1Three words, endlessly repeated, dinning themselves hour after hour into receptive brains.

2Five people five frightened people. Five people who watched each other, who now hardly troubled to hide their state of nervous tension.

3There was little pretence now no formal veneer of conversation. They were five enemies linked together by a mutual instinct of selfpreservation.

4And all of them, suddenly, looked less like human beings. They were reverted to more bestial types. Like a wary old tortoise, Mr. Justice Wargrave sat hunched up, his body motionless, his eyes keen and alert. Exinspector Blore looked coarser and clumsier in 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 lithe and graceful.

5And he smiled often, his lips curling back from his long white teeth.

6Vera Claythorne 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 and that has been picked up by a human hand.

7It crouches there, terrified, unable to move, hoping to save itself by its immobility.

8Armstrong was in a pitiable condition of nerves. He twitched and his hands shook. He lighted cigarette after cigarette and stubbed 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 sit here doing nothing! There must be something surely, surely, there is something that we can do? If we lit a bonfire "

9Blore said heavily: "In this weather?"

10The rain was pouring down again. The wind came in fitful gusts. The depressing sound of the pattering rain nearly drove them mad.

11By tacit consent, they had adopted a plan of campaign. They all sat in the big drawingroom. Only one person left the room at a time. The other four waited till the fifth returned.

12Lombard said: "It's only a question of time. The weather will clear. Then we can do something signallight fires make a raft something!"

13Armstrong said with a sudden cackle of laughter: "A question of time time? We can't afford time! We shall all be dead..."

14Mr. Justice Wargrave said, and his small clear voice was heavy with passionate determination: "Not if we are careful. We must be very careful..."

15The 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 larder 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 round the kitchen table. Then, herding close together, they had returned to the drawingroom to sit there sit watching each other...

16And 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... shall I tell them? ... Shall I scream out? ... No, it won't do to put him on his guard...

17Besides he can seem so sane... What time is it? ... Only a quarter past three! ... Oh,

18God, 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...

19Where 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 some one knows where it is..." "They're going mad... they're all go mad... Afraid of death... we're all afraid of death... I'm afraid of death... Yes, 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.

20Yes, 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 Judgement Day not that! If I could only 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,

21God! 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 all 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. "

22When the clock struck five they all jumped.

23Vera said: "Does any one want tea?"

24There was a moment's silence. Blore said: "I'd like a cup."

25Vera rose. She said: "I'll go and make it. You can all stay here."

26Mr. Justice Wargrave said gently: "I think, my dear young lady, we would all prefer to come and watch you make it."

27Vera stared, then gave a short rather hysterical laugh.

28She said: "Of course! You would!"

29Five people went into the kitchen. Tea was made and drunk by Vera and Blore.

30The other three had whiskey opening a fresh bottle and using a siphon from a nailed up case.

31The judge murmured with a reptilian smile: "We must be very careful..."

32They went back again to the drawingroom. 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."

33He hesitated and said: "We could go out and get it going, I suppose."

34Mr. Justice Wargrave said: "There are packets of candles in the larder, I saw them, better use those."

35Lombard went out. The other four sat watching each other.

36He came back with a box of candles and a pile of saucers. Five candles were lit and placed about the room.

37The time was a quarter to six.

38II

39At twenty 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.

40She 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.

41She went up the stairs and along the passage to her room.

42As she opened her door, she suddenly halted and stood stock still.

43Her nostrils quivered.

44The sea... The smell of the sea at St. Tredennick...

45That 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 Claythorne?" "Why can't I swim out to the island?..."

46Horrid whiny spoilt little brat! If it weren't for him, Hugo would be rich... able to marry the girl he loved...

47Hugo...

48Surely surely Hugo was beside her? No, waiting for her in the room...

49She made a step forward. The draught from the window caught the flame of the candle. It flickered and went out...

50Tn the dark she was suddenly afraid... "Don't be a fool," Vera Claythorne 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."

51But that smell that smell of the beach at St. Tredennick... That wasn't imagined.

52It was true...

53And there was some one in the room... She had heard something surely she had heard something...

54And then, as she stood there, listening a cold, clammy hand touched her throat a wet hand, smelling of the sea...

55Ill

56Vera screamed. She screamed and screamed screams of the utmost terror wild desperate cries for help.

57She 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.

58Then, 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?"

59She shuddered, took a step forward, collapsed on the floor.

60She was only half aware of some one bending over her, of some one forcing her head down between her knees.

61Then a sudden exclamation, a quick "My God, look at that!" her senses returned

62She opened her eyes and raised her head. She saw what it was the men with the candles were looking at.

63A 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! ...

64She began to laugh hysterically. She said: "It was seaweed only seaweed and that's what the smell was..."

65And then the faintness came over her once more waves upon waves of sickness.

66Again some one took her head and forced it between her knees.

67Aeons of time seemed to pass. They were offering her something to drink pressing the glass against her lips. She smelt brandy.

68She 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.

69She said sharply: "Where did this come from?"

70Blore's voice answered. He stared a minute before speaking.

71He said: "I got it from downstairs."

72Vera cried: "I won't drink it..."

73There was a moment's silence, then Lombard laughed.

74He 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."

75He went swiftly out.

76Vera said uncertainly: "I'm all right now. I'll have some water."

77Armstrong 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.

78Blore said resentfully: "That brandy's all right."

79Armstrong said: "How do you know?"

80Blore said angrily: "I didn't put anything in it. That's what you're getting at, I suppose."

81Armstrong said: "I'm not saying you did. You might have done it, or some one might have tampered with the bottle for just this emergency."

82Lombard came swiftly back into the room.

83He had a new bottle of brandy in his hands and a corkscrew.

84He 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 U.N. Owen."

85Vera shuddered violently.

86Armstrong held the glass while Philip poured the brandy into it. He said: "You'd better drink this, Miss Claythorne. You've had a nasty shock."

87Vera drank a little of the spirit. The colour came back to her face.

88Philip Lombard said with a laugh: "Well, here's one murder that hasn't gone according to plan!"

89Vera said almost in a whisper: "You think that was what was meant?"

90Lombard nodded. "Expected you to pass out through fright! Some people would have, wouldn't they, doctor?"

91Armstrong did not commit himself. He said doubtfully: "H'm, impossible to say. Young healthy subject no cardiac weakness. Unlikely.

92On the other hand "

93He picked up the glass of brandy that Blore had brought. He dipped a finger in it, tasted it gingerly. His expression did not alter. He said dubiously: "H'm, tastes all right."

94Blore stepped forward angrily. He said: "If you're saying that I tampered with that, I'll knock your ruddy block off."

95Vera, her wits revived by the brandy, made a diversion by saying: "Where's the judge?"

96The three men looked at each other. "That's odd... Thought he came up with us."

97Blore said: "So did I... What about it, doctor? You came up the stairs behind me."

98Armstrong said: "I thought he was following me... Of course, he'd be bound to go slower than we did. He's an old man."

99They looked at each other again.

100Lombard said: "It's damned odd..."

101Blore cried: "We must look for him."

102He started for the door. The others followed him, Vera last.

103As they went down the stairs Armstrong said over his shoulder: "Of course he may have stayed in the livingroom..."

104They crossed the hall. Armstrong called out loudly: "Wargrave, Wargrave, where are you?"

105There was no answer. A deadly silence filled the house apart from the gentle patter of the rain.

106Then, in the entrance to the drawingroom door, Armstrong stopped dead. The others crowded up and looked over his shoulder.

107Somebody cried out.

108Mr. Justice Wargrave was silting in his highbacked chair at the end of the room.

109Two 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...

110Dr. 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.

111He 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...

112Dr. Armstrong raised the limp hand and felt for the pulse. Then he turned to the others.

113He said and his voice was expressionless, dead, far away: "He's been shot... "

114Blore said: "God the revolver!"

115The doctor said, still in the same lifeless voice: "Got him through the head. Instantaneous."

116Vera stooped to the wig. She said, and her voice shook with terror: "Miss Brent's missing grey wool..."

117Blore said: "And the scarlet curtain that was missing from the bathroom..."

118Vera whispered: "So this is what they wanted them for..."

119Suddenly Philip Lombard laughed a high unnatural laugh. '"Five little Indian 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

120Edward Seton would laugh if he were here! God, how he'd laugh!"

121His outburst shocked and startled the others.

122Vera cried: "Only this morning you said he was the one!"

123Philip Lombard's face changed sobered.

124He 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!"