleeping woman rogers said was it was it her heart doctor dr armstrong was a minute or two before replying then he said what was her health like normally roger said she was a bit romantic-y any doctor been attending her recently doctor roger stared not been to a doctor for years neither of us you'd no reason to believe she suffered from heart trouble no doctor i never knew of anything armstrong said did she sleep well now roger's eyes evaded his the man's hands came together and turned and twisted uneasily he muttered she didn't sleep extra well no the doctor said sharply did she take things to make her sleep rogers stared at him surprised take things to make her sleep not that i knew of i'm sure she didn't armstrong went over to the wash stand there were a certain number of bottles on it hair lotion lavender water cascara glycerin of cucumber for the hands a mouthwash toothpaste and some elements rogers helped by pulling out the drawers of the dressing table from there they moved on to the chest of drawers but there was no sign of sleeping drafts or tablets rogers said she didn't have nothing last night sir except what you gave her when the gong sounded for breakfast at nine o'clock it found everyone up and awaiting the summons general macarthur and the judge had been pacing the terrorists outside exchanging desolatory comments on the political situation vera claythorne and philip lombard had been up to the summit of the island behind the house there they had discovered william henry bloor standing staring at the mainland he said no sign of that motorboat yet i've been watching for it vera said smiling devon's sleepy county things are usually late philip lombard was looking the other way out to sea he said abruptly what do you think of the weather glancing up at the sky blue remarked looks all right to me lombard pursed up his mouth into a whistle he said it will come on to blow before the days out law said squally eh from below them came the boom of a gong philip lombard said breakfast well i could do with some as they went down the steep slope laura said to lombard in a ruminating voice you know it beats me why that young fellow wanted to do himself in i've been worrying about it all night vera was a little ahead lombard hung back slightly he said got any alternative theory i'd want some proof motive to begin with well off i should say what emily brent came out of the drawing room window to meet them she said sharply is the boat coming not yet said vera they went into breakfast there was a vast dish of eggs and bacon on the sideboard and tea and coffee rogers held the door open for them to pass in then shut it from the outside emily brent said that man looks ill this morning dr armstrong who was standing by the window cleared his throat he said you must excuse any uh shortcomings this morning rogers has had to do the best he can for breakfast single-handed mrs rogers has uh not been able to carry on this morning emily brent said sharply what's the matter with the woman dr armstrong said easily let us start our breakfast the eggs will be cold afterwards there are several matters i want to discuss with you all they took the hint plates were filled coffee and tea was poured the meal began discussion of the island was by mutual consent to booed they spoke instead in a desolatory fashion of current events the news from abroad events in the world of sport the latest reappearance of the loch ness monster then when plates were cleared dr armstrong moved back his chair a little cleared his throat importantly and spoke he said i thought it better to wait until you'd all had your breakfast before telling you of a sad piece of news mrs rogers died in her sleep there was startled and shocked ejaculations vera exclaimed how awful two deaths on this island since we arrived mr justice wargrave his eyes narrowed said in his small precise clear voice very remarkable what was the cause of death armstrong shrugged his shoulders impossible to say offhand there must be an autopsy i certainly couldn't give a certificate i have no knowledge whatsoever of the woman's state of health vera said she was a very nervous looking creature and she had a shock last night it might have been heart failure i suppose dr armstrong said riley her heart certainly failed to beat but what caused it to fail is the question one word fell from emily brent it fell hard and clear into the listening group conscience she said armstrong turned to her what exactly do you mean by that miss brent emily brent her lips tight and hard said you all heard she was accused together with her husband of having deliberately murdered her former employer an old lady and you think emily brandt said i think that the accusation was true you all saw her last night she broke down completely and fainted the shock of having her wickedness brought home to her was too much for her she literally died of fear dr armstrong shook his head doubtfully it is a possible theory he said one cannot adopt it without more exact knowledge of his state of health if there was cardiac weakness emily brent said quietly call it if you prefer an act of god everyone looks shocked mr bloor said uneasily that's carrying things a bit far miss brent she looked at them with shining eyes her chin went up she said you regard it as impossible that a sinner should be struck down by the wrath of god i do not the judge stroked his chin he murmured in a slightly ironic voice my dear lady in my experience of ill-doing providence leaves the work of conviction and chastisement to us mortals and the process is often fraught with difficulties there are no shortcuts emily brent shrugged her shoulders bloor said sharply what did she have to eat and drink last night after she went up to bed armstrong said nothing she didn't take anything a cup of tea a drink of water i'll bet you she had a cup of tea that sword always does rogers assures me she had nothing whatsoever ah said bloor but he might say so his tone was so significant that the doctor looked at him sharply philip lombard said so that's your idea law said aggressively well why not we all heard that accusation last night maybe sheer moonshine just plain lunacy on the other hand it may not allow for the moment that it's true rogers and his misses polished off that old lady well where does that get you they've been feeling quite safe and happy about it vera interrupted in a low voice she said no i don't think mrs rogers ever felt safe bloor looked slightly annoyed at the interruption just like a woman his glance said he resumed that's as may be anyway there's no active danger to them as far as they know then last night some unknown lunatic spills the beans what happens the woman cracks she goes to pieces notice how her husband hung over as she was coming round not all husbandly solicited not on your life he was like a cat on hot bricks scared out of his life as to what you might say and there's the position for you they've done a murder and got away with it but if the whole thing's gonna be raked up what's gonna happen tender one the woman will give the show away she hasn't got the nerve to stand up and brazen it out she's a living danger to her husband that's what she is he's all right he'll lie with a straight face till kingdom comes but he can't be sure of her if she goes to pieces his neck's in danger so he slip something into a cup of tea and make sure that her mouth is shut permanently armstrong said slowly there was no empty cup by her bedside there was nothing there at all i looked bloor snorted of course there wouldn't be first thing he'd do when she drunk it would be to take that cup and saucer away and wash it up carefully there was a pause then general mcarthur said doubtfully maybe so but i should hardly think it possible that a man would do that to his wife bloor gave a short laugh he said when a man's neck's in danger he doesn't stop to think too much about sentiment there was a pause before anyone could speak the door opened and rogers came in he said looking from one to the other is there anything more i can get you mr justice wargraves stirred a little in his chair he asked what time does the motorboat usually come over between seven and eight sir sometimes it's a bit after eight don't know what fred naracott can be doing this morning if he's ill he'd send his brother philip lombard said what's the time now ten minutes to tensor lombard's eyebrows rose he nodded slowly to himself rogers waited a minute or two general macarthur spoke suddenly and explosively sorry to hear about your wife rogers doctors just been telling us rogers inclined his head yes sir thank you sir he took up the empty bay condition went out again there was a silence on the terrace outside philip lombard said about this motorboat lore looked at him bloor nodded his head he said i know what you're thinking mr lombard i've asked myself the same question motorboat order have been here nion two hours ago it hasn't come why found the answer asked lombard it's not an accident that's what i say it's part and parcel of the whole business it's all bound up together philip lombard said it won't come you think a voice spoke behind them a testy impatient voice the motorboat's not coming it said bloor turned his square shoulder slightly and viewed the last speaker thoughtfully you think not too general general macarthur said sharply of course it won't come we're counting on the motorboat to take us off the island that's the meaning of the whole business we're not going to leave the island none of us will ever leave it's the end you see the end of everything he hesitated then he said in a low strange voice that's peace real peace to come to the end not to have to go on yes peace he turned abruptly and walked away along the terrace then down the slope toward the sea obliquely to the end of the island where loose rocks went out into the water he walked a little unsteadily like a man who was only half awake bloor said there goes another one who's barney looks as though it'll end with a whole lot going that way philip lombard said i don't fancy you will blow the ex inspector laughed it would take a lot to send me off my head he added dryly and i don't think you'll be going that way either mr lombard philip lombard said i feel quite sane at the minute thank you dr armstrong came out onto the terrace he stood there hesitating to his left were bloor and lombard to his right was wargrave slowly pacing up and down his head bent down armstrong after a moment of indecision turned towards the latter but at that moment rogers came quickly out of the house could i have a word with you sir please armstrong turned he was startled at what he saw roger's face was working its color was grayish green his hands shook it was such a contrast to his restraint of a few minutes ago that armstrong was quite taken aback please sir if i could have a word with you inside sir the doctor turned back and re-entered the house with the frenzied butler he said what's the matter man pull yourself together in here sir come in here he opened the dining room door the doctor passed in rogers followed him and shut the door behind him well said armstrong what is it the muscles of roger's throat were working he was swallowing he jerked out there's things going on sir that i don't understand armstrong said sharply things what things you'll think i'm crazy sir you'll say it isn't anything but it's got to be explained so it's got to be explained because it doesn't make any sense well man tell me what it is don't go on talking in riddles rogers swallowed again he said it's those little figures sir in the middle of the table the little china figures 10 of them there were i'll swear to that 10 of them armstrong said yes 10 we counted them last night at dinner rogers came nearer that's just it sir last night when i was clearing up it wasn't but nine sir i noticed it and i thought it queer but that's all i thought now sir this morning i didn't notice when i laid the breakfast i was upset and all that but now sir when i came to clear away see for yourself if you don't believe me there's only eight sir only eight doesn't make sense does it only eight chapter seven after breakfast emily brent had suggested to vera claythorne that they should walk to the summit again and watch for the boat vera had acquiesced the wind had freshened small white crests were appearing on the sea there were no fishing boats out no sign of the motorbike the actual village of sticklehaven could not be seen only the hill above it a jutting out cliff of red rock concealed the actual little bay emily brent said the man who brought us out yesterday seemed a dependable sort of person it is really very odd that he should be so late this morning vera did not answer she was fighting down a rising feeling of panic she said to herself angrily you must keep cool this isn't like you you've always had excellent nerves allowed she said after a minute or two i wish he would come i i want to get away emily brent said dryly i have no doubt we all do vera said it's also extraordinary there seems no no meaning in it all the elderly woman beside her said briskly i'm very annoyed with myself for being so easily taken in really that letter is absurd when one comes to examine it but i had no doubts at the time none mechanically i suppose not one takes things for granted too much said emily brent vera drew a deep shuddering breath she said do you really think what you said breakfast be a little more precise my dear to what in particular are you referring vera said in a low voice do you really think that rogers and his wife did away with that old lady emily brent gazed thoughtfully out to sea then she said personally i am quite sure of it what do you think i don't know what to think emily brent said everything goes to support the idea the way the woman fainted and the man dropped the coffee tray remember then the way he spoke about it it didn't ring true oh yes i'm afraid they did it veera said the way she looked scared of her own shadow i've never seen a woman look so frightened she must have always been haunted by it miss brent murmured i remember a text that hung in my nursery as a child be sure thy sin will find thee out it's very true that be sure thy sin will find thee out vera scrambled to her feet she said that miss brent miss brent in that case yes my dear the others what about the others i don't quite understand you all the other accusations they they weren't true but if it's true about the rogers's she stopped unable to make her chaotic thought clear emily brent's brow which had been frowning perplexedly cleared she said ah i understand you now well there is that mr lombard he admits to having abandoned twenty men to their deaths vera said they were only natives emily brent said sharply black or white they are our brothers vera thought our black brothers are black brothers i'm going to laugh i'm hysterical i'm not myself emily brent continued thoughtfully of course some of the other accusations were very far-fetched and ridiculous against the judge for instance who was only doing his duty in his public capacity and the ex-scotland yard man my own case too she paused and then went on naturally considering the circumstances i was not going to say anything last night it was not a fit subject to discuss before gentlemen no vera listened with interest miss brent continued serenely beatrice taylor was in service with me not a nice girl as i found out too late i was very much deceived in her she had nice manners and was very clean and willing i was very pleased with her of course all that was the sheerest hypocrisy she was a loose girl with no models disgusting it was some time before i found out that she was what they call in trouble she paused her delicate nose wrinkling itself in distaste it was a great shock to me her parents were decent folk too who had brought her up very strictly i'm glad to say they did not condone her behavior vera said staring at miss brent what happened naturally i did not keep her an hour under my roof no one shall ever say that i condoned immorality vera said in a lower voice what happened to her miss brent said the abandoned creature not content with having one sin on her conscience committed a still graver sin she took her own life vera whispered horror struck she killed herself yes she threw herself into the river vera shivered she stared at the calm delicate profile of miss brent she said what did you feel like when you knew she'd done that weren't you sorry didn't you blame yourself emily brent drew herself up i i had nothing with which to reproach myself vera said but if your hardness drove her to it emily brent said sharply her own action her own sin that was what drove her to it if she had behaved like a decent modest young woman none of this would have happened she turned her face to vera there was no self-reproach no uneasiness in those eyes they were hard and self-righteous emily brent sat on the summit of soldier island encased in her own armor of virtue the little elderly spinster was no longer slightly ridiculous to vera suddenly she was terrible dr armstrong came out of the dining room and once more came out on the terrace the judge was sitting in a chair now gazing placidly out to sea lombard and bloor were over to the left smoking but not talking as before the doctor hesitated for a moment his eye rested speculatively on mr justice wargrave he wanted to consult with someone he was conscious of the judge's acute logical brain but nevertheless he wavered mr justice wargrave might have a good brain but he was an elderly man at this juncture armstrong felt what was needed was a man of action he made up his mind lombard can i speak to you for a minute philip started of course the two men left the terrace they strolled down the slope towards the water when they were out of earshot armstrong said i want a consultation lombard's eyebrows went up he said my dear fellow i have no medical knowledge no no i mean as to the general situation oh that's different armstrong said frankly what do you think of the position lombard reflected a minute then he said it's rather suggestive isn't it what are your ideas on the subject of that woman do you accept law's theory smoke into the air he said it's perfectly feasible taken alone exactly armstrong's turn sounded relieved philip lombard was no fool the latter went on that is accepting the premise that mr and mrs rogers have successfully got away with murder in their time and i don't see why they shouldn't what do you think they did exactly poison the old lady armstrong said slowly it might be simpler than that i asked rogers this morning what this miss brady had suffered from his answer was enlightening i don't need to go into medical details but in a certain form of cardiac trouble amyl nitrate is used when an attack comes on an ample of ammo nitrate is broken and it is inhaled if ammonite were withheld well the consequences might easily be fatal philip lombard said thoughtfully as simple as that it must have been rather tempting the doctor nodded yes no positive action no arsenic to obtain and administer nothing definite just negation and rogers hurried through the night to fetch a doctor and they both felt confident that no one could ever know and even if anyone knew nothing could ever be proved against them added philip lombard he frowned suddenly of course that explains a good deal armstrong said puzzled i pick a pardon lombard said i mean it explains soldier island there are crimes that cannot be brought home to their perpetrators instance the rogers is another instance old wargrave who committed his murder strictly within the law armstrong said sharply you believe that story philip lombard smiled oh yes i believe it wargrave murdered edward seaton all right murdered him as surely as if he'd stuck a stiletto through him but he was clever enough to do it from the judge's seat in wigan gown so in the ordinary way you can't bring his little crime home to him a sudden flash passed like lightning through armstrong's mind murder in hospital murder on the operating table safe yes safe as houses philip lombard was saying hence mr owen hence soldier island armstrong drew a deep breath now we're getting down to it what's the real purpose of getting us all here philip lombard said what do you think armstrong said abruptly let's go back a minute to this woman's death one of the possible theories rogers killed her because he was afraid she would give the show away second possibility she lost her nerve and took an easy way out herself philip lombard said suicide eh what do you say to that lombard said it could have been yes if it hadn't been for marston's death two suicides within 12 hours there's a little too much to swallow and if you tell me that anthony martin a young bull with no nerves and precious little brains got the wind up over having mowed down a couple of kids and deliberately put himself out of the way well the idea is laughable and anyway how did he get hold of this stuff from all i've ever heard potassium cyanide isn't the kind of stuff you take about with you in your waste of pocket but that's your line of country armstrong said nobody in their senses carries potassium cyanide it might be done by someone who is going to take a wasps nest the ardent gardener or landowner in fact again not anthony martin it strikes me that that cyanide is going to need a bit of explaining either anthony martin meant to do a wave of himself before he came here and therefore came prepared or else armstrong prompted him or else philip lombard grinned why make me say it when it's on the tip of your own tongue anthony martin was murdered of course dr armstrong drew a deep breath and mrs rogers lombard said slowly i could believe in anthony's suicide with difficulty if it weren't for mrs rogers i could believe in mrs rogers suicide easily if it weren't for anthony martin i can believe that rogers put his wife out of the way if it were not for the unexpected death of anthony martin but what we need is a theory to explain two deaths following rapidly on each other armstrong said i can perhaps give you some help towards that theory and he repeated the facts that rogers had given him about the disappearance of the two little china figures lombard said yes little china figures there were certainly 10 last night at dinner and now there are eight you say dr armstrong recited ten little soldier boys going out to dine one went and choked himself and then there were nine nine little soldier boys sat up very late one overslept himself and then there were eight the two men looked at each other philip lombard grinned and flung away his cigarette fits too damn well to be a coincidence anthony martin dies of asphyxiation or choking last night after dinner and mother rogers oversleeps herself with a vengeance and therefore said armstrong lombard took him up and therefore another kind of soldier the unknown soldier x mr owen u n owen one unknown lunatic at large ah armstrong breathed a sigh of relief you agree but you see what it involves rogers swore that there was no one but ourselves and he and his wife on the island rogers is wrong or possibly rogers is lying armstrong shook his head i don't think he's lying the man's scared he scared nearly out of his senses philip lombard nodded he said no motorboat this morning that fits in mr owens little arrangements again to the fore island is to be isolated until mr owen has finished his job armstrong had gone pale he said you realize the man must be a raving maniac philip lombard said and there was a new ring in his voice there's one thing mr owen didn't realize what's that this island's more or less a bare rock we shall make short work of searching it we'll soon ferret out u.n.o.n esquire dr armstrong said warningly he'll be dangerous philip lombard laughed dangerous who's afraid of the big bad wolf i'll be dangerous when i get hold of him he paused and said we'd better rope in bloor to help us he'll be a good man in a pinch better not tell the women as for the others the generals gaga i think an old war graves four days masterly inactivity the three of us can attend to this job chapter eight floor was easily roped in he expressed immediate agreement with their arguments what you said about those china figures sir makes all the difference that's crazy that is there's only one thing you don't think this owens idea might be to do the job by proxy as it were explain yourself man well i mean like this after the racket last night this young marston gets the wind up and poisons himself and rogers he gets the wind up too and bumps off his wife all according to uno's plan armstrong shook his head he stressed the point about the cyanide glor agreed yes i'd forgotten that not a natural thing to be carrying about with you but how did it get into his drink sir lombard said i've been thinking about that marston had several drinks that night between the time he had his last one and the time he finished the one before it there was quite a gap during that time his glass was lying about on some table or other i think though i can't be sure it was on the little table near the window the window was open somebody could have slipped a dose of the cyanide into the glass bloor said unbelievably without all seeing him sir lombard said dryly we were all rather concerned elsewhere armstrong said slowly that's true we'd all been attacked we were walking about moving about the room arguing indignant intent on our own business i think it could have been done bloor shrugged his shoulders fact is it must have been done now then gentlemen let's make a start nobody's got a revolver by any chance i suppose that's too much to hope for lombard said i've got one he patted his pocket bloor's eyes opened very wide he said in an over casual tone always carry that about with you sir lombard said usually i've been in some tight places you know oh said blow and added well you've probably never been in a tighter place than you are today if there's a lunatic hiding on this island he's probably got a young arsenal on him to say nothing of a knife or dagger or two armstrong coughed you may be wrong there bro many homicidal lunatics are very quiet unassuming people delightful fellows bloor said i don't feel this one is going to be of that kind dr armstrong the three men started on their tour of the island it proved unexpectedly simple on the northwest side towards the coast the cliffs fell sheer to the sea below their surface unbroken on the rest of the island there were no trees and very little cover the three men worked carefully and methodically beating up and down from the highest point to the water's edge narrowly scanning the least irregularity in the rock which might point to the entrance to a cave but there were no caves they came at last skirting the water's edge to where general macarthur sat looking out to sea it was very peaceful here with the lap of the waves breaking over the rocks the old man sat very upright his eyes fixed on the horizon he paid no attention to the approach of the searchers his oblivion of them made one at least faintly uncomfortable thought to himself it is unnatural looks as though he's gone into a trance or something he cleared his throat and said in a would-be conversational tone nice peaceful spot you've found for yourself sir the general frowned he cast a quick look over his shoulder he said there is so little time so little time i really must insist that no one disturbs me bloor said genially we won't disturb you we're just making a tour of the island so to speak just wondered you know if someone might be hiding on it the general frowned and said you don't understand you don't understand at all please go away bloor retreated he said as he joined the other two he's crazy it's no good talking to him lombard asked with some curiosity what did he say bloor shrugged his shoulders something about there being no time and that he didn't want to be disturbed dr armstrong frowned he murmured i wonder now the search of the island was practically completed the three men stood on the highest point looking over towards the mainland there were no boats out the wind was freshening lombard said no fishing boats out there's a storm coming damn new since you can't see the village from here we could signal or do something bloor said we might light a bonfire tonight lombard said frowning the devil of it is that that's all probably been provided for in what way sir how do i know practical joke perhaps we're to be marooned here no attention has to be paid to signals etc possibly the village has been told there's a wager on some damn fool story anyway bloor said dubiously think they'd swallow that lombard said dryly it's easier of belief than the truth if the village were told the island was to be isolated until mr unknown owen had quietly murdered all his guests do you think they believe that dr armstrong said there are moments when i can't believe it myself and yet philip lombard his lips curling back from his teeth said and yet that's just it you've said it doctor blah was getting down into the water he said nobody could have clambered down here i suppose armstrong shook his head i doubt it it's pretty sheer and where could he hide bloor said there might be a hole in the cliff if we had a boat now we could roll round the island lombard said if we had a boat we'd all be halfway to the mainland by now true enough sir lombard said suddenly we can make sure of this cliff there's only one place where there could be a recess just a little to the right below here if you fellows can get hold of a rope you can let me down to make sure bloor said might as well be sure though it seems absurd on the face of it i'll see if i can get hold of something he started off briskly down to the house lombard stared up at the sky the clouds were beginning to mask themselves together the wind was increasing he shot a sideways look at armstrong he said you're very silent doctor what are you thinking armstrong said slowly i was wondering exactly how mad old macarthur was vera had been restless all the morning she had avoided emily brent with a kind of shuddering aversion miss brent herself had taken a chair just around the corner of the house so as to be out of the wind she sat there knitting every time vera thought of her she seemed to see a pale drowned face with seaweed entangled in the hair a face that had once been pretty impudently pretty perhaps and which was now beyond the reach of pity or terror and emily brent placid and righteous sat knitting on the main terrace mr justice wargrave sat huddled in a porter's chair his head was poked down well into his neck when vera looked at him she saw a man standing in the dock a young man with fair hair and blue eyes and a bewildered frightened face edward seaton in imagination she saw the judge's old hands put the black cap on his head and begin to pronounce sentence after a while vera strolled slowly down to the sea she walked along towards the extreme end of the island where an old man sat staring out to the horizon general macarthur stirred at her approach his head turned there was a queer mixture of questioning and apprehension in his look it startled her he stared intently at her for a minute or two she thought to herself how queer it's almost as though he knew he said ah it's you you've come vera sat down beside him she said do you like sitting here looking out to see he nodded his head gently yes he said it's pleasant it's a good place i think to wait to wait said vera sharply what are you waiting for he said gently the end but i think you know that don't you it's true isn't it we're all waiting for the end she said unsteadily what do you mean general macarthur said gravely none of us are going to leave the island that's the plan you know it of course perfectly what perhaps you can't understand is the relief vera said wonderingly the relief he said yes of course you're very young you haven't got to that yet but it does come the blessed relief when you know that you've done with it all that you haven't got to carry the burden any longer you'll feel that too someday vera said hoarsely i don't understand you her fingers worked spasmodically she felt suddenly afraid of this quiet old soldier he said amusingly lucy i loved leslie i loved her very much vera said questioningly was leslie your wife yes my wife i loved her and i was very proud of her she was so pretty and so gay he was silent for a minute or two then he said yes i loved leslie that's why i did it vera said you mean and paused general macarthur nodded his head gently it's not much good denying it now not when we're all going to die i sent richmond to his death i suppose in a way it was murder curious murder and i've always been such a law-abiding man but it didn't seem like that at the time i had no regrets served him damn well right that's what i thought but afterwards in a hard voice vera said well afterwards he shook his head vaguely he looked puzzled and a little distressed i don't know i don't know i was all different you see i don't know if leslie have a guest i don't think so but you see i didn't know about her anymore she'd gone far away where i couldn't reach her then then she died and i was alone dearest said alone alone and the echo of her voice came back to her from the rocks general macarthur said you'll be glad to when the end comes vera gotta she said sharply i don't know what you mean he said i know my child i know you don't you don't understand at all general macarthur looked out to see again he seemed unconscious of her presence behind him he said very gently and softly leslie when bloor returned from the house with a rope coiled over his arm he found armstrong where he had left him staring down into the depths bloor said breathlessly where's mr lombard armstrong said carelessly can't attest some theory or other he'll be back in a minute look here i'm worried i should say we're all worried the doctor waved an impatient hand of course of course i don't mean it that way i'm thinking of old macarthur what about him sir dr armstrong said grimly what we're looking for is a madman what price macarthur bloor said incredulously you mean he's homicidal armstrong said doubtfully i shouldn't have said so not for a minute but of course i'm not a specialist in mental diseases i haven't really had any conversation with him i haven't studied him from that point of view blur said doubtfully gaga yes but i wouldn't have said armstrong cut in with a slight effort as of a man who pulls himself together you're probably right damn it all there must be someone hiding on the island ah here comes lombard they fastened the rope carefully lombard said i'll help myself all i can keep a look out for a sudden strain on the rope after a minute or two while they stood together watching lombard's progress bloor said climbs like a cat doesn't he there was something odd in his voice dr armstrong said i should think he must have done some mountaineering in his time maybe there was a silence and the ex-inspector said funny sort of cove all together do you know what i think what he's a wronger armstrong said doubtfully in what way law grunted then he said i don't know exactly but i wouldn't trust him a yard dr armstrong said i suppose he's led an adventurous life bloor said i bet some of his adventures have had to be kept pretty dark he paused and then went on did you happen to bring a revolver along with you doctor armstrong stared me good lord no why should i law said why did mr lombard armstrong said doubtfully i suppose habit blur snorted a sudden pull came on the rope for some moments they had their hands full presently when the strain relaxed bloor said there are habits and habits mr lombard takes a revolver to out of the way places right enough and a primus and a sleeping bag and a supply of bug powder no doubt but habit wouldn't make him bring the whole outfit down here it's only in books people carry revolvers around as a matter of course dr armstrong shook his head perplexedly they leaned over and watched lombard's progress his search was thorough and they could see it once that it was futile presently he came up over the edge of the cliff he wiped the perspiration from his forehead well he said we're up against it it's the house or nowhere the house was easily searched they went through the few outbuildings first and then turned their attention to the building itself mrs rogers yard measure discovered in the kitchen dresser assisted them but there were no hidden spaces left unaccounted for everything was plain and straightforward a modern structure devoid of concealment they went through the ground floor first as they mounted to the bedroom floor they saw through the landing window rogers carrying out a tray of cocktails to the terrace philip lombard said lightly wonderful animal the good servant carries on with an impassive countenance armstrong said appreciatively rogers is a first-class butler i'll say that for him bloor said his wife was a pretty good cook too at dinner last night they turned into the first bedroom five minutes later they faced each other on the landing no one hiding no possible hiding place bloor said there's a little stair here dr armstrong said it leads up to the servant's room bloor said there must be a place under the roof assistance water tank etc it's the best chance and the only one and it was then as they stood there that they heard the sound from above a soft furtive footfall overhead they all heard it armstrong grasped law's arm lombard held up an admonitory finger quiet listen it came again someone moving softly furtively overhead armstrong whispered he's actually in the bedroom itself the room where mrs roger's body is floor whispered back of course best hiding place he could have chosen nobody likely to go there now then quiet as you can they crept stealthily upstairs on the little landing outside the door of the bedroom they paused again yes someone was in the room there was a faint creek from within bloor whispered now he flung open the door and rushed in the other two close behind him then all three stopped dead rogers was in the room his hands full of garments bloor recovered himself first he said sorry rogers heard someone moving about in here and thought well he stopped rogers said i'm sorry gentlemen i was just moving my things i take it there will be no objection if i take one of the vacant gas chambers on the floor below the smallest room it was to armstrong that he spoke and armstrong replied of course of course get on with it he avoided looking at the sheeted figure lying on the bed rogers said thank you sir he went out of the room with his arm full of belongings and went down the stairs to the floor below armstrong moved over to the bed and lifting the sheet looked down on the peaceful face of the dead woman there was no fear there now just emptiness armstrong said wish i'd got my stuff here i'd like to know what drug it was then he turned to the other two let's get finished i feel it in my bones we're not going to find anything blur was wrestling with the bolts of a low manhole he said that chap moves down quietly a minute or two ago we saw him in the garden none of us heard him come upstairs lombard said i suppose that's why we assumed it must be a stranger moving about up here lord disappeared into a cavernous darkness lombard pulled a torch from his pocket and followed minutes later three men stood on an upper landing and looked at each other they were dirty and festooned with cobwebs and their faces were grim there was no one on the island but their eight selves chapter nine lombard said slowly so we've been wrong wrong all along build up a nightmare of superstition and fantasy all because of the coincidence of two deaths armstrong said gravely and yet you know the argument holds hang it all i'm a doctor i know something about suicides anthony martin wasn't a suicidal type lombard said doubtfully it couldn't i suppose have been an accident floor snorted unconvinced damn queer sort of accident he grunted there was a pause then bloor said about the woman and stopped mrs rogers yes it's possible isn't it that that might have been an accident philip lombard said an accident in what way bloor looked slightly embarrassed his red brick face grew a little deeper in hue he said almost blurting out the words look here doctor you did give her some dope you know armstrong stared at him dope what do you mean last night you said yourself you'd given us something to make a sleep oh that yes a harmless sedative what was it exactly i gave her a mild dose of triangle a perfectly harmless preparation floor grew redder still he said look here not to mince matters you didn't give her an overdose did you dr armstrong said angrily i don't know what you mean law said is possible isn't it that you may have made a mistake these things do happen once in a while armstrong said sharply i did nothing of the sort the suggestion is ridiculous he stopped and added in a cold biting tone or do you suggest that i gave her an overdose on purpose philip lombard said quickly look here you two got to keep our heads then let's start slinging accusations about floor said suddenly i only suggested the doctor had made a mistake dr armstrong smiled with an effort he said showing his teeth in a somewhat mirthless smile doctors can't afford to make mistakes of that kind my friend bloor said deliberately it wouldn't be the first you've made if that gramophone record is to be believed armstrong went white philip lombard said quickly and angrily to blow what's the sense of making yourself offensive we're all in the same boat we've got to pull together what about your own pretty little spot of perjury bloor took a step forward his hands clenched he said in a thick voice perjury be damned that's a foul lie you may try and shut me up mr lombard but there's things i want to know and one of them is about you lombard's eyebrows rose about me yes i want to know why you've brought a revolver down here on a pleasant social visit lombard said you do do you yes i do mr lombard lombard said unexpectedly you know blah you're not nearly such a fool as you look that's as maybe what about that revolver lombard smiled i brought it because i expected to run into a spot of trouble bloor said suspiciously you didn't tell us that last night lombard shook his head you were holding out on us floor persisted in a way yes said lombard well come on out with it lombard said slowly i allowed you all to think that i was asked here in the same way as most of the others that's not quite true as a matter of fact i was approached by a little jew boy morris his name was he offered me a hundred guineas to come down here and keep my eyes open said i'd got a reputation for being a good man in a tight place well the law prompted him patiently lombard said with a grin that's all dr armstrong said but surely he told you more than that oh no he didn't just shut up like a clam i could take it or leave it those were his words i was hard up i took it law looked unconvinced he said why didn't you tell us all this last night my dear man lombard shrugged eloquent shoulders how was i to know that last night wasn't exactly the eventuality i was here to cope with i lay low and told a non-committal story dr armstrong said shrewdly but now you think differently lombard's face changed it darkened and hardened he said yes i believe now that i'm in the same boat as the rest of you that hundred guineas was just mr owens little bit of cheese to get me into the trap along with the rest of you he said slowly for we are in a trap i'll take my oath on that mrs rogers death tony marston's the disappearing soldier boys on the dinner table oh yes mr rowan's hand is plainly seen but where the devil is mr owen himself downstairs the gong peeled the solemn call to lunch rogers was standing by the dining room door as the three men descended the stairs he moved a step or two forward he said in a low anxious voice i hope lunch will be satisfactory there is cold ham and cold tongue and i've boiled some potatoes and there's cheese and biscuits and some tin fruits lombard said sounds alright stalls are holding out then there is plenty of food sir i have a tin variety the larder is very well stocked a necessity that i should say sir on an island where one may be cut off from the mainland for a considerable period lombard nodded rogers murmured as he followed the three men into the dining room it worries me that fred narracott hasn't been over today it's peculiarly unfortunate as you might say yes said lombard peculiarly unfortunate described it very well miss brent came into the room she had just dropped ball of wall and was carefully rewinding the end of it as she took her seat at table she remarked the weather is changing the wind is quite strong and there are white horses on the sea mr justice wargrave came in he walked with a slow measured tread he darted quick looks from under his bushy eyebrows at the other occupants of the dining room he said you have had an active morning [Music] there was a faint malicious pleasure in his voice vera claythorne hurried in she was a little out of breath she said quickly i hope you didn't wait for me am i late emily brent said you're not the last the general isn't here yet they sat around the table rogers addressed miss brent will you begin madam or will you wait vera said general macarthur is sitting right down by the sea i don't expect he would hear the gong there anyway she hesitated he's a little vague today i think rogers said quickly i will go down and inform him lunch is ready dr armstrong jumped up i'll go he said you others start lunch he left the room behind him he heard rogers voice will you take cold tongue or cold ham adam the five people sitting around the table seemed to find conversation difficult outside sudden gusts of wind came up and died away vera shivered a little and said there is a storm coming bloor made a contribution to the discourse he said conversationally there was an old fellow in the train from plymouth yesterday he kept saying a storm was coming wonderful how they know whether these old salts rogers went round the table collecting the meat plates suddenly with the plates held in his hands he stopped he said in an odd scared voice there's somebody running they could all hear it running feet along the terrace in that minute they knew knew without being told as by common accord they all rose to their feet they stood looking towards the door dr armstrong appeared his breath coming fast he said general macarthur dead the word burst from vera explosively armstrong said yes he's dead there was a pause a long pause seven people looked at each other and could find no words to say the storm broke just as the old man's body was born in through the door the others were standing in the hall there was a sudden hiss and roar as the rain came down as bloor and armstrong passed up the stairs with their burden vera claythorne turned suddenly and went into the deserted dining room it was as they had left it the sweet course stood ready on the sideboard untasted vera went up to the table she was there a minute or two later when rogers came softly into the room he started when he saw her then his eyes asked the question he said oh miss i i just came to see in a loud harsh voice that surprised herself vera said you're quite right rogers look for yourself there are only seven general macarthur had been laid on his bed after making a last examination armstrong left the room and came downstairs he found the others assembled in the drawing room miss brent was knitting vera claythorne was standing by the window looking out of the hissing rain floor was sitting squarely in a chair his hands on his knees lombard was walking restlessly up and down at the far end of the room mr justice wargrave was sitting in a grandfather chair his eyes were half closed they opened as the doctor came into the room he said in a clear penetrating voice well doctor armstrong was very pale he said no question of heart failure or anything like that macarthur was hit with a life preserver or some such thing on the back of the head a little murmur went round but the clear voice of the judge was raised once more did you find the actual weapon used no nevertheless you are sure of your facts i am quite sure mr justice wargrave said quietly we know now exactly where we are there was no doubt now who was in charge of the situation this morning wargrave had sat huddled in his chair on the terrace refraining from any overt activity now he assumed command with the ease born of a long habit of authority he definitely presided over the court clearing his throat he once more spoke this morning gentlemen whilst i was sitting on the terrace i was an observer of your activities there could be little doubt of your purpose you were searching the island for an unknown murderer quite right sir said philip lombard the judge went on you had come doubtless to the same conclusion that i had namely that the deaths of anthony marston and mrs rogers were neither accidental nor were they suicides no doubt you also reached a certain conclusion as to the purpose of mr owen in enticing us to this island bloor said hoarsely he's a madman a loony the judge coughed that almost certainly but it hardly affects the issue our main preoccupation is this to save our lives armstrong said in a trembling voice there's no one on the island i tell you no one the judge stroked his jaw he said gently in the sense you mean no i came to that conclusion early this morning i could have told you that your search would be fruitless nevertheless i am strongly of the opinion that mr owen to give him the name he himself has adopted is on the island very much so given the scheme in question which is neither more nor less than the execution of justice upon certain individuals for offenses which the law cannot touch there is only one way in which that scheme could be accomplished mr owen could only come to the island in one way it is perfectly clear mr owen is one of us oh no no no it was vera who burst out almost in a moan the judge turned a keen eye on her he said my dear young lady this is no time for refusing to look facts in the face we are all in grave danger one of us is you and owen and we do not know which of us of the ten people who came to this island three are definitely cleared anthony martin mrs rogers and general macarthur have gone beyond suspicion there are seven of us left of those seven one is if i may so express myself a bogus little soldier boy he paused and looked round do i take it that you all agree armstrong said it's fantastic but i suppose you're right bloor said not a doubt of it and if you ask me either very good idea a quick gesture of mr justice wargraves hand stopped him the judge said quietly we will come to that presently at the moment all i wish to establish is that we are in agreement on the facts emily brent still knitting said your argument seems logical i agree that one of us is possessed by a devil vera murmured i can't believe it i can't wargrave said lombard i agree sir absolutely the judge nodded his head in a satisfied manner he said now let us examine the evidence to begin with is there any reason for suspecting one particular person mr bloor you have i think something to say bloor was breathing hard he said lombard's got a revolver he didn't tell the truth last night he admits it philip lombard smiled scornfully he said i suppose i better explain again he did so telling the story briefly and succinctly said sharply what's to prove it there's nothing to corroborate your story the judge coughed unfortunately he said we are all in that position there is only our own word to go upon he leaned forward you have none of you yet grasped what a very peculiar situation this is to my mind there is only one course of procedure to adopt is there anyone whom we can definitely eliminate from suspicion on the evidence which is in our possession dr armstrong said quickly i am a well-known professional man the mere idea that i can be suspected of again a gesture of the judge's hand arrested a speaker before he finished his speech mr justice wargrave said in his small clear voice i too am a well-known person but my dear sir that proves less than nothing doctors have gone mad before now judges have gone mad so he added looking at bloor of policemen lombard said at any rate i suppose you'll leave the women out of it the judge's eyebrows rose he said in the famous acid terms that council knew so well do i understand you to assert that women are not subject to homicidal mania lombard said irritably of course not but all the same it hardly seems possible he stopped mr justice wargraves still in the same thin sour voice addressed armstrong i take it dr armstrong that a woman would have been physically capable of striking the blow that killed paul mcarthur the doctor said calmly perfectly capable given a suitable instrument such as a rubber truncheon of course it would require no undue exertion of force not at all mr justice wargrave wriggled his tortoise-like neck he said the other two deaths have resulted from the administration of drugs that no one will dispute he's easily encompassed by a person of the smallest physical strength vera cried angrily i think you're mad his eyes turned slowly till they rested on her it was the dispassionate stare of a man well used to weighing humanity in the balance she thought he's just seeing me as a as a specimen and the thought came to her with real surprise he doesn't like me much in a measured tone the judge was saying my dear young lady do try and restrain your feelings i am not accusing you he bowed to miss brent i hope miss brent that you are not offended by my insistence that all of us are equally under suspicion emily brent was knitting she did not look up in a cold voice she said the idea that i should be accused of taking a fellow creature's life not to speak of the lives of three fellow creatures is of course quite absurd to anyone who knows anything of my character but i quite appreciate the fact that we are all strangers to one another and that in those circumstances nobody can be exonerated without the fullest proof there is as i have said a devil amongst us the judge said then we are agreed there can be no elimination on the ground of character or position alone lombard said what about rogers the judge looked at him unblinkingly what about him lombard said well to my mind rogers seems pretty well ruled out mr justice wargrave said indeed and on what grounds lombard said he hasn't got the brains for one thing and for another his wife was one of the victims the judge's heavy eyebrows rose once more he said in my time young man several people have come before me accused of the murders of their wives and have been found guilty oh i agree wife murder is perfectly possible almost natural let's say but not this particular kind i can believe in rogers killing his wife because he was scared of her breaking down and giving him away all because he'd taken a dislike to her or because he wanted to link up with some nice little bit rather less long in the tooth but i can't see him as the lunatic mr owen dealing out crazy justice and starting on his own wife for a crime they both committed mr justice wargrave said you are assuming hearsay to be evidence we do not know that rogers and his wife conspired to murder their employer that may have been a false statement made so that rogers should appear to be in the same position as ourselves mrs rogers terror last night may have been due to the fact that she realized her husband was mentally unhinged lombard said well have it your own way u.n owen is one of us no exceptions allowed we all qualify mr justice wargrave said my point is that there can be no exceptions allowed on the score of character position or probability what we must now examine is the possibility of eliminating one or more persons on the facts to put it simply is there among us one or more persons who could not possibly have administered either cyanide to antonym marston or an overdose of sleeping draft to mrs rogers or who had no opportunity of striking the blow that killed general macarthur bloor's rather heavy face lit up he lent forward now you're talking sir he said that's the stuff let's go into it as regards young marston i don't think there's anything to be done it's already been suggested that someone from outside slipped something into the dregs of his glass before he refilled it for the last time a person actually in the room could have done that even more easily i can't remember if rogers was in the room but any of the rest of us could certainly have done it he paused then went on now take the woman rogers the people who stand out there are her husband and the doctor either of them could have done it as easy as winking armstrong sprang to his feet he was trembling i protest this is absolutely uncalled for i swear that the dose i gave the woman was perfectly dr armstrong the small sour voice was compelling the doctor stopped with a jerk in the middle of his sentence the small cold voice went on your indignation is very natural nevertheless you must admit that the facts have got to be faced either you or rogers could have administered a fatal dose with the greatest ease let us now consider the position of the other people present what chance had i and inspector bloor had miss sprint at miss claythorn had mr lombard of administering poison can any one of us be completely and entirely eliminated he paused i think not vera said angrily i was nowhere near the woman all of you can swear to that mr justice wargrave waited a minute then he said as far as my memory tells me the facts were these will anyone please correct me if i make a misstatement mrs rogers was lifted onto the sofa by anthony marston and mr lombard and dr armstrong went to her he sent rogers for brandy there was then a question raised as to where the voice we had just heard had come from we all went into the next room with the exception of miss brent who remained in this room alone with the unconscious woman a spot of color came into emily brent's cheeks she stopped knitting she said this is outrageous the remorseless small voice went on when we returned to this room you miss brent were bending over the woman on the sofa emily brent said he's common humanity a criminal offence mr justice wargrave said i am only establishing facts rogers then entered the room with the brandy which of course you could quite well have doctored before entering the room the brandy was administered to the woman and shortly afterwards her husband and dr armstrong assisted her up to bed where dr armstrong gave her a sedative bloor said that's what happened absolutely and that lets out the judge mr lombard myself and miss clayton his voice was loud and jubilant mr justice wargrave bringing a cold eye to bear upon him murmured ah about does it we must take into account every possible eventuality floor stared he said i don't get you mr justice wargrave said upstairs in her room mrs rogers is lying in bed the sedative that the doctor has given her begins to take effect she is vaguely sleepy and acquiescent supposing that at that moment there is a tap on the door and someone enters bringing her shall we say a tablet or a draft with the message that the doctor says you're to take this do you imagine for one minute that she would not have swallowed it obediently without thinking twice about it there was a silence bloor shifted his feet and frowned philip lombard said i don't believe in that story for a minute besides none of us left this room for hours afterwards there was marston's death and all the rest of it the judge said someone could have left his or her bedroom later lombard objected but then rogers would have been up there dr armstrong stirred no he said rogers went downstairs to clear up in the dining room and pantry anyone could have gone up to the woman's bedroom then without being seen emily brent said surely doctor the woman would have been fast asleep by then under the influence of the drug you had administered in all likelihood yes but it's not a certainty until you have prescribed for a patient more than once you cannot tell their reaction to different drugs there is sometimes a considerable period before a sedative takes effect it depends on the personal idiosyncrasy of the patient towards that particular drug lombard said of course you would say that doctor suits your book eh again armstrong's face darkened with anger but again that passionless cold little voice stopped the words on his lips no good result can come from recrimination facts are what we have to deal with it is established i think that there is a possibility of such a thing as i've outlined occurring i agree that its probability value is not high though there again it depends on who that person might have been the appearance of miss brent or of miss claythorne on such an errand would have occasioned no surprise in the person's mind i agree that the appearance of myself or of mr bloor or of mr lombard would have been to say the least of it unusual but i still think the visit would have been received without the awakening of any real suspicion bloor said and that gets us where mr justice wargraves stroking his lip and looking quite passionless and inhuman said we have now dealt with the second killing and have established the fact that no one of us can be completely exonerated from suspicion he paused and went on we come now to the death of general macarthur that took place this morning i will ask anyone who considers that he or she has an alibi to state it in so many words i myself will state at once that i have no valid alibi i spent the morning sitting on the terrace and meditating on the singular position in which we all find ourselves i sat on that chair on the terrace for the whole morning until the gong went but there were i should imagine several periods during the morning when i was quite unobserved and during which it would have been possible for me to walk down to the sea kill the general and return to my chair there is only my word for the fact that i never left the terrace in the circumstances that is not enough there must be proof bloor said i was with mr lombard and dr armstrong all the morning they'll bear me dr armstrong said you went to the house for a rope bloor said of course i did went straight there and straight back you know i did armstrong said you were a long time law turned crimson he said what the hell do you mean by that dr armstrong armstrong repeated i only said you were a long time i had to find it didn't i can't lay your hands on a coil of rope all in a minute mr justice wargrave said during inspector bloor's absence were you two gentlemen together armstrong said hotly certainly that is lombard went off for a few minutes i remember where i was lombard said with a smile i wanted to test the possibilities of heliographing to the mainland wanted to find the best spot i was only absent a minute or two armstrong nodded he said that's right not long enough to do a murder i assure you the judge said did either of you two glance at your watches well no philip lombard said i wasn't wearing one the judge said evenly a minute or two is a vague expression he turned his head to the upright figure with the knitting lying on her lap miss brent emily brent said i took a walk with miss claythorn up to the top of the island afterwards i sat on the terrace in the sun the judge said i don't think i noticed you there no i was around the corner of the house to the east it was out of the wind there and you sat there till lunchtime yes mr claythorne vera answered readily and clearly i was with miss brent early this morning after that i wandered about a bit then i went down and talked to general macarthur mr justice wargrave interrupted he said what time was that vera for the first time was vague she said i don't know about now before lunch i think or it might have been less bloor asked was it after we'd spoken to him or before vera said i don't know he he was very queer she shivered in what way was he queer the judge wanted to know vera said in a low voice he said we were all going to die he said he was waiting for the end he he frightened me the judge nodded he said what did you do next i went back to the house then just before lunch i went out again and not behind the house i've been terribly restless all day mr justice wargrave stroked his chin he said there remains rogers though i doubt if his evidence will add anything to our sum of knowledge rogers summoned before the court had very little to tell he'd been busy all the morning about household duties and with the preparation of lunch he had taken cocktails onto the terrace before lunch and had then gone up to remove his things from the attic to another room he had not looked out of the window during the morning and had seen nothing that could have any bearing upon the death of general macarthur he would swear definitely that there had been eight china figures upon the dining table when he laid the table for lunch at the conclusion of roger's evidence there was a pause mr justice wargrave cleared his throat lombard murmured to vera claythorne the summing up will now take place the judge said we have inquired into the circumstances of these three deaths to the best of our ability whilst probability in some cases is against certain people being implicated yet we cannot say definitely that any one person can be considered as clear of all complicity i reiterate my positive belief that of the seven persons assembled in this room one is a dangerous and probably insane criminal there is no evidence before us as to who that person is all we can do at the present juncture is to consider what measures we can take for communicating with the mainland for help and in the event of help being delayed as is only two possible given the state of the weather what measures we must adopt to ensure our safety i would ask you all to consider this carefully and to give me any suggestions that may occur to you in the meantime i warn everybody to be upon his or her guard so far the murderer has had an easy task since his victims have been unsuspicious from now on it is our task to suspect each and every one amongst us forewarned is for forearmed take no risks and be alert to danger that is all philip lombard murmured beneath his breath the court will now adjourn she and philip lombard sat on the windowsill of the living room outside the rain poured down and the wind howled in great shuddering gusts against the windowpanes philip lombard cocked his head slightly on one side before answering then he said you mean do i believe that old wargrave is right when he says it's one of us yes philip lombard said slowly it's difficult to say logically you know he's right and yet vera took the words out of his mouth yet it seems so incredible philip lombard made a grimace the whole thing's incredible but after macarthur's death there's no more doubt as to one thing there's no question now of accidents or suicides it's definitely murder three murders up to date vera shivered she said it's like some awful dream i keep feeling that things like this can't happen he said with understanding i know presently a tap will come on the door and early morning tea will be brought in vera said oh i wish that could happen philip lombard said gravely yes but it won't we're all in the dream and we've got to be pretty much upon our guard from now on vera said lowering her voice if if it is one of them which do you think it is philip lombard grinned suddenly he said i take it you're accepting our two selves well that's all right i know very well that i'm not the murderer and i don't fancy that there's anything insane about you vera you strike me as being one of the sanest and most level-headed girls i've come across i'd stake my reputation on your sanity with a slightly wry smile vera said thank you he said come now miss vera claythorne aren't you going to return the compliment fiera hesitated a minute then said you've admitted you know that you don't hold human life particularly sacred but all the same i can't see you as as the man who dictated that gramophone record lombard said quite right if i were to commit one or more murders it would be solely for what i could get out of them this mass clearance isn't my line of country good then we'll eliminate ourselves and concentrate on our five fellow prisoners which of them is u.n owen well at a gas and with absolutely nothing to go upon i'd plump for wargrave oh vera sounded surprised she thought a minute or two and then said why hard to say exactly but to begin with he's an old man and he's been presiding over courts of law for years that is to say he's played god almighty for a good many months every year that must go to a man's head eventually he gets to see himself as all powerful as holding the power of life and death and it's possible that his brain might snap and he might want to go one step farther and be executioner and judge extraordinary vera said slowly yes i suppose that's possible lombard said who do you plumb for without any hesitation vera answered dr armstrong lombard gave a low whistle the doctor eh you know i should have put him last of all vera shook her head oh no two of the deaths have been poisoned that rather points to a doctor and then you can't get over the fact that the only thing we are absolutely certain mrs rogers had was the sleeping draft that he gave her lombard admitted yes that's true vera persisted if a doctor went mad it would be a long time before anyone suspected and doctors overwork and have a lot of strain philip lombard said yes but i doubted he could have killed macarthur he wouldn't have had time during that brief interval when i left him not that is unless he fairly heard down there and back again and i doubt if he's in good enough training to do that and show no signs of it vera said he didn't do it then he had an opportunity later when when he went down to call the general to lunch philip whistled again very softly he said so you think he did it then pretty cool thing to do vera said impatiently what risk was there he's the only person here with medical knowledge he can swear the body's been dead at least an hour and who's to contradict him philip looked at her thoughtfully you know he said that's a clever idea of yours i wonder who is it mr bloor that's what i want to know who is it roger's face was working his hands were clenched around the polishing leather that he held in his hand ex-inspector bloor said hey my lad that's the question one of us his lordship said which one that's what i want to know who's the fiend in human form that said bloor is what we would all like to know rogers said shrewdly but you've got an idea mr bloor you've got an idea haven't you i may have an idea said bloor slowly but that's a long way from being sure i may be wrong all i can say is that if i'm right the person in question is a very cool customer very cool customer indeed rogers wiped the perspiration from his forehead he said hoarsely it's like a bad dream that's what it is law said looking at him curiously got any ideas yourself rogers the butler shook his head he said hoarsely i don't know i don't know at all and that's what's frightening the life out of me do i have no idea dr armstrong said violently we must get out of here we must we must at all costs mr justice wargrave looked thoughtfully out of the smoking room window he played with the cord of his eyeglasses he said i do not of course profess to be a weather prophet but i should say that it is very unlikely that a boat could reach us even if they knew of our plight in under 24 hours and even then only if the wind drops dr armstrong dropped his head in his hands and groaned he said and in the meantime we may all be murdered in our beds i hope not said mr justice wargrave i intend to take every possible precaution against such a thing happening it flashed across dr armstrong's mind that an old man like the judge was far more tenacious of life than a younger man would be he had often marveled at that fact in his professional career here was he junior to the judge by perhaps 20 years and yet with a vastly inferior sense of self-preservation mr justice wargrave was thinking murdered in our beds these doctors are all the same they think in cliches a thoroughly commonplace mind the doctor said there have been three victims already remember certainly but you must remember that they were unprepared for the attack we are forewarned dr armstrong said bitterly what can we do sooner or later i think said mr justice wargrave that there are several things we can do armstrong said we have no idea even who it can be the judge stroked his chin and murmured oh you know i wouldn't quite say that armstrong stared at him do you mean you know mr justice wargraves said cautiously as regards actual evidence such as is necessary in court i admit that i have none but it appears to me reviewing the whole business that one particular person is sufficiently clearly indicated yes i think so armstrong stared at him he said i don't understand miss brent was upstairs in her bedroom she took up her bible and went to sit by the window she opened it then after a minutes hesitation she set it aside and went over to the dressing table from a drawer in it she took out a small black covered notebook she opened it and began writing a terrible thing has happened general macarthur is dead his cousin married elsie mcpherson there is no doubt but that he was murdered after luncheon the judge made us a most interesting speech he is convinced the murderer is one of us that means that one of us is possessed by a devil i had already suspected that which of us is it they are all asking themselves that i alone know she sat for some time without moving her eyes grew vague and filmy the pencil straggled drunkenly in her fingers in shaking loose capitals she wrote the murderous name is beatrice taylor her eyes closed suddenly with a start she awoke she looked down at the notebook with an angry exclamation she scored through the vague unevenly scrawled characters of the last sentence she said in a low voice did i write that did i i must be going mad the storm increased the wind howled against the side of the house everyone was in the living room they sat listlessly huddled together and surreptitiously they watched each other when rogers brought in the tea tree they all jumped he said shall i draw the curtains i would make it more cheerful like receiving an ascent to this the curtains were drawn and the lamps turned on the room grew more cheerful a little of the shadow lifted surely by tomorrow the storm would be over and someone would come a boat would arrive derek claythorne said will you pour out tea miss brent the elder woman replied no you do it dear that teapot is so heavy and i have lost two skeins of my gray knitting wool so annoying vera moved to the tea table there was a cheerful rattle and clink of china normality returned t bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea philip lombard made a cheery remark bloor responded dr armstrong told a humorous story mr justice wargrave who ordinarily hated t sipped approvingly into this relaxed atmosphere came rogers and rogers was upset he said nervously and at random excuse me sir but does anyone know what's becoming the bathroom curtain lombard's head went up with the jack the bathroom curtain what the devil do you mean rogers it's gone sir clean vanished i was going around drawing all the curtains and the one in the lab bathroom wasn't there any longer mr justice wargrave asked was it there this morning oh yes sir bloor said what kind of curtain was it scarlet oil silk sir it went with the scarlet tiles lombard said and it's gone gone sir they stared at each other bloor said heavily well after all what of it it's mad it sounds everything else anyway it doesn't matter you can't kill anybody with an oil silk cone forget about it rogers said yes sir thank you sir he went out shutting the door behind him inside the room the pawl of fear had fallen anew again surreptitiously they watched each other dinner came was eaten and cleared away a simple meal mostly out of tins afterwards in the living room the strain was almost too great to be born at nine o'clock emily brent rose to her feet she said i'm going to bed vera said i'll go to bed too the two women went up the stairs and lombard and bloor came with them standing at the top of the stairs the two men watched the women go into their respective rooms and shut the doors they heard the sound of two bolts being shot and the turning of two keys law said with a grin no need to tell them to lock their doors lombard said well they're all right for the night at any rate he went down again and the other followed him the four men went to bed an hour later they went up together rogers from the dining room where he was setting the table for breakfast saw them go up he heard them pause on the landing above then the judge's voice spoke i need hardly advise you gentlemen to lock your doors bloor said and what's more put a chair under the handle there are ways of turning locks from the outside lombard murmured my dear blood the trouble with you as you know too much the judge said gravely good night gentlemen may we all meet safely in the morning rogers came out of the dining room and slipped halfway up the stairs he saw four figures passed through four doors and heard the turning of four locks and the shooting of four bolts he nodded his head that's all right he muttered he went back into the dining room yes everything was ready for the morning his eye lingered on the center plaque of looking glass and the seven little china figures the sudden grin transformed his face he murmured i'll see no one plays tricks tonight at any rate crossing the room he locked the door to the pantry then going through the other door to the hall he pulled the door to locked it and slipped the key into his pocket then extinguishing the lights he hurried up the stairs and into his new bedroom there was only one possible hiding place in it the tall wardrobe and he looked into that immediately then locking and bolting the door he prepared for bed he said to himself no more china soldier tricks tonight i've seen to that chapter 11 philip lombard had the habit of waking at daybreak he did so on this particular morning he raised himself on an elbow and listened the wind had somewhat abated but was still blowing he could hear no sound of rain at eight o'clock the wind was blowing more strongly but lombard did not hear it he was asleep again at 9 30 he was sitting on the edge of his bed looking at his watch he put it to his ear then his lips drew back from his teeth in that curious wolf-like smile characteristic of the man he said very softly i think the time has come to do something about this at 25 minutes to 10 he was tapping on the closed door of bloor's room the latter opened it cautiously his hair was tousled and his eyes were still dim with sleep philip lombard said affably sleeping the clock round well says you've got an easy conscience bloor said shortly what's the matter lombard answered anybody called you or brought you any tea do you know what time it is bloor looked over his shoulder at a small traveling clock by his bedside he said 25 to 10 wouldn't have believed i could have slept like that where's rogers philip lombard said it's a case of echo answers where what do you mean ask the others sharply lombard said i mean that rogers is missing he isn't in his room or anywhere else and there's no kettle on and the kitchen fire isn't even lit bloor swore under his breath he said where the devil can he be out on the island somewhere wait till i get some clothes on see if the others know anything philip lombard nodded he moved along the line of closed doors he found armstrong up and nearly dressed mr justice wargrave like bloor had to be roused from sleep viera clayton was dressed emily brent's room was empty the little party moved through the house roger's room as philip lombard had already ascertained was untenanted the bed had been slept in and his razor and sponge and soap were wet lombard said he got apple right vera said in a low voice which you tried to make firm and assured you don't think he's hiding somewhere waiting for us lombard said my dear gal i'm prepared to think anything of anyone my advice is that we keep together until we find him armstrong said he must be out on the island somewhere bloor who had joined them dressed but still unshaved said where's miss brent got to that's another mystery but as they arrived in the hall emily brent came in through the front door she had on a macintosh she said the sea is as high as ever i shouldn't think any boat could put out today bloor said have you been wandering about the island alone miss brent don't you realize that's an exceedingly foolish thing to do emily brent said i assure you mr bloor that i kept an extremely sharp lookout bloor grunted he said seen anything of rogers miss brent's eyebrows rose rogers no i haven't seen him this morning why mr justice wargrave shaved dressed and with his false teeth in position came down the stairs he moved to the open dining room door he said ah laid the table for breakfast i see lombard said he might have done that last night they all moved inside the room looking at the neatly set plates and cutlery at the row of cups on the sideboard at the felt mats placed ready for the coffee iron it was vera who saw it first she caught the judge's arm and the grip of her athletic fingers made the old gentleman wince she cried soldiers look there were only six china figures in the middle of the table they found him shortly afterwards he was in the little wash house across the yard he'd been chopping sticks in preparation for lighting the kitchen fire the small chopper was still in his hand a bigger chopper a heavier fare was leaning against the door the metal of it stained a dull brown it corresponded only too well with the deep wound in the back of roger's head perfectly clear said armstrong the murderer must have crept up behind him swung the chopper once and brought it down on his head as he was bending over bloor was busy on the handle of the chopper and the flower sifter from the kitchen mr justice wargrave asked would it have needed great force doctor armstrong said gravely a woman could have done it if that's what you mean he gave a quick glance around vera claythorne and emily brent had retired to the kitchen the girl could have done it easily she's an athletic type in appearance miss brent who's fragile looking but that type of woman has often a lot of wiry strength and you must remember that anyone who's mentally unhinged has a good deal of unsuspected strength the judge nodded thoughtfully blue rose to his knees with a sigh he said no fingerprints handle was wiped afterwards the sound of laughter was heard they turned sharply vera claythorne was standing in the yard she cried out in a high shrill voice shaken with wild bursts of laughter do they keep bees on this island tell me that where do we go for honey they stared at her uncomprehendingly it was as though the same well-balanced girl had gone mad before their eyes she went on in that high unnatural voice don't stare like that as though you thought i was mad insane enough what i'm asking bees hives bees who don't you understand have you read that idiotic rhyme it's up in all your bedrooms put there for you to study we might have come here straight away if we'd had sense seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks and the next verse i know the whole thing by heart i tell you six little soldier boys playing with a hive and that's why i'm asking do they keep bees on this island isn't it funny isn't it damn funny she began laughing wildly again dr armstrong strode forward he raised his hand and struck her a flat blow on the cheek she gasped hiccuped and swallowed she stood motionless a minute then she said thank you i'm all right now [Music] her voice was once more calm and controlled the voice of the efficient games mistress she turned and went across the yard into the kitchen saying this brent and i are getting you breakfast can you bring some sticks to light the fire the marks of the doctor's hands stood out red on her cheek as she went into the kitchen bloor said well you dealt with that all right doctor armstrong said apologetically had to we can't cope with hysteria on the top of everything else philip lombard said she's not a hysterical type armstrong agreed oh no good healthy sensible girl just the sudden shock it might happen to anybody rogers had chopped a certain amount of firewood before he had been killed they gathered it up and took it into the kitchen vera and emily brent were busy miss brent was raking out the stove vera was cutting the rind off the bacon emily brandt said thank you we'll be as quick as we can say half an hour to three quarters the kettles got the boil ex-inspector bloor said in a low horse voice to philip lombard know what i'm thinking philip lombard said as you're just about to tell me it's not worth the trouble of guessing ex-inspector bloor was an earnest man a light touch was incomprehensible to him he went on heavily there was a case in america old gentleman and his wife both killed with an axe middle of the morning nobody in the house but the daughter and the maid made it was proved couldn't have done it daughter was a respectable middle-aged spinster seemed incredible so incredible that they acquitted her but they never found any other explanation he paused i thought of that when i saw the axe and then when i went into the kitchen and saw her there so neat and calm hadn't turned a hair that girl coming all over hysterical well that's natural sort of thing you'd expect don't you think so philip lombard said laconically it might be law went on but the other so neat and prim wrapped up in that apron mrs rogers apron i suppose saying breakfast will be ready in half an hour or so if you ask me that woman's as mad as a hatter lots of elderly spencers go that way i don't mean go in for homicide on the ground scale but go queer in their heads unfortunately it's taken her this way religious mania i think she's god's instrument something of that kind she sits in her room you know reading her bible philip lombard sighed and said that's hardly proof positive of an unbalanced mentality blah blah went on ploddingly perseveringly and then she went out and her macintosh said she'd been down to look at the sea the other shook his head he said rogers was killed as he was chopping firewood that is to say first thing when he got up brent wouldn't have needed to wander about outside for hours afterwards if you ask me the murderer of rogers would take jolly good care to be rolled up in bed snoring bloor said you're missing the point mr lombard if the woman was innocent she'd be too dead scared to go wandering about by herself she'd only do that if she knew that she had nothing to fear that's to say if she herself is the criminal philip lombard said that's a good point yes i hadn't thought of that he added with a faint grin glad you don't still suspect me bloor said rather shame facedly i did start by thinking of you that revolver and the queer story you told or didn't tell but i realize now that that was really a bit too obvious he paused and said hope you feel the same about me philip said thoughtfully i may be wrong of course but i can't feel that you've got enough imagination for this job all i can say is if you're the criminal you're a damn fine actor and i take my hat off to you he lowered his voice just between ourselves and taking into account that will probably be a couple of stiffs before another day is out you did indulge in that spot of perjury i suppose floor shifted uneasily from one foot to the other he said at last doesn't seem to make much odds now oh well here it goes lander was innocent right enough the gang had got me squared and between us we got him put away for a stretch mind you i wouldn't admit this if there were any witnesses finished lombard with a grin it's just between you and me well i hope you made a tiny bit out of it didn't make what i should have done mean crown to purcell gang i got my propulsion though and lando got penal servitude and died in prison i couldn't know he was gonna die could i demand it blur no that was your bad luck mind his you mean yours too because as a result of it it looks as though your own life is going to be cut unpleasantly short me floor stared at him do you think i'm going to go the way of rogers and the rest of them taught me i'm watching out for myself pretty carefully i can tell you lombard said oh well i'm not a betting man and anyway if you were dead i wouldn't get paid look here mr lombard what do you mean philip lombard showed his teeth he said i mean my dear bloor then in my opinion you haven't got a chance what your lack of imagination is going to make you absolutely a sitting target a criminal of the imagination of you n o n can make rings around you anytime he or she wants to bloor's face went crimson he demanded angrily and what about you philip lombard's face went hard and dangerous he said i've a pretty good imagination of my own i've been in tight places before now and got out of them i think i won't say more than that but i think i'll get out of this one the eggs were in the frying pan vera toasting bread thought to herself why did i make a hysterical fool of myself that was a mistake keep calm my girl keep calm after all she'd always prided herself on her level-headedness miss claythorne was wonderful kept her head started off swimming after cyril at once why think of that now all that was over over cyril had disappeared long before she got near the rock she had felt the current take her sweeping her out to sea she had let herself go with it swimming quietly floating till the boat arrived at last they had praised her courage in her son foie but not hugo hugo had just looked at her god how it hurt even now to think of hugo where was he what was he doing was he engaged married emily brent said sharply the era that toast is burning oh sorry miss brent so it is how stupid of me emily brent lifted out the last egg from the sizzling fat vera putting a fresh piece of bread on the toasting fork said curiously you're wonderfully calm miss friend emily brent said pressing her lips together i was brought up to keep my head and never to make a fuss vera thought mechanically repressed as a child that accounts for a lot she said aren't you afraid she paused and then added or don't you mind dying dying it was as though a sharp little gimlet had run into the solid congealed mess of emily brent's brain dying but she wasn't going to die the others would die yes but not she emily brent this girl didn't understand emily wasn't afraid naturally none of the brents were afraid all her people were service people they faced death unflinchingly they led upright lives just as she emily brent had led an upright life she had never done anything to be ashamed of and so naturally she wasn't going to die the lord is mindful of his own thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrows that flyeth by day it was daylight now there was no terror we shall none of us leave this island who had said that general macarthur of course whose cousin had married elsie macpherson he hadn't seemed to care he had seemed actually to welcome the idea wicked almost impious to feel that way some people thought so little of death that they actually took their own lives beatrice taylor last night she had dreamed of beatrice dreamt that she was outside pressing her face against the window and moaning asking to be let in but emily brent hadn't wanted to let her in because if she did something terrible would happen emily came to herself with a start that girl was looking at her very strangely she said in a brisk voice everything's ready isn't it we'll take the breakfast in breakfast was a curious meal everyone was very polite may i get you some more coffee miss brent miss claythorne a slice of ham another piece of toast six people all outwardly self-possessed and normal and within thoughts that ran round in a circle like squirrels in a cage what next what next who which would it work i wonder it's worth trying if there's time my god if there's time religious mania that's the ticket looking at her though you can hardly believe it suppose i'm wrong it's crazy everything's crazy i'm going crazy wool disappearing red silk curtains it doesn't make sense i can't get the hang of it damn fool he believed every word i said to him it was easy i must be careful though very careful six of those little china figures only six how many will there be by tonight who'll have the last egg marmalade thanks can i cut you some bread six people behaving normally at breakfast chapter 12 the meal was over mr justice wargrave cleared his throat he said in a small authoritative voice it would be advisable i think if we met to discuss the situation shall we say in half an hour's time in the drawing room everyone made a sound suggestive of agreement vera began to pile plates together she said i'll clear away and wash up philip lombard said we'll bring the stuff out to the pantry for you thanks emily brent rising to her feet sat down again she said oh dear the judge said anything the matter miss sprint emily said apologetically i'm sorry i'd like to help miss clayton but i don't know how it is i feel just a little giddy dizzy yeah dr armstrong came towards her quite natural delayed shock i can give you something to know the word burst from her lips like an exploding shell it took everyone back dr armstrong flushed a deep red there was no mistaking the fear and suspicion in her face he said stiffly just as you please ms brent she said i don't wish to take anything anything at all i will just sit here quietly till the giddiness passes off they finished clearing away the breakfast things bloor said i'm a domestic sort of man i'll give you a hand miss claythorn vera said thank you emily brent was left alone sitting in the dining room for a while she heard a faint murmur of voices from the pantry the giddiness was passing she felt drowsy now as though she could easily go to sleep there was a buzzing in her ears or was it a real buzzing in the room she thought it's like a bee a bumble bee presently she saw the bee it was crawling up the window pen era claythorne had talked about bees this morning bees and honey she liked honey honey in the comb and strain it yourself through a muslin bag drip drip drip there was somebody in the room somebody all wet and dripping beatrice taylor come from the river she had only to turn her head and she would see her but she couldn't turn her head if she were to call out but she couldn't call out there was no one else in the house she was all alone she heard footsteps soft dragging footsteps coming up behind her the stumbling footsteps of the drowned girl there was a wet dank smell in her nostrils on the window pane the bee was buzzing buzzing and then she felt the prick the bee sting on the side of her neck in the drawing room they were waiting for emily brent vera claythorne said schleicher fetcher br said quickly just a minute vera sat down again everyone looked inquiringly at bloor he said look here everybody my opinions this we needn't look farther for the author of these deaths than the dining room at this minute i take my oath that woman's the one we're after armstrong said and the motive religious mania what do you say doctor armstrong said it's perfectly possible i have nothing to say against it but of course we have no proof vera said she was very odd in the kitchen when we were getting breakfast her eyes she shivered lombard said you can't judge her by that we're all a bit off our heads by now law said there's another thing she's the only one who wouldn't give an explanation after that gramophone record why because she hadn't any to give vera stirred in her chair she said that's not quite true she told me afterwards wargraves said what did she tell you miss claythorne vera repeated the story of beatrice taylor mr justice wargrave observed a perfectly straightforward story i personally should have no difficulty in accepting it tell me miss claythorne did she appear to be troubled by a sense of guilt or a feeling of remorse for her attitude in the matter none whatever said vera she was completely unmoved bloor said hearts as hard as flints these righteous spencers envy mostly mr justice wargraves said it is now five minutes to eleven i think we should summon miss brent to join our conclave bloor said aren't you going to take any action the judge said i fail to see what action we can take our suspicions are at the moment only suspicions i will however ask dr armstrong to observe miss brent's demeanor very carefully let us now go into the dining room they found emily brent sitting in the chair in which they had left her from behind they saw nothing amiss except that she did not seem to hear their entrance into the room and then they saw her face suffused with blood with blue lips and starting eyes laura said my god she's dead the small quiet voice of mr justice wargrave said one more of us acquitted too late armstrong was bent over the dead woman he sniffed the lips shook his head peered into the eyelids lombard said impatiently how did she die doctor she was all right when we left here armstrong's attention was riveted on a mark on the right side of the neck he said that's the mark of a hypodermic syringe there was a buzzing sound from the window vera cried look a bee a bumblebee remember what i said this morning armstrong said grimly it wasn't that bee that stung her a human hand held the syringe the judge asked what poison was injected armstrong answered at a guess one of the cyanides probably potassium cyanide same as anthony marston she must have died almost immediately by asphyxiation vera cried but that bee it can't be coincidence lombard said grimly oh no it isn't coincidence it's our murderer's touch of local color he's a playful beast likes to stick to his damnable nursery jingle as closely as possible for the first time his voice was uneven almost shrill it was as though even his nerves seasoned by a long career of hazards and dangerous undertakings had given out at last he said violently it's mad absolutely mad we're all mad the judge said calmly we have still i hope our reasoning powers did anyone bring a hypodermic syringe to this house dr armstrong straightening himself said in a voice that was not too well assured yes i did four pairs of eyes fastened on him he braced himself against the deep hostile suspicion of those eyes he said always travel with what most doctors do mr justice wargraves said calmly quite so will you tell us doctor where that syringe is now in the suitcase in my room wargrave said we might perhaps verify the fact the five of them went upstairs a silent procession the contents of the suitcase were turned out on the floor the hypodermic syringe was not there armstrong said violently somebody must have taken it there was silence in the room armstrong stood with his back to the window four pairs of eyes were on him black with suspicion and accusation he looked from wargrave to veera and repeated helplessly weakly i tell you someone must have taken it law was looking at lombard who returned his gaze the judge said there are five of us here in this room one of us is a murderer the position is fraught with grave danger everything must be done in order to safeguard the four of us who are innocent i will now ask you dr armstrong what drugs you have in your possession armstrong replied i have a small medicine case here you can examine it you will find some sleeping stuff trying on sulfonyl tablets a packet of bromide bicarbonate of soda aspirin nothing else i have no cyanide in my possession the judge said i have myself some sleeping tablets sulfonal i think they are i presumed they would be lethal if a sufficiently large dose were given you mr lombard have in your possession of the revolver philip lombard said sharply what if i have only this i propose that the doctor's supply of drugs my own sulfonyl tablets your revolver and anything else of the nature of drugs or firearms should be collected together and placed in a safe place that after this is done we should each of us submit to a search both of our persons and of our effects lombard said i'm damned if i'll give up my revolver wargrave said sharply mr lombard you are a very strongly built and powerful young man but ex-inspector blah is also a man of powerful physique i do not know what the outcome of a struggle between you would be but i can tell you this on broad's side assisting him to the best of our ability will be myself dr armstrong and miss claython you will appreciate therefore that the odds against you if you choose to resist will be somewhat heavy lombard threw his head back his teeth showed in what was almost a smile oh very well then since you've got it all taped out mr justice wargrave nodded his head you are a sensible young man where is this revolver of yours in the door of the table by my bed good i'll fetch it i think it would be desirable if we went with you phillip said with a smile that was still nearer a style suspicious devil aren't you they went along the corridor to lombard's room philip strode across the bed table and jerked open the drawer then he recoiled with an oath the draw of the bed table was empty satisfied asked lombard he had stripped the skin and he and his room had been meticulously searched by the other three men vera clayton was outside in the corridor the search proceeded methodically in turn armstrong the judge and bloor submitted to the same test the four man emerged from bloor's room and approached vera it was the judge who spoke i hope you will understand miss claythorne that we can make no exceptions that revolver must be found you have i presume a bathing dress with you they're annoyed then i will ask you to go into your room and put it on and then come out to us here vera went into her room and shut the door she reappeared in under a minute dressed in a tight-fitting silk rocked bathing dress wargrave nodded approval thank you miss clithon now if you will remain here we will search your room vera waited patiently in the corridor until they emerged then she went in dressed and came out to where they were waiting the judge said we are now assured of one thing there are no lethal weapons or drugs in the possession of any of us five that is one point to the good we will now place the drugs in a safe place there is i think silver chest is there not in the pantry law said that's all very well but who's to have the key you i suppose mr justice wargrave made no reply he went down to the pantry and the others followed him there was a small case there designed for the purpose of holding silver and plate by the judge's directions the various drugs were placed in this and it was locked then still on wargraves instructions the chest was lifted into the plate cupboard and this in turn was locked the judge then gave the key of the chest to philip lombard and the key of the cupboard to blow he said you two are the strongest physically it would be difficult for either of you to get the key from the other it would be impossible for any of us three to do so to break open the cupboard or the plate chest would be a noisy and cumbersome proceeding and one which could hardly be carried out without attention being attracted to what was going on he paused then went on we are still faced by one very grave problem what has become of mr lombard's revolver bloor said seems to me its owner is the most likely person to know that a white dint showed in philip lombard's nostrils he said you damn pig-headed fool i tell you it's been stolen from me wargrave asked when did you see it last last night it was in the draw when i went to bed ready in case anything happened the judge nodded he said it must have been taken this morning during the confusion of searching for rogers or after his dead body was discovered vera said it must be hidden somewhere about the house we must look for it mr justice war graves finger was stroking his chin he said i doubt if our search will result in anything our murderer has had plenty of time to devise a hiding place i do not fancy we shall find that revolver easily blur said forcefully i don't know where the revolver is but i'll bet i know where something is that hypodermic syringe follow me he opened the front door and led the way around the house a little distance away from the dining room window he found the syringe beside it was a smashed china figure a sixth broken soldier boy bloor said in a satisfied voice only place it could be after he killed her he opened the window and threw out the syringe and picked up the china figure from the table and followed on with that there were no prints on the syringe it had been carefully wiped vera said in a determined voice now let us look for the revolver mr justice wargrave said by all means but in doing so let us be careful to keep together remember if we separate the murderer gets his chance they searched the house carefully from attic to sellers but without result the revolver was still missing chapter 13 one of us one of us one of us three words endlessly repeated dinning themselves hour after hour into receptive brains five people five frightened people five people who watched each other who now hardly troubled to hide their state of nervous tension there was little pretence now no formal veneer of conversation they were five enemies linked together by a mutual instinct of self-preservation and all of them suddenly looked less like human beings they were reverting to more bestial types like a weary old tortoise mr justice wargrave sat hunched up his body motionless his eyes keen and alert ex-inspector bloor looked coarser and clumsier and build his walk was that of a slow padding animal his eyes were bloodshot there was a look of mingled ferocity and stupidity about him he was like a beast at bay ready to charge its pursuers philip lombard's senses seemed heightened rather than diminished his ears reacted to the slightest sound his step was lighter and quicker his body was live and graceful and he smiled often his lips curling back from his long white teeth vera clayton was very quiet she sat most of the time huddled in a chair her eyes stared ahead of her into space she looked dazed she was like a bird that has dashed its head against glass that has been picked up by a human hand it crouches there terrified unable to move hoping to save itself by its immobility armstrong was in a pitiable condition of nerves he twitched and his hands shook he lighted cigarette after cigarette and stopped them out almost immediately the forced inaction of their position seemed to gall him more than the others every now and then he broke out into a torrent of nervous speech we we shouldn't just be sitting here doing nothing there must be something surely surely there is something that we can do if we lit a bonfire bloor said heavily in this weather the rain was pouring down again the wind came in fitful gusts the depressing sound of the patterning rain nearly drove the mad by tacit consent they had adopted a plan of campaign they all sat in the big drawing room only one person left the room at a time the other four waited till the fifth return lombard said it's only a question of time the weather will clear then we can do something signal light fires make a raft something armstrong said with a sudden cackle of laughter a question of time time we can't afford time we shall be dead mr justice wargraves said and his small clear voice was heavy with passionate determination not if we are careful we must be very careful the midday meal had been duly eaten but there had been no conventional formality about it all five of them had gone to the kitchen in the ladder they had found a great store of tinned foods they had opened a tin of tongue and two tins of fruit they had eaten standing around the kitchen table then herding close together they had returned to the drawing room to sit there sit watching each other and by now the thoughts that ran through their brains were abnormal feverish diseased it's armstrong i saw him looking at me sideways just then his eyes are mad quite mad perhaps he isn't a doctor at all that's it of course he's a lunatic escaped from some doctor's house pretending to be a doctor it's true should i tell them shall i scream out no it won't do to put him on his guard besides he can seem so sane what time is it only a quarterback three oh god i shall go mad myself yes it's armstrong he's watching me now they won't get me i can take care of myself i've been in tight places before where the hell is that revolver who took it who's got it nobody's got it we know that we were all searched nobody can have it but someone knows where it is you're going mad they're all going mad afraid of death we're all afraid of death i'm afraid of death's ears but that doesn't stop death coming the hearse is at the door sir where did i read that the girl i'll watch the girl yes i'll watch the girl twenty to four only twenty to four perhaps the clock has stopped i don't understand no i don't understand this sort of thing can't happen it is happening why don't we wake up wake up judgment day no not that if only i could think my head something's happening in my head it's going to burst it's going to split this sort of thing can't happen what's the time oh god it's only a quarter to four i must keep my head i must keep my head if only i keep my head it's all perfectly clear or worked out but nobody must suspect it may do the trick it must which one that's the question which one i think yes i rather think yes him when the clock struck five they all jumped vera said does anyone want tea there was a moment's silence bloor said i'd like a cup vera rose she said i'll go and make it you can all stay here mr justice wargrave said gently i think my dear young lady we would all prefer to come and watch you make it virus dead then gave a short rather hysterical laugh she said of course you would five people went into the kitchen tea was made and drunk by vera and bloor the other three had whiskey opening a fresh bottle and using a siphon from a nailed up case the judge murmured with a reptilian smile we must be very careful they went back again to the drawing room although it was summer the room was dark lombard switched on the lights but they did not come on he said of course the engine's not been run today since rogers hasn't been there to see to it he hesitated and said we could go out and get it going i suppose mr justice wargrave said there are packets of candles in the ladder i saw them better use those lombard went out the other four sat watching each other he came back with a box of candles and a pile of sauces five candles were lit and placed about the room the time was a quarter to six at 20 past six vera felt that to sit there longer was unbearable she would go to her room and bathe her aching head and temples in cold water she got up and went towards the door then she remembered and came back and got a candle out of the box she lighted it let a little wax pour into a saucer and stuck the candle firmly to it then she went out of the room shutting the door behind her and leaving the four men inside she went up the stairs and along the passage to her room as she opened her door she suddenly halted and stood stock still her nostrils quivered the sea the smell of the sea it's saint trademic that was it she could not be mistaken of course one smelt the sea on an island anyway but this was different it was the smell there had been on the beach that day with the tide out and the rocks covered with seaweed drying in the sun can i swim out to the island miss claythorn why can't i swim out to the island horrid whiny spoiled little brat if it weren't for him hugo would be rich able to marry the girl he loved hugo surely surely hugo was beside her no waiting for her in the room she made a step forward the draft from the window caught the flame of the candle it flickered and went out in the dark she was suddenly afraid don't be a fool pirate clayton urged herself it's all right the others are downstairs all four of them there's no one in the room there can't be you're imagining things my girl but that smell that smell of the beach at saint trademic that wasn't imagined it was true and there was someone in the room she had heard something surely she had heard something and then as she stood there listening a cold clammy hand touched her throat a wet hand smelling of the sea vera screamed she screamed and screamed screams of the utmost terror wild desperate cries for help she did not hear the sounds from below of a chair being overturned of a door opening of men's feet running up the stairs she was conscious only of supreme terror then restoring her sanity lights flickered in the doorway candles men hurrying into the room what the devil what's happened good god what is it she shuddered took a step forward collapsed on the floor she was only half aware of someone bending over her of someone forcing her head down between her knees then at a sudden exclamation a quick my god look at that her senses returned she opened her eyes and raised her head she saw what it was the men with the candles were looking at a broad ribbon of wet seaweed was hanging down from the ceiling it was that which in the darkness had swayed against her throat it was that which she had taken for a clammy hand a drowned hand come back from the dead to squeeze the life out of her she began to laugh hysterically she said it was seaweed only seaweed and that's what the smell was and then the faintness came over her once more waves upon waves of sickness again someone took a head and forced it between her knees eons of time seemed to pass they were offering her something to drink pressing the glass against her lips she smelled brandy she was just about to gulp the spirit gratefully down when suddenly a warning note like an alarm bell sounded in her brain she sat up pushing the glass away she said sharply where did this come from bloor's voice answered he stared a minute before speaking he said i got it from downstairs vera cried i won't drink it there was a moment silence then lombard laughed he said with appreciation good for you vera you've got your wits about you even if you have been scared half out of your life i'll get a fresh bottle that hasn't been opened he went swiftly out vera said uncertainly i'm all right now i'll have some water armstrong supported her as she struggled to her feet she went over to the basin swaying and clutching at him for support she let the cold tap run and then filled the glass floor said resentfully that brandy's all right armstrong said how do you know bloor said angrily i didn't put anything in it that's what you're getting at i suppose armstrong said i'm not saying you did you might have done or someone might have tampered with a bottle for just this emergency lombard came swiftly back into the room he had a new bottle of brandy in his hands and a corkscrew he thrust the sealed bottle under vera's nose there you are my girl absolutely no deception he peeled off the tin foil and drew the cork lucky there's a good supply of spirits in the house thoughtful of yuen owen vera shudded violently armstrong held the glass while philip poured the brandy into it he said you'd better drink this miss claythorn you've had a nasty shock vera drank a little of the spirit the color came back to her face philip lombard said with a laugh well here's one murder that hasn't gone according to plan vera said almost in a whisper you think that was what was meant lombard nodded expected you to pass out through fright some people would have wouldn't their doctor armstrong did not commit himself he said doubtfully impossible to say young healthy subject no cardiac weakness unlikely on the other hand he picked up the glass of brandy that bloor had he dipped a finger in it tasted it gingerly his expression did not alter he said dubiously hmm tastes all right bloor stepped forward angrily he said if you're saying that i tampered with that i'll knock your ruddy block off vera her wits revived by the brandy made a diversion by saying where's the judge the three men looked at each other that's odd thought he came up with us bloor said so did i what about it doctor you came up the stairs behind me armstrong said i thought he was following me of course he'd be bound to go slower than we did he's an old man they looked at each other again lombard said it's damned odd bloor cried we must look for him he started for the door the others followed him vera last as they went down the stairs armstrong said over his shoulder of course he may have stayed in the living room they crossed the hall armstrong called out loudly wargrave wargrave where are you there was no answer a deadly silence filled the house apart from the gentle patter of the rain then in the entrance to the drawing room door armstrong stopped dead the others crowded up and looked over his shoulder somebody cried out mr justice wargrave was sitting in his high back chair at the end of the room two candles burnt on either side of him but what shocked and startled the onlookers was the fact that he sat there robed in scarlet with a judge's wig upon his head dr armstrong motioned to the others to keep back he himself walked across to the silent staring figure reeling a little as he walked like a drunken man he bent forward peering into the still face then with a swift movement he raised the wig it fell to the floor revealing the high bald forehead with in the very middle a round stained mark from which something had trickled dr armstrong lifted the lifeless hand and felt for the pulse then he turned to the others he said and his voice was expressionless dead far away he's been shot bloor said god the revolver the doctor said still in the same lifeless voice got him through the head instantaneous vera stooped to the wig she said and her voice shook with horror miss brent's missing gray wall bloor said i'm a scarlet curtain that was missing from the bathroom vera whispered so this is what they wanted them for suddenly philip lombard laughed a high unnatural laugh five little soldier boys going in for law one got in chancery and then there were four that's the end of mr bloody justice wargrave no more pronouncing sentence for him no more putting on of the black cap here's the last time he'll ever sit in court no more summing up and sending innocent men to death how edward seaton would laugh if he were here god how he'd laugh his outburst shocked and startled the others vera cried only this morning you said he was the one philip lombard's face changed sobered he said in a low voice i know i did well i was wrong here's one more of us who's been proved innocent too late chapter 14 they had carried mr justice wargrave up to his room and laid him on the bed then they had come down again and had stood in the hall looking at each other bloor said heavily what do we do now lombard said briskly have something to eat we've got to eat you know once again they went into the kitchen again they opened a tin of tongue they ate mechanically almost without tasting vera said i shall never eat tongue again they finished the meal they sat round the kitchen table staring at each other bloor said only four of us now who'll be the next armstrong stared he said almost mechanically we must be very careful and stopped bloor nodded that's what he said and now he's dead armstrong said how did it happen i wonder lombard swore he said damn clever double cross that stuff was planted in this clayton's room and it worked just as it was intended to everyone dashes up there thinking she's being murdered and so in the confusion someone caught the old boy off his guard bloor said why didn't anyone hear the shot lombard shook his head miss clayton was screaming the wind was howling we were running about and calling out no it wouldn't be heard he paused that trick's not going to work again he'll have to try something else next bloor said he probably will there was an unpleasant tone in his voice the two men eyed each other armstrong said four of us and we don't know which bloor said i know vera said i haven't the least out armstrong said slowly i suppose i do know really philip lombard said i think i've got a pretty good idea now again they all looked at each other vera staggered to her feet she said i feel awful i must go to bed i'm deadbeat lombard said might as well no good sitting watching each other bloor said i had no objection the doctor murmured the best thing to do although i doubt if any of us will sleep they moved to the door bloor said i wonder where that revolver is now they went up the stairs the next move was a little like a scene in a farce each one of the four stood with a hand on his or her bedroom door handle then as though at a signal each one stepped into the room and pulled the door shut there were sounds of bolts and locks of the moving of furniture four frightened people were barricaded in until morning philip lombard drew a breath of relief as he turned from adjusting a chair under the door handle he strolled across to the dressing table by the light of the flickering candle he studied his face curiously he said softly to himself yes this business has got you rattled all right his sudden wolf-like smile flashed out he undressed quickly he went over to the bed placing his wristwatch on the table by the bed then he opened the door of the table he stood there staring down at the revolver that was inside it vera claythorne lay in bed the candle still burned beside her and yet she could not summon the courage to put it out she was afraid of the dark she told herself again and again you're all right until morning nothing happened last night nothing will happen tonight nothing can happen you're locked and bolted in no one can come near you and she thought suddenly of course i can stay here stay here locked in food doesn't really matter i can stay here safely till help comes even if it's a day or two days stay here yes but could she stay here hour after hour with no one to speak to with nothing to do but think she'd begin to think of cornwall of hugo of of what she'd said to cyril horrid whiny little boy always pestering her miss clayton why can't i swim out to the rock i can i know i can was it her voice that had answered of course you can cyril really i know that can i go then miss claythorn well you see cyril your mother gets so nervous about you i'll tell you what tomorrow you can swim out to the rock i'll talk to your mother on the beach and distract her attention and then when she looks for you there you'll be standing on the rock waving to her it will be a surprise oh good egg miss claythorn that'll be a lark she'd said it now tomorrow hugo was going to newquay when he came back it would be all over yes but supposing it wasn't supposing it went wrong cyril might be rescued in time and then then he'd say miss clayton said i could well what of it one must take some risk if the worst happened she'd brazen it out how can you tell such a wicked lie cyril of course i never said any such thing they'd believe her all right cyril often told stories he was an untruthful child cyril would know of course but that didn't matter and anyway nothing would go wrong she'd pretend to swim out after him but she'd arrive too late nobody would ever suspect had hugo suspected was that why he had looked at her in that queer far off way had hugo known was that why he had gone off after the inquest so hurriedly he hadn't answered the one letter she had written to him hugo vera turned restlessly in bed no no she mustn't think of hugo it hurt too much that was all over over and done with hugo must be forgotten why this evening had she suddenly felt that hugo was in the room with her she stared up at the ceiling stared at the big black hook in the middle of the room she'd never noticed that hook before the seaweed had hung from that she shivered as she remembered that cold clammy touch on her neck she didn't like that hook on the ceiling it drew your eyes fascinated you a big black hook ex-inspector bloor sat on the side of his bed his small eyes red rimmed and bloodshot were alert in the solid mass of his face he was like a wild boar waiting to charge he felt no inclination to sleep the menace was coming very near now six out of ten for all his sagacity for all his caution and astuteness the old judge had gone the way of the rest floor snorted with a kind of savage satisfaction what was it the old geezer had said we must be very careful self-righteous smuggled hypocrite sitting up in court feeling like god almighty he'd got his all right no more being careful for him and now there were four of them the girl lombard armstrong and himself very soon another of them would go but it wouldn't be william henry bloor he'd see to that all right but the revolver what about the revolver that was a disturbing factor the revolver bloor sat on his bed his brow furrowed his little eyes creased and puckered while he pondered the problem of the revolver in the silence he could hear the clocks strike downstairs midnight he relaxed a little now even went so far as to lie down on his bed but he did not undress he lay there thinking going over the whole business from the beginning methodically painstakingly as he had been want to do in his police officer days it was thoroughness that paid in the candle was burning down looking to see if the matches were within easy reach of his hand he blew it out strangely enough he found the darkness disquieting it was as though a thousand age-old fears woke and struggled for supremacy in his brain faces floated in the air the judge's face crowned with that mockery of grey wool the cold dead face of mrs rogers the convulsed purple face of anthony martin another face pale spectacled with a small straw colored moustache a face that he had seen some time or other but when not on the island no much longer ago than that funny that he couldn't put a name to it silly sort of face really fellow looked a bit of a mug of course he came to him with a real shock lander odd to think he'd completely forgotten what lander looked like only yesterday he'd been trying to recall the fellow's face and hadn't been able to and now here it was every feature clear and distinct as though he had seen it only yesterday lander had had a wife a thin slip of a woman with a worried face they'd been a kid too a girl about fourteen for the first time he wondered what had become of them the revolver what had become of the revolver that was much more important the more he thought about it the more puzzled he was he didn't understand this revolver business somebody in the house had got that revolver downstairs a clock struck one bloor's thoughts were cut short he sat up on the bed suddenly alert for he had heard a sound a very faint sound somewhere outside his bedroom door there was someone moving about in the darkened house the perspiration broke out on his forehead who was it moving secretly and silently along the corridors someone who was up to no good he'd bet that noiselessly in spite of his heavy build he dropped off the bed and with two strides was standing by the door listening but the sound did not come again nevertheless bloor was convinced that he was not mistaken he had heard a footfall just outside his door the hair rose slightly on his scalp he knew fear again someone creeping about stealthily in the night he listened but the sound was not repeated and now a new temptation assailed him he wanted desperately to go out and investigate if he could only see who it was prowling about in the darkness but to open his door would be the action of a fool very likely that was exactly what the other was waiting for he might even have meant law to hear what he had heard counting on him coming out to investigate bloor stood rigid listening he could hear sounds everywhere now cracks rustles mysterious whispers but his dogged realistic brain knew them for what they were the creations of his own heated imagination and then suddenly he heard something that was not imagination footsteps very soft very cautious but plainly audible to a man listening with all his ears as bloor was listening they came softly along the corridor both lombards and armstrong's rooms were further from the stair head than his they passed his door without hesitating or faltering and as they did so bloor made up his mind he meant to see who it was the footsteps had definitely passed his door going to the stairs where was the man going when bloor acted he acted quickly surprisingly so for a man who looked so heavy and slow he tiptoed back to the bed slipped matches into his pocket detached the plug of the electric lamp by his bed and picked it up winding the flecks around it it was a chromium affair with a heavy ebonite base a useful weapon he sprinted noiselessly across the room removed the chair from under the door handle and with precaution unlocked and unbolted the door he stepped out into the corridor there was a faint sound in the hall below floor ran noiselessly in his stockinged feet to the head of the stairs at that moment he realized why it was he had heard all these sounds so clearly the wind had died down completely and the sky must have cleared there was faint moonlight coming in through the landing window and it illuminated the hall below bloor had an instantaneous glimpse of a figure just passing out through the front door in the act of running down the stairs in pursuit he paused once again he had nearly made a fool of himself this was a trap perhaps to lure him out of the house but what the other man didn't realize was that he had made a mistake had delivered himself neatly into bloor's hands for of the three tenented rooms upstairs one must now be empty all that had to be done was to ascertain which law went swiftly back along the corridor he paused first at dr armstrong's door and tapped there was no answer he waited a minute then went on to philip lombard's room here the answer came at once who's there it's bloor i don't think armstrong is in his room wait a minute he went on to the door at the end of the corridor here he tapped again this clayton miss claythorne beerus voice startled answered him who is it what's the matter it's all right miss claythorm wait a minute i'll come back he raced back to lombard's room the door opened as he did so lombard stood there he held a candle in his left hand he had pulled on his trousers over his pajamas his right hand rested in the pocket of his pajama jacket he said sharply what the hell is all this laura explained rapidly lombard's eyes lit up armstrong eh so he's our pigeon he moved along to armstrong's door sorry bloor but i don't take anything on trust he wrapped sharply on the panel armstrong armstrong there was no answer lombard dropped to his knees and peered through the keyhole he inserted his little finger gingerly into the lock he said he's not in the door on the inside law said that means he locked it on the outside and took it with him philip nodded ordinary precaution to take we'll get him bloor this time we'll get him half a second he raced along to vera's room yeah we're hunting armstrong he's out of his room whatever you do don't open your door understand yes i understand if armstrong comes along and says that i've been killed or blows being killed pay no attention see only open your door if both bloor and i speak to you got that vera said yes i'm not a complete fool lombard said god he joined bloor he said and now after him the hunt's up law said we'd better be careful he's got a revolver remember philip lombard racing down the stairs chuckled he said that's where you're wrong he undid the front door remarking latch pushed back so he could get in again easily he went on i've got that revolver he took it half out of his pocket as he spoke found it put back in my draw tonight bloor stopped dead on the doorstep his face changed philip lombard saw it don't be a damned fool i'm not going to shoot you go back and barricade yourself in if you like i'm off after armstrong he started off into the moonlight floor after a minute's hesitation followed him he thought to himself i suppose i'm asking for it after all after all he had tackled criminals armed with revolvers before now whatever else he lacked bloor did not lack courage show him the danger and he would tackle it pluckily he was not afraid of danger in the open only of danger undefined and tinged with the supernatural vera left to await results got up and dressed she glanced over once or twice at the door it was a good solid door it was both bolted and locked and had an oak chair wedged under the handle it could not be broken open by force certainly not by dr armstrong he was not a physically powerful man if she were armstrong intent on murder it was cunning that she would employ not force she amused herself by reflecting on the means he might employ he might as philip had suggested announced that one of the other two men was dead or he might possibly pretend to be mortally wounded himself might drag himself groaning to her door there were other possibilities he might inform her that the house was on fire more he might actually set the house on fire yes that would be a possibility lure the other two men out of the house then having previously laid a trail of petrol he might set light to it and she like an idiot would remain barricaded in her room until it was too late she crossed over to the window not too bad had a pinch one could escape that way it would mean a drop but there was a handy flower bed she sat down and picking up a diary began to write in it in a clear flowing hand one must pass the time suddenly she stiffened to attention she had heard a sound it was she thought a sound like breaking glass and it came from somewhere downstairs she listened hard but the sound was not repeated she heard or thought she heard stealthy sounds of footsteps the creek of stairs the rustle of garments but there was nothing definite and she concluded as bloor had done earlier that such sounds had their origin in her own imagination but presently she heard sounds of a more concrete nature people moving about downstairs the murmur of voices then the very decided sound of someone mounting the stairs doors opening and shutting feet going up to the attic's overhead more noises from there finally the steps came along the passage lombard's voice said vera you all right yes what happened law's voice said will you let us in vera went to the door she removed the chair unlocked the door and slid back the bolt she opened the door the two men were breathing hard their feet and the bottom of their trousers was soaking wet she said again what's happened lombard said armstrong's disappeared very cried what lombard said banished clean off the island law concurred vanished that's the word like some damn conjuring trick vera said impatiently nonsense he's hiding somewhere bloor said no he isn't i tell you there's nowhere to hide on this island it's as bare as your hand there's moonlight outside as clear as day it is and he's not to be found vera said he stumbled back to the house law said we thought of that we searched the house too you must have heard us he's not here i tell you he's gone clean vanished the moose vera said incredulously i don't believe it lombard said it's true my dear he paused and then said there's one other little fact a pain in the dining room window has been smashed and there are only three little soldier boys on the table chapter 15 three people sat eating breakfast in the kitchen outside the sun sean it was a lovely day the storm was a thing of the past and with the change in the weather a change had come in the mood of the prisoners on the island they felt now like people just awakening from a nightmare there was danger yes but it was danger in daylight that paralyzing atmosphere of fear that had wrapped around them like a blanket yesterday while the wind howled outside was gone lombard said we'll try heligraphing today with a mirror from the highest point of the island some bright lad wandering on the cliff will recognize sos when he sees it i hope in the evening we could try a bonfire only there isn't much wood and anyway they might just think it was song and dance and merriment vera said surely someone can read more and then they'll come to take us off long before this evening lombard said the weather's cleared all right but the sea hasn't gone down yet terrific swell on they won't be able to get about nearly island before tomorrow vera cried another night in this place lombard shrugged his shoulders may as well face it 24 hours we'll do it i think if we can last out that we'll be all right bloor cleared his throat he said we'd better come to a clear understanding what's happened to armstrong lombard said well we've got one piece of evidence only three little soldier boys left on the dinner table it looks as though armstrong had got his quietus vera said then why haven't you found his dead body floor said exactly lombard shook his head he said it's damned on no getting over it bloor said doubtfully it might have been thrown into the sea lombard said sharply by whom you me you saw him go out the front door you come along and find me in my room we go out and search together when the devil had eye time to kill him and carry his body around the island bloor said i don't know but i do know one thing lombard said what's that law said the revolver it was your revolver it's in your possession now there's nothing to show that it hasn't been in your possession all along come now blah we were all searched yes you'd hidden it away before that happened afterwards you just took it back again my good blockhead i swear to you that it was put back in my drawer greatest surprise i ever had in my life and i found it there floor said you asked us to believe a thing like that why the devil should armstrong or anyone else for that matter put it back lombard raised his shoulders hopelessly i am the least idea it's just crazy the last thing one would expect there seems no point in it bloor agreed no there isn't you might have thought of a better story rather proof that i'm telling the truth isn't it i don't look at it that way philip said you wouldn't floor said look here mr lombard if you're an honest man as you pretend philip murmured when did i lay claims to being an honest man no indeed i never said that law went on solidly if you're speaking the truth there's only one thing to be done as long as you have that revolver miss claythorn and i are at your mercy the only fair thing is to put that revolver with the other things that are locked up and you and i will hold the two keys still philip lombard lit a cigarette as he puffed smoke he said don't be an ass you won't agree to that no i won't that revolver is mine i need it to defend myself and i'm going to keep it law said in that case we're bound to come to one conclusion that i'm u.n owen think what you damn well please but i'll ask you if that's so why didn't i pot you with a revolver last night i could have about 20 times over law shook his head he said i don't know and that's a fact he must have had some reason vera had taken no part in the discussion she stirred now and said i think you're both behaving like a pair of idiots lombard looked at her what's this vera said you've forgotten the nursery rhyme don't you see there's a clue there she recited in a meaning voice four little soldier boys going out to see a red herring swallowed one and then there were three she went on a red herring that's the vital clue armstrong's not dead he took away the china soldier to make you think he was you may say what you like armstrong's on the island still his disappearance is just a red herring across the track lombard sat down again he said you know you may be right bloor said yes but if so where is he we've searched the place outside and inside vera said scornfully we all searched for the revolver didn't we and couldn't find it but it was somewhere all the time lombard murmured there's a slight difference in size my dear between a man and a revolver vera said i don't care i'm sure i'm right blah murmured rather giving himself away wasn't it actually mentioning a red herring in the verse he could have written it up a bit different vera cried but don't you see he's mad it's all mad the whole thing of going by the rhyme is mad dressing up the judge killing rogers when he was chopping sticks drugging mrs rogers so that she overslept herself arranging for a bumblebee when miss brent died it's like some horrible child playing a game it's all got to fit in bloor said yes you're right he thought a minute at any rate there's no zoo on the island you'll have a bit of trouble getting over that vera cried don't you see we're the zoo last night we were hardly human anymore we're the zoo they spent the morning on the cliffs taking it in turns to flash a mirror at the mainland there were no signs that anyone saw them no answering signals the day was fine with a slight haze below the sea heaved in a gigantic swell there were no boats out they had made another abortive search of the island there was no trace of the missing physician vera looked up at the house from where they were standing she said her breath coming with a slight catch in it one feels safer here out in the open don't let's go back into the house again lombard said not a bad idea we're pretty safe here no one can get at us without our seeing him a long time beforehand vera said we'll stay here bloor said have to pass the night somewhere we'll have to go back to the house then veera shuddered i can't bear it i can't go through another night philip said you'll be safe enough locked in your room vera i suppose so she stretched out her hands murmuring it's lovely to feel the sun again she thought how odd i'm almost happy and yet i suppose i'm actually in danger somehow now nothing seems to matter not in daylight i feel full of power i feel that i can't die bloor was looking at his wristwatch he said it's two o'clock what about lunch vera said obstinately i'm not going back to the house i'm going to stay here in the open oh come now miss claythorne got to keep your strength up you know vera said if i even see a tin tongue i shall be sick i don't want any food people go days on end with nothing sometimes when they're on a diet blur said well i need my meals regular what about you mr lombard philip said you know i don't relish the idea of tin tongue particularly i'll stay here with miss clayton bloor hesitated vera said i should be quite all right i don't think he'll shoot me as soon as your back is turned if that's what you're afraid of law said it's all right if you say so but we agreed we ought not to separate philip said you're the one who wants to go into the lion's den i'll come with you if you like no you won't said bloor you'll stay here philip laughed so you're still afraid of me well i could shoot you both this very minute if i like blow said yes but that wouldn't be according to plan it's one at a time and it's got to be done in a certain way well said philip you seem to know all about it of course said floor it's a bit jumpy going up to the house alone phillip said softly and therefore will i lend you my revolver answer no i will not not quite so simple as that thank you bloor shrugged his shoulders and began to make his way up the steep slope to the house lombard said softly feeding time at the zoo the animals are very regular in their habits vera said anxiously isn't it very risky what he's doing in the sense you mean no i don't think it is armstrong's not armed you know and anyway bloor is twice a match for him in physique and he's very much on his guard and anyway it's a sheer impossibility that armstrong can be in the house i know he's not there but what other solution is there phillip said softly there's blood oh do you really think listen my girl you heard bloor's story you've got to admit that if it's true i can't possibly have had anything to do with armstrong's disappearance his story clears me but it doesn't clear him we've only his word for it that he heard footsteps and saw a man going downstairs and out at the front door the whole thing may be a lie he may have got rid of armstrong a couple of hours before that how lombard shrugged his shoulders that we don't know but if you ask me with only one danger to fear and that danger is blah what do we know about the man less than nothing all this ex policeman story may be bunkum he may be anybody a mad millionaire a crazy businessman and escaped inmate of broadmoor one thing's certain he could have done every one of these crimes vera had gone rather white she said in a slightly breathless voice and supposing he gets us lombard said softly patting the revolver in his pocket i'm going to take very good care he doesn't then he looked at her curiously touching faith in me haven't you vera quite sure i wouldn't shoot you vera said one has got to trust someone as a matter of fact i think you're wrong about law i still think it's armstrong she turned to him suddenly don't you feel all the time that there's someone someone watching and waiting lombard said slowly that's just nerves vera said eagerly then you have felt it she shivered she bent a little closer tell me you don't think she broke off went on i read a story once about two judges that came to a small american town from the supreme court they administered justice absolute justice because they didn't come from this world at all lombard raised his eyebrows he said heavenly visitance eh now i don't believe in the supernatural this business is human enough vera said in a low voice sometimes i'm not sure lombard looked at her he said that conscience after a moment's silence he said very quietly so you did drown that kid after all veera said vehemently i didn't i didn't you've no right to say that he laughed easily oh yes you did my good girl i don't know why can't imagine there was a man in it probably was that it a sudden feeling of latitude of intense weariness spread over vera's limbs she said in a dull voice yes there was a man in it lombard said softly thanks that's what i wanted to know vera sat up suddenly she exclaimed what was that it wasn't an earthquake lombard said no no queer though a thud shook the ground and i thought did you hear a sort of cry i do they stared up at the house lombard said it came from there we'd better go up and see no no i'm not going please yourself i am vera said desperately all right i'll come with you they walked up the slope to the house the terrace was peaceful and innocuous looking in the sunshine they hesitated there a minute then instead of entering by the front door they made a cautious circuit of the house they found bloor he was spread eagled on the stone terrace on the east side his head crushed and mangled by a great block of white marble philip looked up he said who's is that window just above vera said in a low shuddering voice it's mine and that's the clock from my mantlepiece i remember now it was shaped like a bear she repeated and her voice shook and quavered it was shaped like a bear philip grasped her shoulder he said and his voice was urgent and grim this settles it armstrong is hiding somewhere in that house i'm going to get him but vera clung to him she cried don't be a fool it's us now we're next he wants us to look for him he's counting on it philip stopped he said thoughtfully there's something in that vera cried at any rate you do admit now i was right he nodded yes you win it's armstrong all right but where the devil did he hide himself we went over the place with a fine tooth comb vera said urgently if you didn't find him last night you won't find him now that's common sense lombard said reluctantly yes but he must have prepared a secret place beforehand naturally of course it's just what he would do you know like a priest's hole in old manor houses this isn't an old house of that kind he could have had one mate philip lombard shook his head he said we measured the place that first morning i'll swear there's no space unaccounted for vera said there must be lombard said i'd like to see vera cried yes you'd like to see and he knows that he's in there waiting for you lombard said half bringing out the revolver from his pocket i've got this you know you said law was all right that he was more than a match for armstrong so he was physically and he was on the lookout too but what you don't seem to realize is that armstrong is mad and a madman has all the advantages on his side he's twice as cunning as anyone's same can be lombard put the revolver back in his pocket he said come on then lombard said at last what are we going to do when night comes vera didn't answer he went on accusingly you haven't thought of that she said helplessly what can we do oh my god i'm frightened philip lombard said thoughtfully it's fine weather there will be a moon we must find a place up by the top cliffs perhaps we can sit there and wait for morning we mustn't go to sleep we must watch the whole time and if anyone comes up towards us i shall shoot he paused you'll be cold perhaps in that thin dress vera said with a raucous laugh cult i should be colder if i were dead philip lombard said quietly yes that's true vera moved restlessly she said i shall come mad if i sit here any longer let's move about all right they paced slowly up and down along the line of the rocks overlooking the sea the sun was dropping towards the west the light was golden and mellow it enveloped them in a golden glow vera said with a sudden nervous little giggle pity we can't have a bathe philip was looking down towards the sea he said abruptly what's that there you see by that dead gronk no a little further to the right veera stared she said looks like somebody's clothes bathery lombard laughed queer i suppose it's only seaweed vera said let's go and look it is clothes said lombard as they drew nearer a bundle of them that's a boot come on let's scramble along here they scrambled over the rocks vera stopped suddenly she said it's not clothes it's a man the man was wedged between two rocks flung there by the tide earlier in the day lombard and vera reached it in a last scramble they bent down a purple discolored face a hideous drowned face lombard said my god it's armstrong chapter 16 eons passed world spun and world time was motionless it stood still it passed through a thousand ages no it was only a minute or so two people were standing looking down on a dead man slowly very slowly vera clay thorne and philip lombard lifted their heads and looked into each other's eyes lombard laughed he said so that's it is it vera vera said there's no one on the island no one at all except us too her voice was a whisper nothing more lombard said precisely so we know where we are don't we vera said how was it worked that trick with the hubble bear he shrugged his shoulders a conjuring trick my dear a very good one their eyes met again fear thought why did i never see his face properly before a wolf that's what it is a wolf's face those horrible teeth lombard said and his voice was a snarl dangerous menacing this is the end you understand we've come to the truth now and it's the end vera said quietly i understand she stared out to see general macarthur had stood out to see when only yesterday or was it the day before he too had said this is the end he had said it with acceptance almost with welcome but to vera the words the thought brought rebellion no it should not be the end she looked down at the dead man she said poor dr armstrong lombard sneered he said what's this womanly pity vera said why not haven't you any pity he said i've no pity for you don't expect it vera looked down again at the body she said we must move him carry him up to the house to join the other victims i suppose all neat and tidy as far as i'm concerned he can stay where he is vera said at any rate let's get him out of reach the sea lombard laughed he said if you like he bent tugging at the body vera leaned against him helping him she pulled and tugged with all her might lombard panted not such an easy job they managed it however drawing the body clear of high watermark lombard said as he straightened up satisfied vera said quite her tone warned him he spun round even as he clapped his hand to his pocket he knew that he would find it empty she had moved a yard or two away and was facing him revolver in hand lombard said so that's the reason for your womanly solicitude you wanted to pick my pocket she nodded she held it steadily and unwaveringly death was very near to philip lombard now it had never he knew been nearer nevertheless he was not beaten yet he said authoritatively give that revolver to me vera laughed lombard said come on hand it over his quick brain was working which way which method talk her over lull her into security or a swift dash all his life lombard had taken the risky way he took it now he spoke slowly argumentatively now look here my dear girl you just listen and then he sprang quick as a panther as any other feline creature automatically vera pressed the trigger lombard's leaping body stayed poised in mid spring then crashed heavily to the ground vera came warily forward the revolver ready in her hand but there was no need of caution philip lombard was dead shot through the heart relief possessed vera enormous exquisite relief at last it was over there was no more fear no more stealing of her nerves she was alone on the island alone with nine dead bodies but what did that matter she was alive she sat there exquisitely happy exquisitely at peace no more fear the sun was setting when vera moved at last sheer reaction had kept her immobile there had been no room in her for anything but the glorious sense of safety she realized now that she was hungry and sleepy principally sleepy she wanted to throw herself on her bed and sleep and sleep and sleep tomorrow perhaps they would come and rescue her but she didn't really mind she didn't mind staying here not now that she was alone oh blessed blessed peace she got to her feet and glanced up at the house nothing to be afraid of any longer no terrors waiting for her just an ordinary well-built modern house and yet a little earlier in the day she had not been able to look at it without shivering fear what a strange thing fear was well it was over now she had conquered had triumphed over the most deadly peril by her own quick wittedness and a dripness she had turned the tables on her would-be destroyer she began to walk up towards the house the sun was setting the sky to the west was streaked with red and orange it was beautiful and peaceful vera thought the whole thing might be a dream how tired she was terribly tired her limbs ached her eyelids were dropping not to be afraid anymore to sleep sleep sleep to sleep safely since she was alone on the island one little soldier boy left all alone she smiled to herself she went in at the front door the house too felt strangely peaceful vera thought ordinarily one wouldn't care to sleep where there's a dead body in practically every bedroom should she go to the kitchen and get herself something to eat she hesitated a moment then decided against it she was really too tired she paused by the dining room door there was still three little china figures in the middle of the table vera laughed she said you're behind the times my dears she picked up two of them and tossed them out through the window you heard them crash on the stone of the terrace the third little figure she picked up and held in her hand she said you can come with me we've won idea we've won the hall was dim in the dying light vera the little soldier clasped in her hand began to mount the stairs slowly because her legs were suddenly very tired one little soldier boy left all alone how did it end oh yes he got married and then there were none married funny how she suddenly got the feeling again that hugo was in the house very strong yes hugo was upstairs waiting for her vera said to herself don't be a fool you're so tired that you're imagining the most fantastic things slowly up the stairs at the top of them something fell from her hand making hardly any noise on the soft pile carpet she did not notice that she had dropped the revolver she was only conscious of clasping a little china figure how very quiet the house was and yet it didn't seem like an empty house hugo upstairs waiting for her one little soldier boy left all alone what was the last line again something about being married or was it something else she had come now to the door of her room hugo was waiting for her inside she was quite sure of it she opened the door she gave a gasp what was that hanging from the hook in the ceiling a rope with a noose already and a chair to stand upon a chair that could be kicked away that was what hugo wanted and of course that was the last line of the rhyme he went and hanged himself and then there were none the little china figure fell from her hand it rolled unheeded and broke against the fender like an automaton vera moved forward this was the end here where the cold wet hand cyril's hand of course had touched her throat you can go to the rock cyril that was what murder was as easy as that but afterwards you went on remembering she climbed up on the chair her eyes staring in front of her like a sleepwalkers she adjusted the noose around her neck hugo was there to see she did what she had to do she kicked away the chair epilogue sir thomas legg assistant commissioner at scotland yard said irritably but the whole thing's incredible inspector main said respectfully i know sir the ac went on ten people dead on an island but not a living soul on it it doesn't make sense inspector main said solidly nevertheless it happened sir sir thomas legg said damn it all means somebody must have killed them that's just our problem sir nothing helpful in the doctor's report no sir wargrave and lombard was shot the first through the head the second through the heart miss brent and marston died of cyanide poisoning mrs rogers died of an overdose of coral rogers head was split open bloor's head was crushed in armstrong died of drowning macarthur's skull was fractured by a blow on the back of the head and vera claythorne was hanged the ac winced he said nasty business all of it he considered for a minute or two he said irritably do you mean to say that you haven't been able to get anything helpful out of the sticklehaven people dash they must know something inspector mayne shrugged his shoulders their ordinary decent seafaring folk they know that the island was bought by a man called owen and that's about all they do know who provisioned the island and made all the necessary arrangements man called morris isaac morris and what does he say about it all he can't say anything sir he's dead the ac frowned do we know anything about this morris oh yes sir we know about him he wasn't a very savory gentleman mr morris he was implicated in that share pushing fraud of benitos three years ago we're sure of that that we can't prove it and he was mixed up in the dope business and again we can't prove it he was a very careful man morris and he was behind this island business yes sir he put through the sale though he made it clear he was buying soldier island for a third party unnamed surely there's something to be found out on the financial angle there inspector maine smiled thought if he knew morris he can wangle figures until the best chartered accountant in the country wouldn't know if he was on his head or his heels we've had a taste of that in the benito business no he covered his employer's tracks all right the other man's side inspector main went on it was morris who made all the arrangements down at stickelhaven represented himself as acting for mr owen and it was he who explained to the people down there that there was some experiment on some bet about living on a desert island for a week and that no notice was to be taken of any appeal for help from out there so thomas leg stirred uneasily he said and you're telling me that those people didn't smell a rat not even then maine shrugged his shoulders he said your forgetting sir that soldier island previously belonged to young elmer robson the american he had the most extraordinary parties down there i've no doubt the local people's eyes fairly popped out over them but they got used to it and they've begun to feel that anything to do with soldier island would necessarily be incredible it's natural that sir when you come to think of it the assistant commissioner admitted gloomily that he supposed it was maine said fred narakat that's the man who took the party out there did say one thing that was illuminating he said he was surprised to see what sort of people these were not at all like mr robson's parties i think it was the fact that they were all so normal and so quiet that made him override morris's orders and take out a boat to the island after he'd heard about the sos signals when did he and the other men go the signals were seen by a party of boy scouts on the morning of the 11th there was no possibility of getting out there that day the men got there on the afternoon of the 12th at the first moment possible to run a boat ashore there they're all quite positive that nobody could have left the island before they got there there was a big sea on after the storm didn't someone had swam ashore it's over a mile to the coast and there were heavy seas and big breakers in shore and there were a lot of people boy scouts and others on the cliffs looking out towards the island and watching the ac sign he said what about that gramophone record you found in the house couldn't you get hold of anything there that might help inspector maine said i've been into that it was supplied by a firm that do a lot of theatrical stuff and film effect it was sent to u n o n esquire care of isaac morris and was understood to be required for the amateur performance of a hitherto unacted play the typescript of it was returned with the record legg said and what about the subject matter eh inspector main said gravely i'm coming to that sir he cleared his throat i have investigated those accusations as thoroughly as i can starting with the rogers who were the first to arrive on the island they were in service with a miss brady who died suddenly can't get anything definite out of the doctor who attended her he says they certainly didn't poison her or anything like that but his personal belief is that there was some funny business that she died as the result of neglect on their part says it's the sort of thing that's quite impossible to prove then there is mr justice wargrave that's okay he was the judge who sentenced satan by the way satan was guilty unmistakably guilty evidence turned up later after he was hanged which proved that beyond any shadow of doubt but there was a good deal of comment at the time nine people out of ten thought seton was innocent and the judges summing up had been vindictive the clayton girl i find was governess in a family where death occurred by drowning however she doesn't seem to have had anything to do with it and as a matter of fact she behaved very well swam out to the rescue and was actually carried out to sea and only just rescued in time go on said the ac with a sigh maine took a deep breath dr armstrong now well-known man had a consulting room in harley street absolutely straight and above board in his profession haven't been able to trace any record of an illegal operation or anything of that kind it's true that there was a woman called please who was operated on him way back in 1925 at leithmore when he was attached to the hospital there peritonitis and she died on the operating table maybe he wasn't very skillful over the op after all he hadn't much experience but after all clumsiness isn't a criminal offence there was certainly no motive then there's miss emily brent girl beatrice taylor was in service with her got pregnant was turned out by her mistress and went and drowned herself not a nice business but again not criminal that said the seems to be the point you n owen dealt with cases that the law couldn't touch maine went solidly on with his list young marston was a fairly reckless car driver had not him and he was let available with a fine can't find anything definite about general macarthur fine record war service all the rest of it arthur richmond was serving under him in france and was killed in action no friction of any kind between him in the general they were close friends as a matter of fact there were some blunders made about that time commanding officers sacrificed men unnecessarily possibly this was a blunder of that kind possibly said the ac now philip lombard lombard has been mixed up in some very curious shows abroad he sailed very near the law once or twice got a reputation for daring and for not being over scrupulous sort the fellow who might do several murders in some quiet out of the way spot then we come to bloor maine hesitated he of course was one of our lord the other man stirred blood said the assistant commissioner forcibly was a bad hat you think so sir the ac said i always thought so that he was clever enough to get away with it it's my opinion that he committed black perjury in the lander case i wasn't happy about it at the time but i couldn't find anything i put harris onto it and he couldn't find anything but i'm still of the opinion that there was something to find if we'd known how to set about it the man wasn't straight there was a pause then sir thomas legg said and isaac morris is dead you say when did he die i thought you'd come to that sir isaac morris died on the night of august the 8th took an overdose of sleeping stuff one of the barbiturates i understand there wasn't anything to show whether it was accident or suicide leg said slowly care to know what i think maine perhaps i can guess sir legs said heavily that death of morrises is a downside to opportune inspector maine nodded he said i thought you'd say that sir the assistant commissioner brought down his fist with a bang on the table he cried out the whole thing's fantastic impossible ten people killed on a bare rock of an island and we don't know who did it or why or how name coughed he said well it's not quite like that sir we do know why more or less some fanatic with a b in his bonnet about justice he was out to get people who were beyond the reach of the law he picked 10 people whether they were really guilty or not doesn't matter the commissioner stirred he said sharply doesn't it it seems to me he stopped inspector main waited respectfully with a psy leg shook his head carry on he said just for a minute i felt i got somewhere got as it were the clue to the thing it's gone now get ahead with what you were saying maine went on there were ten people to be executed let's say they were executed u.n owen accomplished his task and somehow or other he spirited himself off that island into thin air the ac said first class vanishing trick but you now mean there must be an explanation maine said you're thinking sir that if the man wasn't on the island he couldn't have left the island and according to the account of the interested parties he never was on the island well then the only explanation possible is that he was actually one of the ten the ac nodded mane said earnestly we thought of that sir we went into it now to begin with we're not quite in the dark as to what happened on soldier island vera clayton kept a diary so did emily brent old wargrave made some notes dry legal cryptic stuff but quite clear and bloor made notes too all those accounts tally the deaths occurred in this order marston mrs rogers macarthur rogers miss brent wargrave after his death vera claythorne's diary states that armstrong left the house in the night and that bloor and lombard had gone after him bloor has one more entry in his notebook just two words armstrong disappeared now sir it seemed to me taking everything into account that we might find here a perfectly good solution armstrong was drowned you remember granting that armstrong was mad what was to prevent him having killed off all the others and then committed suicide by throwing himself over the cliff or perhaps while trying to swim to the mainland that was a good solution but it won't do no sir it won't do first of all there's the police surgeon's evidence he got to the island early on the morning of august 13th he couldn't say much to help us all he could say was that all the people had been dead at least 36 hours and probably a good deal longer but he was fairly definite about armstrong said he must have been from eight to ten hours in the water before his body was washed up that works out at this that armstrong must have gone into the sea sometime during the night of the 10th to the 11th and i'll explain why we found the point where the body was washed up it had been wedged between two rocks and there were bits of cloth hair etc on them it must have been deposited there at high water on the 11th that's to say around about 11 o'clock am after that the storm subsided and succeeding high water marks are considerably lower you might say i suppose that armstrong managed to polish off the other three before he went into the sea that night but there's another point and one you can't get over armstrong's body had been dragged above high water mark we found it well above the reach of any tide and it was laid out straight on the ground all neat and tidy so that settles one point definitely someone was alive on the island after armstrong was dead he paused and then went on and that leaves just what exactly here's the position early on the morning of the eleventh armstrong has disappeared drowned that leaves us three people lombard bloor and veera clayton lombard was shot his body was down by the sea near armstrong's vera claythorne was found hanged in her own bedroom bloor's body was on the terrace his head was crushed in by a heavy marble clock that it seems reasonable to suppose fell on him from the window above the ac said sharply whose window vera claythorns now sir let's take each of these cases separately first philip lombard let's say he pushed over that lump of marble onto bloor then he doped very claythorn and strung her up lastly he went down to the seashore and shot himself but if so who took away the revolver from him for that revolver was found up in the house just inside the door at the top of the stairs wargraves room the ac said any fingerprints on it yes sir vera claythorns but man alive then i know what you're going to say sir that it was vera clayton that she shot lombard took the revolver back to the house toppled the marble block onto bloor and then hanged herself and that's quite all right up to a point there's a chair in her bedroom and on the seat of it there are marks of seaweed same as on her shoes looks as though she stood on the chair adjusted the rope around her neck and kicked away the chair but that chair wasn't found kicked over it was like all the other chairs neatly put back against the wall that was done after vera claythorne's death by someone else that leaves us with bloor and if you tell me that after shooting lombard and inducing vera clayton to hang herself he then went out and pulled down a whacking great block of marble on himself by tying a string to it or something like that well i simply don't believe you men don't commit suicide that way and what's more bloor wasn't that kind of man we knew bloor and he was not the man that you'd ever accuse of a desire for abstract justice the assistant commissioner said i agree inspector main said and therefore sir there must have been someone else on the island someone who tied it up when the whole business was over but where was he all the time and where did he go the stickel haven people are absolutely certain that no one could have left the island before the rescue boat got there but in that case he stopped the assistant commissioner said in that case he sighed he shook his head he leaned forward but in that case he said who killed them a manuscript document sent to scotland yard by the master of the emma jane fishing trawler from my earliest youth i realized that my nature was a mass of contradictions i have to begin with an incurably romantic imagination the practice of throwing a bottle into the sea with an important document inside was one that never failed to thrill me when reading adventure stories as a child it throws me still and for that reason i have adopted this course writing my confession enclosing it in a bottle sealing the latter and casting it into the waves there is i suppose a hundred to one chance that my confession may be found and then or do i flatter myself a hitherto unsolved murder mystery will be explained i was born with other traits besides my romantic fancy i have a definite sadistic delight in seeing or causing death i remember experiments with wasps with various garden pests from an early age i knew very strongly the lust to kill but side by side with this went a contradictory trait a strong sense of justice it is abhorrent to me that an innocent person or creature should suffer or die by any act of mine i have always felt strongly that rights should prevail it may be understood i think a psychologist would understand that with my mental makeup being what it was i adopted the law as a profession [Music] the legal profession satisfied nearly all my instincts crime and its punishment has always fascinated me i enjoy reading every kind of detective story and thriller i have devised for my own private amusement the most ingenious ways of carrying out a matter when in due course i came to preside over a court of law that other secret instinct of mine was encouraged to develop to see a wretched criminal squirming in the dock suffering the tortures of the damned as his doom came slowly and slowly nearer was to me an exquisite pleasure mind you i took no pleasure in seeing an innocent man there on at least two occasions i stopped cases where to my mind the accused was palpably innocent directing the jury that there was no case thanks however to the fairness and efficiency of our police force the majority of the accused persons who have come before me to be tried for murder have been guilty i will say here that such was the case with the man edward seton his appearance and manner were misleading and he created the good impression of the jury but not only the evidence which was clear though unspectacular but my own knowledge of criminals told me without any doubt that the man had actually committed the crime with which he was charged the brutal murder of an elderly woman who trusted him i have a reputation as a hanging judge but that is unfair i have always been strictly just and scrupulous in my summing up of the case all i have done is to protect the jury against the emotional effect of emotional appeals by some of our more emotional counsel i have drawn their attention to the actual evidence for some years past i have been aware of a change within myself a lessening of control a desire to act instead of to judge i have wanted let me admit it frankly to commit a murder myself i recognize this as the desire of the artist to express himself i was or could be an artist in crime my imagination sternly checked by the exigencies of my profession waxed secretly to colossal force i must i must i must commit a murder and what is more it must be no ordinary murder it must be a fantastical crime something stupendous out of the common and in that one respect i have still i think an adolescence imagination i wanted something theatrical impossible i wanted to kill yes i wanted to kill but incongruous as it may seem to some i was restrained and hampered by my innate sense of justice the innocent must not suffer and then quite suddenly the idea came to me started by a chance remark uttered during casual conversation it was a doctor to whom i was talking some ordinary undistinguished gp he mentioned casually how often murder must be committed which the law was unable to touch and he instanced a particular case that of an old lady a patient of his who had recently died he was he said himself convinced that her death was due to the withholding of a restorative drug by a married couple who attended on her and who stood to benefit very substantially by her death that sort of thing he explained was quite impossible to prove but he was nevertheless quite sure of it in his own mind he added that there were many cases of a similar nature going on all the time cases of deliberate murder and all quite untouchable by the law that was the beginning of the whole thing i suddenly saw my way clear and i determined to commit not one murder but murder on a grand scale a childish rhyme of my infancy came back into my mind the rhyme of the ten little soldier boys it had fascinated me as a child of two the inexorable diminishment the sense of inevitability i began secretly to collect victims i will not take up space here by going into details of how this was accomplished i had a certain routine line of conversation which i employed with nearly everyone i met and the results i got were really surprising during the time i was in a nursing home i collected the case of dr armstrong a violently tea turtle sister who attended on me being anxious to prove to me the evils of drink by recounting to me a case many years ago in hospital when a doctor under the influence of alcohol had killed a patient on whom he was operating a careless question as to where the sister in question had trained etc soon gave me the necessary data i tracked down the doctor and the patient mentioned without difficulty a conversation between two old military gossips in my cloud put me on the track of general macarthur a man who had recently returned from the amazon gave me a devastating resume of the activities of one philip lombard an indignant memsah recounted the tale of the puritan emily brent and her wretched servant girl anthony martin i selected from a large group of people who had committed similar offenses his complete callousness and his inability to feel any responsibility for the lives he had taken made him i considered a type dangerous to the community and unfit to live ex-inspector blah came my way quite naturally some of my professional brethren discussing the lander case with freedom and vigor i took a serious view of his offense the police the servants of the law must be of a high order of integrity for their word is perforce believed by virtue of their profession finally there was the case of very claythorn it was when i was crossing the atlantic at a late hour one night the sole occupants of the smoking room were myself and a good-looking young man named hugo hamilton hugo hamilton was unhappy to assuage that unhappiness he had taken a considerable quantity of drink he was in the modern confidential stage without much hope of any result i automatically started my routine conversational gambit the response was startling i can remember his words now he said you're right murder isn't what most people think giving someone a dollop of arsenic pushing them over a cliff that sort of stuff he leaned forward thrusting his face into mine he said i've known a murderess known her i tell you and what's more i was crazy about her god help me sometimes i think i still am it's hell i tell you hell you see she did it more or less for me not that i ever dreamed women are fiends absolute fiends you wouldn't think a girl like that a nice straight jolly girl you wouldn't think she'd do it would you that she'd take a kid out to sea and let it drown you wouldn't think a woman could do a thing like that i said to him are you sure she did do it he said and in saying it he seemed suddenly to sober up i am quite sure nobody else ever thought of it but i knew the moment i looked at her when i got back after and she knew i knew what she didn't realize was that i loved that kid he didn't say anymore but it was easy enough for me to trace back the story and reconstruct it i needed a tenth victim i found him in a man named morris he was a shady little creature amongst other things he was a dope peddler and he was responsible for inducing the daughter of friends of mine to take to drugs she committed suicide at the age of 21. during all this time of search my plan had been gradually maturing in my mind it was now complete and the coping stone to it was an interview i had with a doctor in harley street i have mentioned that i underwent an operation my interview in harley street told me that another operation would be useless my medical advisor wrapped up the information very prettily but i am accustomed to getting at the truth of a statement i did not tell the doctor of my decision that my death should not be a slow and protracted one as it would be in the course of nature no my death should take place in a blaze of excitement i would live before i died and now to the actual mechanics of the crime of soldier island to acquire the island using the man morris to cover my tracks was easy enough he was an expert in that sort of thing tabulating the information i had collected about my prospective victims i was able to concoct a suitable bait for each none of my plans miscarried all my guests arrived at soldier island on the 8th of august the party included myself morris was already accounted for he suffered from indigestion before leaving london i gave him a capsule to take last thing at night which had i said done wonders for my own gastric juices he accepted unhesitatingly the man was a slight hypochondriac i had no fear that he would leave any compromising documents or memorandum behind he was not that sort of man the order of death upon the island had been subjected by me to special thought and care there were i considered amongst my guests varying degrees of guilt those whose guilt was the lightest should i decided pass out first and not suffer the prolonged mental strain and fear that the more cold-blooded offenders were to suffer anthony martin and mrs rogers died first the one instantaneously the other in a peaceful sleep marston i recognized was a type born without that feeling of moral responsibility which most of us have he was amoral pagan mrs rogers i had no doubt had acted very largely under the influence of her husband i need not describe closely how those two met their deaths the police will have been able to work that out quite easily potassium cyanide is easily obtained by householders for putting down wasps i had some in my possession and it was easy to slip it into marston's almost empty glass during the tense period after the gramophone recital i may say that i watched the faces of my guests closely during that indictment and i had no doubt whatever after my long court experience that one and all were guilty during recent bouts of pain i had been ordered to sleeping draft chloral hydrate it had been easy for me to suppress this until i had a lethal amount in my possession when rogers brought up some brandy for his wife he set it down on a table and in passing that table i put the stuff into the brandy it was easy for at that time suspicion had not begun to set in general macarthur met his death quite painlessly he did not hear me come up behind him for i had of course to choose my time for leaving the terrace very carefully but everything was successful as i had anticipated his search was made of the island and it was discovered that there was no one on it but our seven selves that at once created an atmosphere of suspicion according to my plan i should shortly need an ally i selected dr armstrong for that part he was a gullible sort of man he knew me by sight and reputation and it was inconceivable to him that a man of my standing should actually be a murderer all his suspicions were directed against lombard and i pretended to concur in these i hinted to him that i had a scheme by which it might be possible to trap the murderer into incriminating himself though a search had been made of everyone's room no search as yet had been made of the persons themselves but that was bound to come soon i killed rogers on the morning of august 10th he was chopping sticks for lighting the fire and did not hear me approach i found the key to the dining room door in his pocket he had locked it the night before in the confusion attending the finding of roger's body i slipped into lombard's room and abstracted his revolver i knew that he would have one with him in fact i had instructed morris to suggest as much when he interviewed him at breakfast i slipped my last dose of coral into miss brent's coffee when i was refilling her cup we left her in the dining room i slipped in there a little while later she was nearly unconscious and it was easy to inject a strong solution of cyanide into her the bumblebee business was really rather childish but somehow you know it pleased me i liked adhering as closely as possible to my nursery rhyme immediately after this what i had already foreseen happened indeed i believe i suggested it myself we all submitted to a rigorous search i had safely hidden away the revolver and had no more cyanide or plural in my possession it was then that i intonated to armstrong that we must carry our plan into effect it was simply this i must appear to be the next victim that would perhaps rattle the murderer at any rate once i was supposed to be dead i could move about the house and spy upon the unknown murderer armstrong was keen on the idea we carried it out that evening a little plaster of red mud on the forehead the red curtain and the wool and the stage was set the lights of the candles were very flickering and uncertain and the only person who would examine me closely was armstrong it worked perfectly miss claythorne screamed the house down when she found the seaweed which i had thoughtfully arranged in her room they all rushed up and i took up my pose of a murdered men [Music] the effect on them when they found me was all that could be desired armstrong acted his part in the most professional manner they carried me upstairs and laid me on my bed nobody worried about me they were all too deadly scared and terrified of each other i had a rendezvous with armstrong outside the house at a quarter to two i took him up a little way behind the house on the edge of the cliff i said that here we could see if anyone else approached us and we should not be seen from the house as the bedrooms faced the other way he was still quite unsuspicious and yet he ought to have been warned if he had only remembered the words of the nursery rhyme a red herring swallowed one he took the red herring all right it was quite easy i uttered an exclamation length over the cliff told him to look wasn't that the mouth of a cave he lent right over a quick vigorous push sent him off his balance and splash into the heaving sea below i returned to the house it must have been my footfall that blur herb a few minutes after i had returned to armstrong's room i left it this time making a certain amount of noise so that someone should hear me i heard a door open as i got to the bottom of the stairs they must have just glimpsed my figure as i went out of the front door it was a minute or two before they followed me i had gone straight around the house and in at the dining room window which i had left open i shut the window and later i broke the glass then i went upstairs and laid myself out again on my bed i calculated that they would search the house again but i did not think that they would look closely at any of the corpses a mere twitch a side of the sheet to satisfy themselves that it was not armstrong masquerading as a body this is exactly what occurred i forgot to say that i returned the revolver to lombard's room it may be of interest to someone to know where it was hidden during the search there was a big pile of tinned food in the ladder i opened the bottom most of the tins biscuits i think it contained embedded in the revolver and replaced the strip of adhesive tape i calculated and rightly that no one would think of working their way through a pile of apparently untouched foodstuffs especially as all the top tins were soldered the red curtain i had concealed by laying it flat on the seat of one of the drawing room chairs under the chintz cover and the wool in the seat cushion cutting a small hole and now came the moment that i had anticipated three people who were so frightened of each other that anything might happen and one of them had a revolver i watched them from the windows of the house when bloor came up alone i had the big marble clock poised ready exit blower from my window i saw vera claythorne shoot lombard a daring and resourceful young woman i always thought she was a match for him and more as soon as that had happened i set the stage in her bedroom it was an interesting psychological experiment would the consciousness of her own guilt the state of nervous tension consequent on having just shot a man be sufficient together with the hypnotic suggestion of the surroundings to cause her to take her own life i thought it would i was right there clayton hanged herself before my eyes where i stood in the shadow of the wardrobe and now for the last stage i came forward picked up the chair and set it against the wall i looked for the revolver and found it at the top of the stairs where the girl had dropped it i was careful to preserve her fingerprints on it and now i shall finish writing this i shall enclose it and seal it in a bottle and i shall throw the bottle into the sea why yes why it was my ambition to invent a murder mystery that no one could solve but no artist i now realize can be satisfied with art alone there is a natural craving for recognition which cannot be gained said i have let me confess it in all humility a pitiful human wish that someone should know just how clever i have been in all this i have assumed that the mystery of soldier island will remain unsolved it may be of course that the police will be cleverer than i think there are after all three clues one the police are perfectly aware that edward seton was guilty they know therefore that one of the ten people on the island was not a murderer in any sense of the word and it follows paradoxically that that person must logically be the murderer the second clue lies in the seventh verse of the nursery rhyme armstrong's death is associated with a red herring which he swallowed or rather which resulted in swallowing him that is to say that at that stage of the affair some hocus pocus is clearly indicated and that armstrong was deceived by it and sent to his death that might start a promising line of inquiry for at that period there are only four persons and of those four i am clearly the only one likely to inspire him with confidence the third is symbolical the manner of my death marking me on the forehead the brand of cane there is i think little more to say after entrusting my bottle and its message to the sea i shall go to my room and lay myself down on the bed to my eye glasses is attached what seems a length of fine black cord but it is elastic cord i shall lay the weight of the body on the glasses the cord i shall loop round the door handle and attach it not too solidly to the revolver i think will happen is this my hand protected with a handkerchief will press the trigger my hand will fall to my side the revolver pulled by the elastic will recoil to the door jarred by the door handle it will detach itself from the elastic and fall the elastic released will hang down innocently from the eyeglasses on which my body is lying a handkerchief flying on the floor will cause no comment whatever i shall be found laid neatly on my bed shot through the forehead in accordance with the record kept by my fellow victims times of death cannot be stated with any accuracy by the time our bodies are examined when the sea goes down there will come from the mainland boats and men and they will find ten dead bodies and an unsolved problem on soldier island [Music] signed lawrence wargrave