Summary: Chapter V
Armstrong examines the drink and finds it was poisoned,
but since Marston poured it himself, the guests assume he committed
suicide. Still, they find it hard to believe that such a high-spirited
young man would want to take his own life. Marston’s body is carried
to his bedroom and placed beneath a sheet. After a time, everyone
goes upstairs to bed except for Rogers, who stays downstairs to
clean up. As they enter their rooms, each guest locks his
or her door. The house, so modern and gleaming, now seems horrifying
in its blankness.
As he prepares for bed, Wargrave thinks about Edward
Seton, the man whom the voice earlier accused him of sentencing
to death. The defense defended Seton well, and the prosecution presented
a poor case. Everyone assumed the jury would acquit Seton. Wargrave
smiles, remembering how during his summing up “[h]e’d cooked Seton’s
goose.” Downstairs, Rogers notices that although ten little Indian
statues originally sat on the table, now there are only nine. Macarthur
lies awake in bed, recalling how during World War I he discovered
that his young wife was having an affair with one of his officers.
Furious, he ordered the officer, Richmond, on an impossible mission,
effectively sending him to his death. No one suspected him at the
time, except perhaps one of the other officers, a man named Armitage.
His wife became distant and died of pneumonia a few years later.
Macarthur retired and lived by the sea, but after a time he began
to worry, suspecting that Armitage had spread the story around and
that people knew his secret. Now, lying in his bedroom listening
to the sound of the sea, a strange feeling of peace comes over him,
and he realizes that he does not really want to leave the island.
In her bedroom, Vera remembers her time as Cyril’s governess. She
was in love with Cyril Hamilton’s cousin, Hugo, but Hugo was too
poor to marry her and support both himself and her. Vera knew that
if Cyril died, Hugo would inherit the family fortune. One day Cyril
begged her again and again to be allowed to swim to a rock in the
ocean. Vera pushes these recollections aside. As she passes the mantelpiece,
she notices the similarity between Marston’s death and the first
verse of the “Ten Little Indians” poem, which reads, “One choked
his little self and then there were nine.”
Summary: Chapter VI
Armstrong has a nightmare in which he stands at his operating table,
realizing he must kill the patient on the table. The patient looks
like Emily Brent, then like Marston. Rogers, worried because he
cannot rouse his wife, comes into the room and wakes Armstrong.
Armstrong rises and goes to find that Mrs. Rogers has died in her
sleep, perhaps of an overdose of sleeping pills. Rogers says she took
only the pills Armstrong gave her.
In the morning the guests rise, hoping to catch sight
of the boat back to the mainland. Vera, Lombard, and Blore go to
the summit of the island to watch for it, but it doesn’t appear. After
breakfast, Armstrong announces Mrs. Rogers’s death to the group.
The group is alarmed, and Macarthur gives Rogers his condolences
when he returns to the room. When Rogers leaves the room, the group
begins to speculate about the cause of his wife’s death. Emily
Brent insists it was an act of God and that Mrs. Rogers died of
a guilty conscience after hearing the recorded accusation of murder
the previous night. Blore suggests that Rogers killed his wife in
the hopes of covering up their secret.
After the meal, Blore and Lombard discuss their situation
on the terrace and decide that the boat will not come. Macarthur,
passing them, expresses his agreement in a dazed voice and wanders
off, saying that none of them will ever leave the island. Meanwhile,
a baffled and frightened Rogers shows Armstrong that only eight
Indian figures remain on the table.
