a fishing ship picks up a bottle inside its trawling nets; the bottle contains a written confession of the killings, which is then sent to scotland yard. in the confession, justice wargrave writes that all his life he has had two contradictory impulses: a savage bloodlust and a strong sense of justice. for most of his life, he satisfied both desires through his profession as judge. however, the desire to commit murder with his own hands and his diagnosis with a terminal illness motivated him to orchestrate a mass murder of people who were themselves murderers by his judgment but could not be prosecuted under the law. before departing for the island, he gave morris barbiturates to take for his indigestion. he tricked armstrong into helping him fake his own death under the pretext that it would help the group identify the killer. he used the gun and some elastic to ensure his true death matched the account in the guests' diaries. although he wished to create an unsolvable mystery, he acknowledges in the missive a "pitiful human need" for recognition, hence the confession.