In some ways, Vera is one of the most intelligent and capable characters in the novel, which explains why she is one of the last people left standing. She outwits the resourceful Philip Lombard, who thinks she is a murderer, by stealing his gun and then summoning up the courage to shoot him when he leaps at her. Despite her strength, however, Vera is not emotionally stable. In addition to her recurrent bouts of guilt over Cyril's death, she is strongly affected by the almost supernatural nature of the events on the island and prone to attacks of nervous hysteria. More than anyone else, she fixates on the "Ten Little Indians" poem that lends an air of eerie inevitability to the murders. The confluence of these factors—her guilt, her tendency toward hysteria, and her fascination with the nursery rhyme—enables Wargrave to create a suggestive environment complete with a noose and the smell of the sea, which inspires Vera to hang herself and fulfill the last line of the poem.
As the second to last to die, Philip Lombard is well defined and can be understood with ease. There is a lot of information received from his past that becomes apparent in his behavior as the story progresses. Lombard has the most mysterious past of anyone on the island. He is a world traveler and a former military man who seems to have served as a soldier of fortune in Africa. In the epilogue, one of the policemen describes him as having "been mixed up in some very curious shows abroad … [the] sort of fellow who might do several murders in some quiet out-of-the-way spot." He comes to Indian Island after Isaac Morris hires him, supposedly because Mr. Owen needs a "good man in a tight spot." Clearly a dangerous man, Lombard carries a gun and is frequently described as moving "like a panther." He is bold enough to initiate several searches of the island, perceptive enough to suspect Judge Wargrave of being the killer, and brave enough to voice his suspicions. Lombard is also honest: he owns up to his past misdeeds. When the recorded voice accuses him of leaving twenty-one men from an East African tribe to die in the bush, Lombard cheerfully admits to it, saying there was only enough food for himself and a friend, and so they took off with it. The other characters cannot bring themselves to admit their own guilt, but Lombard has no such qualms.
Lombard does display a weakness, however, that ultimately brings about his downfall: his chivalrous and old-fashioned attitude toward women. In the first group conversation about the murders, he suggests excluding the women from the list of potential suspects, since he considers them incapable of homicidal behavior. Lombard's tendency to underestimate women enables Vera to steal his gun. Lombard figured all his life had taken the risky way, mine as well take it now, but as he leaps at Vera to retrieve the gun she shoots him in mid-flight. His death actually brings Vera and Lombard into a strange alliance, since it makes them the only two characters to die at the hand of someone other than Wargrave.
These characters are only two out of ten who are introduced distinctly and display obvious, rational changes throughout the novel. The characters are greatly believable and because of their true to life human characteristics and mood changes you find yourself constantly second-guessing yourself. Agatha Christie ties all the characters together nicely with no loose ends or confusing explanations.
