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VIII
Mr Blore was in the slow train from Plymouth. There was only one other
person in his carriage, an elderly seafaring gentleman with a bleary eye.
At the present moment he had dropped off to sleep.
Mr Blore was writing carefully in a little notebook.
‘That’s the lot,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Emily Brent, Vera Claythorne, Dr
Armstrong, Anthony Marston, old Justice Wargrave, Philip Lombard, Gen-
eral Macarthur, C.M.G., D.S.O. Manservant and wife: Mr and Mrs Rogers.’
He closed the notebook and put it back in his pocket. He glanced over at
the corner and the slumbering1 man.
‘Had one over the eight,’ diagnosed Mr Blore accurately2.
He went over things carefully and conscientiously3 in his mind.
on it. Hope I look all right.’
He stood up and scrutinized5 himself anxiously in the glass. The face re-
flected there was of a slightly military cast with a moustache. There was
very little expression in it. The eyes were grey and set rather close to-
gether.
‘Might be a Major,’ said Mr Blore. ‘No, I forgot. There’s that old military
gent. He’d spot me at once.’
‘South Africa,’ said Mr Blore, ‘that’s my line! None of these people have
anything to do with South Africa, and I’ve just been reading that travel
Fortunately there were all sorts and types of colonials. As a man of
means from South Africa, Mr Blore felt that he could enter into any society
unchallenged.
Soldier Island. He remembered Soldier Island as a boy…Smelly sort of
rock covered with gulls—stood about a mile from the coast.
Funny idea to go and build a house on it! Awful in bad weather! But mil-
The old man in the corner woke up and said:
‘You can’t never tell at sea—never!’
Mr Blore said soothingly8, ‘That’s right. You can’t.’
The old man hiccupped twice and said plaintively9:
‘There’s a squall coming.’
Mr Blore said:
‘No, no, mate, it’s a lovely day.’
The old man said angrily:
‘There’s a squall ahead. I can smell it.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ said Mr Blore pacifically.
The train stopped at a station and the old fellow rose unsteadily.
him.
blinked his bleary eyes.
hand.’
‘I’m talking to you, young man. The day of judgment is very close at
hand.’
of judgment than I am!
But there, as it happens, he was wrong…
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