Anthony Marston's car (Dalmain)

Anthony Marston's car, a Dalmain, is the most conspicuous and potent object on Indian Island before the murders begin. It arrives not merely as a vehicle but as an apparition of speed, wealth, and youth, and its brief appearance serves to define Marston's character and to heighten the contrast between the vibrant world he represents and the sealed, fatal island he has entered.

Arrival and Appearance

The Dalmain makes its entrance in the village of Sticklehaven as the party of guests is about to embark for Indian Island. It is described as "so fantastically powerful, so superlatively beautiful that it had all the nature of an apparition." At the wheel sits Marston, his hair blown back by the wind, and in the blaze of the evening light he looks "not a man, but a young God, a Hero God out of some Northern Saga." He touches the horn, and a great roar of sound echoes from the rocks of the bay. More than one of those present later remembers that moment as fantastic, as though Marston were something more than mortal. The car itself is a Dalmain, a make associated with extreme performance; earlier, on the road, it had rushed past Dr. Armstrong's Morris at eighty miles an hour with a devastating ear-splitting blast on the horn, nearly forcing the doctor into the hedge.

Marston's Relationship with the Car

For Marston, the Dalmain is an extension of his own nature: a creature of sensation and action, not of thought. He drives with a casual arrogance, roaring down into Mere and thinking that the amount of cars crawling about the roads is frightful, always blocking his way. He finds driving in England hopeless compared to France, where he could really let out. After stopping for a drink, he stretches, yawns, looks up at the blue sky, and climbs back into the Dalmain. Several young women look at him admiringly—his six feet of well-proportioned body, his crisp hair, tanned face, and intensely blue eyes. He lets in the clutch with a roar and leaps up the narrow street, forcing old men and errand boys to jump for safety. The car is thus not merely a possession but a performance of his wealth, his physical perfection, and his utter disregard for the consequences of his speed.

Narrative Significance

The Dalmain's dramatic arrival establishes a powerful contrast that makes Marston's sudden death all the more shocking. The car is the last object associated with the outside world of freedom, speed, and life; once Marston steps into the motor boat and leaves it behind on the mainland, he has crossed a threshold from which there is no return. The car also serves as a silent witness to Marston's guilt: it was in this very vehicle that he had knocked down and killed John and Lucy Combes near Cambridge, an accident for which his licence was endorsed for a year and which he dismisses as "beastly bad luck" and "just an accident." The Dalmain, then, is both the symbol of his vitality and the instrument of his past crime, linking the two sides of his character—the glorious young god and the callous killer—before he himself becomes a victim.