And Then There Were None: Chapters 7-9

"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 behaviour."

"The abandoned creature, not content with having one sin on her conscience, committed a still graver sin. She took her own life."

His eye rested speculatively on Mr. Justice Wargrave.

"It's perfectly feasible—taken alone."

I don't need to go into medical details, but in a certain form of cardiac trouble, amyl nitrite is used. When an attack comes on an ampoule of amyl nitrite is broken and it is inhaled. If amyl nitrite were withheld—well, the consequences might easily be fatal.

There are crimes that cannot be brought home to their perpetrators. Instance the Rogerses'. Another instance, old Wargrave, who committed his murder strictly within the law.

"Fits too damned well to be a coincidence! Anthony Marston dies of asphyxiation or choking last night after dinner, and Mother Rogers oversleeps herself with a vengeance."

As for the others, the General's ga-ga, I think, and old Wargrave's forte is masterly inactivity. The three of us can attend to this job.

"What you've 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 Owen's idea might be to do the job by proxy, as it were?"

Many homicidal lunatics are very quiet unassuming people. Delightful fellows.

We're to be marooned here, no attention is to be paid to signals, etc.

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.

His head turned—there was a queer mixture of questioning and apprehension in his look.

Blore said incredulously: "You mean he's homicidal?"

"Wonderful animal, the good servant. Carries on with an impassive countenance."

It came again—someone moving softly, furtively, overhead.

"You said yourself you'd given her something to make her sleep."
"Oh that, yes. A harmless sedative."
"What was it exactly?"
"I gave her a mild dose of trional. A perfectly harmless preparation."

"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?"

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 noncommittal story.

There is plenty of food, sir—of a tinned variety. The larder is very well stocked.

This morning Wargrave had sat huddled in his chair on the terrace refraining from any overt activity.

Our main preoccupation is this—to save our lives.

He did so, telling the story briefly and succinctly.

"What's to prove it? There's nothing to corroborate your story."

"Perfectly capable—given a suitable instrument, such as a rubber truncheon or cosh."

"It would require no undue exertion of force?"

You are assuming hearsay to be evidence.

Mrs. Rogers' terror last night may have been due to the fact that she realized her husband was mentally unhinged.

To put it simply, is there among us one or more persons who could not possibly have administered either cyanide to Anthony Marston, or an overdose of sleeping draught to Mrs. Rogers, and who had no opportunity of striking the blow that killed General Macarthur?

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.

The remorseless small voice went on: "When we returned to this room, you, Miss Brent, were bending over the woman on the sofa."

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.

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.

No good result can come from recrimination. Facts are what we have to deal with.

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.

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.

Whilst probability in some cases is against certain people being implicated, yet we cannot say definitely that any one person can be considered as cleared 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.

From now on, it is our task to suspect each and every one amongst us. Forewarned is forearmed. Take no risks and be alert to danger.