August 8th

August 8th is the pivotal date on which the ten principal characters of And Then There Were None converge on Indian Island, setting in motion the elaborate scheme of retribution devised by Lawrence John Wargrave. The day is defined by the arrival of the guests, each lured by a personalized invitation from the mysterious U. N. Owen, and by the first evening's events that establish the pattern of accusation and death that will consume the island.

Arrival and Assembly

The guests arrive at Oakbridge station and are transported to the Devon coast, where they embark on a motor boat for the island. The party includes Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, who has been engaged as a secretary; Philip Lombard, hired for a mysterious assignment; Emily Caroline Brent, expecting a free holiday at a guest house; John Gordon Macarthur, anticipating a reunion with old army cronies; Edward George Armstrong, called in for a professional consultation; Anthony James Marston, responding to a telegram from a friend; and William Henry Blore, posing as a South African named Davis while secretly working as a detective. They are joined by Lawrence John Wargrave, who believes he has been invited by an old friend, Constance Culmington. The servants, Thomas Rogers and Ethel Rogers, have already arrived to prepare the house. The guests are informed that their host and hostess are delayed and will not arrive until the following day.

The First Evening and the Gramophone Accusation

That evening, after dinner, the party is gathered in the drawing-room when a gramophone record, titled "Swan Song," is played. A disembodied voice accuses each guest by name of a specific murder or crime that the law could not touch. The accusations include: Armstrong for the death of Louisa Mary Clees; Emily Brent for the death of Beatrice Taylor; Blore for the death of James Stephen Landor; Vera Claythorne for the death of Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton; Lombard for the deaths of twenty-one men of an East African tribe; Macarthur for sending his wife's lover, Arthur Richmond, to his death; Marston for the murder of John and Lucy Combes; the Rogerses for the death of Jennifer Brady; and Wargrave for the murder of Edward Seton. The voice causes immediate panic: Rogers drops the coffee tray, and Mrs. Rogers faints. The source of the voice is discovered to be a gramophone in an adjoining room, with holes bored through the wall. Wargrave deduces that the host, U. N. Owen, is a pseudonym standing for "Unknown," and that they have been assembled by a dangerous homicidal lunatic.

The First Death

Later that evening, Anthony Marston pours himself a whiskey and soda, drinks it, and immediately chokes and dies. Armstrong determines that Marston was poisoned with potassium cyanide. The death is initially considered a possible suicide, but the circumstances are deeply suspicious. The guests decide to leave the island the next morning, but the motor boat does not arrive. The storm that follows isolates the island completely, and the murders continue according to the pattern of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Indian Boys," with a china figurine disappearing after each death.

Significance

August 8th is the foundational date of the entire plot. It is the day when the trap is sprung, the accusations are made, and the first murder occurs. The events of this day establish the central mystery—who is U. N. Owen?—and the inescapable logic of the killings, which will proceed until all ten are dead. The date is also the point of no return: after the boat fails to arrive, the characters are trapped, and the island becomes a sealed arena for Wargrave's grand design.