And Then There Were None: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

Vera and Lombard slowly look up at each other. They realize that there is no one on the island except the two of them. Vera asks how he was able to hit Blore with the marble bear. Lombard tells Vera that in killing Blore she pulled off quite a good conjuring trick. Vera feels like she sees Lombard's wolfish face for the first time.

Lombard says that this is the end. He says it almost with acceptance, but Vera only feels rebellion. She says “Poor Dr. Armstrong.” Vera says that they should carry him up to the house and get him out of reach of the sea. Lombard laughs and agrees and they both begin tugging the body.

As they get him past the reach of the sea, Lombard asks if Vera is satisfied and she says she is. She shows him his revolver, which she took from him as they were dragging the body. Lombard knows that his death is near. He tells Vera to give him the revolver and springs towards her. Vera presses the trigger. Lombard is dead – shot through the heart.

Vera feels relieved. She realizes that she is hungry and sleepy, but mostly sleepy. She walks toward the house and realizes that she doesn't mind staying here anymore now that everyone is gone. As she walks in she sees three soldier boys on the dining room table and breaks two of them. She takes the third up to her room.

Vera remembers the last verse of the nursery rhyme “one little soldier boy left all alone; He got married and then there were none.” She suddenly feels as if Hugo were in the house. When she gets up to her room she sees a noose hanging from the hook on ceiling of her room and a chair ready to be kicked away. Then she realizes that the last line is really “He went and hanged himself and then there were None.”

The little china figure rolls out of Vera's hand. She is standing in the place where she was when she felt Cyril's cold wet hand on her throat. She realizes then that she really did murder him. She climbs on the chair, adjusts the noose around her neck and feels that Hugo is there to see what she has to do. She kicks away the chair.