Summary: Chapter VII
Emily and Vera take a walk together. Emily reiterates
her conviction that Mrs. Rogers died of a guilty conscience. She
tells Vera the story of Beatrice Taylor, the girl the recorded voice
accused Emily of killing. Beatrice Taylor worked for Emily as a
maid, but when Beatrice got pregnant, Emily immediately threw her
out of the house. Friendless and despairing, Beatrice drowned herself.
Emily insists that she has no reason to feel remorse, but the story
horrifies Vera.
Meanwhile, Lombard and Armstrong consult with each other. They
discuss the possibility that Rogers killed his wife, and Armstrong
expresses his conviction that the Rogers couple probably did kill
the old woman in their care simply by withholding drugs that she
needed. They also consider the possibility that Mrs. Rogers killed
herself, but two deaths—hers and Marston’s—within twelve hours seems
like an improbable coincidence. Armstrong tells Lombard that two
Indian figures have disappeared. When Armstrong recites the first
two verses of the poem, Lombard notices that they neatly correspond
to the two murders. They decide that their host, Mr. Owen, committed
the murders and is now hiding on the island, and they determine
to search for him.
Summary: Chapter VIII
Joined by Blore, Armstrong and Lombard make an exhaustive sweep
of the small island. Since the island is mostly bare rock, few places
for concealment exist. It turns out that Lombard has a revolver,
which surprises Blore. As they make their search, the men come across
a dazed Macarthur sitting by himself, staring off into the sea.
He tells them that there is very little time and that they need to
leave him alone. They decide that he must be crazy. Leaving him, they
discuss how they might signal the mainland, and Lombard points out
that a storm is brewing, which will isolate them. He adds that the
fishermen and village people probably have been told (by Mr. Owen,
presumably) to disregard all signals from the island. The men come
to some cliffs they want to search for caves, but they need a rope.
Blore returns to the house to get one, while Armstrong wonders about
Macarthur’s apparent madness. Meanwhile, Vera goes out for a walk
and comes across the Macarthur. She sits down, and he talks of the
impending end of his life and of the relief he feels, given the
guilt he has felt over the death of Richmond. Eventually, having
seemingly become unaware of Vera’s presence, he begins to murmur
the name of his dead wife as if he expects her to appear.
When Blore returns with a rope, he finds only Armstrong,
who is musing that Macarthur may be the killer. Lombard returns,
having gone to check some unnamed theory, and climbs down the cliff
to make his search for caves. As Armstrong and Blore hold the rope, Blore
remarks that Lombard climbs extremely well. He says he does not
trust Lombard and thinks it odd that he brought a revolver, saying,
“It’s only in books that people carry revolvers around as a matter
of course.” Lombard finds nothing on the cliff face, and the three men
return to the house, where they make a thorough search for their
missing host. The search goes quickly, since the modern house contains
few potential hiding places. They hear someone moving about upstairs
in Mrs. Rogers’s bedroom, where her body has been laid, but it turns
out to be Mr. Rogers. Completing their search, they conclude there
is no one on the island but the eight of them.
Analysis: Chapters VII–VIII
We are finally given an account of Emily Brent’s crime
in the form of a remarkably honest confession from her own mouth.
She makes an interesting case, since, in a certain way, she is less
explicitly guilty of murder than most of the other guests. After
all, her only action was to turn a pregnant girl out of her home:
she did not intend to kill Beatrice Taylor the way Vera intended
to kill Cyril or Macarthur intended to kill Richmond, his wife’s
lover. Nor did Emily directly cause someone’s death, as did Armstrong
and Marston. Nevertheless, Christie depicts Emily as the most unsympathetic
character in the novel, less for what she did than for her utter
lack of remorse and unbending faith in her own righteousness. The
others may have committed worse crimes, but at least they admit
to themselves that they did indeed commit crimes. Emily Brent has
no such consciousness of her own guilt. She is, as Christie puts
it, “encased in her own armour of virtue,” using her religious values
to justify her actions.
Meanwhile, some of the characters begin to realize the
truth about the situation and the danger they are all in while they
inhabit an island with a crazed murderer. In particular, we see
the three younger men—Armstrong, Blore, and Lombard—begin to work together
in an effort to solve the mystery. Armstrong and Lombard make the
connection between the poem, the deaths, and the missing figurines,
which enables them for the first time to grasp the murderer’s overall
plan. Then, deciding to search the island, they turn to Blore to
provide muscle. This grouping of three seems like a strong alliance,
bringing together Armstrong’s intelligence, Lombard’s cunning, and
Blore’s police experience. Indeed, these three men end up, along
with Vera, the last surviving guests. The murderer appears to be
weeding out the weaker characters first: Marston, self-absorbed
and overconfident, dies first, followed by the fainting Mrs. Rogers.
Macarthur’s increased detachment from the world, manifested in his
odd behavior during these chapters, makes him an easy target for
the murderer. That the strongest characters survive prepares us
for a heightening of events, since the murderer will no doubt have
to be savvy to kill them off.
