The thirty-nine steps door John Buchan

Title: The 39 steps
Author: John Buchan
Pages: 67

Summary:

Richard Hannay came back from a café, where the reads the paper every evening. As he arrived at his flat and opened the door, there was a man standing beside him. He asked Richard if he could come in for a minute. It was ok. When Richard and Scudder (that’s the name of the man) where inside, Scudder told Richard a very strange story. It was about an underground movement, which would like to cause a war between Germany and Russia. But there was a man, Constantine Karolides who wrecked their plans. The underground movement would kill Karolides, so there would come a war. This had to be prevented! Scudder told that the Black Stone, (that’s the name of the underground movement), would kill him also, because he knew too much of their plans. So he putted a dead body in his clothes and laid it in his bed, the people of the Black Stone would think, that Scudder was dead, and the problem was solved. But it worked not for long: when Richard came back from a dinner the next evening, he found Scudder laying on the ground, with a knife in his chest.
Richard was thinking how to tell the government about the Black Stone. He thought the Black Stone was aware, that he knew about their plans, so if he walked out of his flat, they would kill him. So he asked the milkman to borrow his suit for ten minutes and he gave the man a pound. In that ten minutes he walked out of his flat to the station to go to Galloway and Paddock (his servant) called the police. He had to do three things now, first to stay alive, second to prevent the police would found him and third he has to try to keep Karolides alive.
When he came in Galloway, he walked a few hours and then he saw a man in front of a house smoking a pipe. He asked the man if it was an inn, and it was. Richard got into the inn and told the man the whole story and he believed it.
The next day there came two men of the movement by the inn and asked for Richard, the keeper of the inn said he wasn’t there and Richard got into the car of the men and drove away. While he was driving he heard the noise of a helicopter, he thought it was the police, so he drove into the bushes and fell into a deep stream. He jumped out the car and by luck, he hang on a tree. He had caused an accident. The man of the other car came to him and asked if everything was all right and if Richard would come to his house. He did, and told Sir Harry, (that’s the man who took him to his house), the whole story about the Black Stone, because Sir Harry told his uncle was a minister in the government. And Sir Harry should tell the government everything.
Then Richard borrowed a bike from Sir Harry and rode off. A few hours later he saw the car with his enemies coming into his direction. He went to a roadman and said he would do his job if he could borrow his clothes. It worked. After a long workday as roadman Richard met Jopley, he told him he was Richard Hannay, and Jopley was very afraid of that murder. Richard borrowed Jopley’s car and they changed clothes. When they drove a few miles, Richard gave the car back and he walked further. When he came by a house, he rang. The man who opened, invited him, but it was the house of Richard’s enemies, who would kill him!! The man caught him, but in the room where he was caught, were some explosives, so Richard blew the door and ran away. He hid for a long time in the roof, and left in the night.
The next day, he saw a fisherman. The man invited him into his house, and Richard accepted the proposal. Sir Walter (the fisherman) told him, he was a friend of Scudder and Scudder had wrote him a letter. Sir Walter went, with the letter, to the police. And the police didn’t wanted him anymore.
Richard told Sir Walter also the whole story about Scudder and the Black Stone. After he told, the phone rang. The caller told Karolides was killed.
That was going to cause a lot of trouble. When Richard went to bed, Sir Walter called his chief to speak to the First Lord and the Secretary of War. They decided to send Royer. Sir Walter had a meeting with the most important ministers. Richard waited in the hall. After a time, Lord Alloa came out. Richard recognised him, but that was impossible! He never saw Lord Alloa before. So when the Lord left the house, Richard called to his house, but he was already a sleep for an hour. After the call he ran into the room, and told Sir Walter and the ministers what he had seen and he told about the call. They decided that the man, who acted if he was Lord Alloa, was an enemy who would like to have information about what they were going to do against the war.
Than Richard got an idea, he got Scudder’s notebook and looked for the words: Thirty-nine steps and high tide 10:17 p.m. They understood, they must to find a place, where it’s high tide at 10:17 p.m. That was by Bradgate. But the thirty-nine steps, what does that mean? Richard thought it was the number of steps in the stairs. So He went to Bradgate to check the stairs. There was one with thirty-nine steps. There was a house at the head of the stairs. He couldn’t see something strange; these men were very normal. Richard rang the bell of the house and a maid let him in. When he saw the men, he said they were arrested.
They reacted very normal, like everyone else should do. But Richard recognised the man who if he was Lord Alloa.
The men tried to run away, but they caught every criminal.
After seven weeks, when the whole world knew, there was a war. Richard enjoyed the New Army, but he thought he had done his best service, before the war begun.