55 pages • 1 hour read
Geoffrey TreaseCue for Treason
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1940A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Lonely Tower”
Tom, Peter, and Kit camp in the Stronghold. Peter’s family and their loyal neighbors, the Bells, secretly supply food and keep their horses. Peter, Kit, and Tom keep watch on Sir Philip’s peel tower nearby and Kit and Peter are amazed by Tom’s telescope. After two days of nothing happening, they go to explore the tower. Tom sees signs that riders have visited very recently and starts to pick the lock. Peter hears horses coming and they flee. Watching from the bushes, they see Sir Philip, Vicars, and two other riders enter the tower. Back at camp, the three friends eat and make notes, then set out to keep watch on the tower. Many other men join the first party. After night falls and the men leave, Tom determines to break into the tower. He instructs Peter to keep watch on the bridle path and hoot like an owl if anyone approaches. After waiting all night, Peter returns to camp, but Tom doesn’t.
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Heart of the Secret”
Peter and Kit decide that Peter will go into the tower to look for Tom while Kit keeps watch. Peter finds the door ajar and knows Tom wouldn’t have left it like that. Once in the tower, Tom finds a pool of blood in the first room. He starts towards the cellar but pauses on the steps in the dark when he hears two men enter the first room. He realizes they stayed behind to keep watch and have killed Tom. They discuss the conspiracy: At the next performance of Henry V, an actor named Somers has been bribed to shoot Queen Elizabeth through the curtains, at the same time as the stage cannons go off. One of their undercover men will kill him to ensure silence. The same day, they plan an uprising in the northern counties, and a Spanish fleet will invade the south coast. Peter recognizes one of the men as Anthony Duncan, a local gentleman who seems less ruthless than the other. Peter hears Kit whistle in warning and the men see that Sir Philip’s groom is returning. Peter decides to hide in the cellar but slips on blood on the stairs, dropping his pistol and knocking himself out, making noise.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Held for Questioning”
Peter wakes up by a lake, guarded by Duncan as the other man rows away. He tries to run, but they’re on a small island and Duncan manages to grab him before he can wade in to swim. Duncan ties him up but gives him food and drink. He anxiously tells Peter to tell him everything: He warns that the others won’t be so kind when they interrogate him. Peter refuses. Duncan goes to gather firewood. Peter smashes the wine bottle Duncan has given him and uses the sharp edge to cut his legs free. When Duncan is lighting a fire, Peter sneaks up behind him and knocks him unconscious with a rock. He manages to free his hands too. A storm starts, preventing him from swimming to the mainland.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Striding Edge”
Peter shelters in the hut. He ties up the unconscious Duncan. Once the storm passes, Peter swims to the mainland. It’s freezing and strenuous but his horror at the conspiracy motivates him: It would plunge the country into civil war, destroying the lives of ordinary people, not just the Queen.
On land, he begins the seven-mile walk home and is spotted by Sir Philip and a band of riders who give chase. He leaves the road, climbing up a mountainside where the horses can’t follow. Two men follow on foot. Peter hopes to lose them in the mists at the top and get down the other side. All three are exhausted. Peter is not so familiar with this part of Cumberland and is terrified when he reaches a rocky, horseshoe-shaped ridge with sheer drops either side, known as Striding Edge. Scrambling across the rocks in the mist, he takes a dead-end route, allowing the first pursuer to catch up. The man has to climb down to Peter and, as he does, Peter grabs his leg and topples him off the edge. He hears him rolling down the steep side of the mountain. Peter carries on, and when he looks back he sees the other pursuer peering down into the clouds after his companion.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Besieged”
Peter makes it home, where Kit and his family are relieved to see him. The men of the neighborhood are all out searching: Kit raised the alarm, and they all went to the peel tower but found it empty. Peter eats and sleeps, feeling recovered. They plan to go to the local authorities in Keswick and tell them everything so they can send an urgent message to Cecil in London. The next day, Sir Philip and some men come to the house, demanding to know where Peter is. His father says he doesn’t know. Sir Philip demands to search the house, but Peter’s family barricade the door. The men try to batter the door, but Peter’s father shoots one in the hand with his longbow, as a warning. The men retreat to cover, and the family realize they are going to approach from another angle, where he won’t be able to get a shot at them. Peter and Kit are small enough to slip through the narrow back window hidden at the back of the house. It’s agreed that they will go to the neighbors’ to get help and fetch their horses to ride to Keswick.
Chapters 15-19 Analysis
In this section, Trease shifts the tone of the story from adventurous escapades into a more serious, threatening reality as the plot’s tension and suspense reaches its climax.
Trease especially uses the character of Tom to increase the dark, adult-related theme, making him into the novel’s first murder victim. As an experienced agent, Tom is initially relaxed about the mission: He “remained in perfect good-humour; he’d enjoyed his lazy day” (195). Trease juxtaposes this with his seriousness as the full scale of the conspiracy emerges: He notes “this is getting bigger and uglier,” gritting his teeth (201). Trease builds narrative tension when Tom disappears in the tower: This is the first implication of actual violence happening in the story. This threat is realized when Peter explores the tower and slips in Tom’s blood: Trease introduces explicit violence. The grittier tone accompanies the full reveal of the conspiracy, reflecting the horror of the antagonists’ intentions.
Trease fosters this tone throughout this section: Peter thinks about the horrors of past civil wars. To him, the conspiracy is no longer a distant political scheme, but a real threat at the heart of his community. This nation-wide danger is mirrored by Peter’s increased personal danger: He was afraid of torture when he ran away, but, now captured, he is forced to seriously consider what he will do. The death of Tom reinforces the sense of Peter’s danger. Once Peter reunites with Kit and his family, Trease maintains tension even during this brief reprise: Peter counts the days until the conspiracy, aware of how long it takes a message to reach London (254). The tension switches to action again when Sir Philip attacks the family home, leaving Peter and Kit alone once more for the narrative climax in the next section.
As well as encountering violence for the first time in the narrative, Peter also inflicts violence himself, adding to the grittier tone: In desperation, he physically attacks first Duncan and then his pursuer, both likely to cause serious injury or death. Trease shows the grim side of Peter’s Coming of Age story: The brutality of his world forces him into terrible choices. However, Trease also shows that despite this, Peter retains his moral and empathetic character: He is relieved that Duncan is ok and makes sure he’ll be able to escape when he comes round (235). This section is also the first time Peter has faced challenges alone since meeting Kit, adding to the sense of danger, and highlighting his responsibility—only he knows the details of the conspiracy, so the fate of the country lies with him.
The setting of Cumberland also plays an important role in this section. Peter must overcome the natural environment, paralleling the human antagonists he faces: The lake and Striding Edge test both his physical and mental strength. Both he and his enemies attempt to use the landscape to their advantage: They trap him on the island, and he runs up the mountain where he can’t be pursued on horseback. Trease suggests that The Impact of Social Structures cannot always compete with the impersonal power of nature: Although the nobility have horses, manpower, and weapons, once Peter escapes into the mountains these are useless. They are an equalizer, benefitting Peter who knows his region’s terrain better than the other men. Trease also explores this theme through the minor characters in this section. The neighborhood farmers, including the Bells, look out for Peter and his family, showing the power of community, but his mother warns that there may be some who are careless or disloyal. Similarly, Trease ensures the conspirators have different personalities (just as the spies in Chapter 13). Duncan is nervous, and sympathetic to Peter, unlike his callous companion or the calculating Sir Philip. Trease suggests that, though social structures impact people, they do not determine individual character: He does not paint them all as the same evil villain. As with Peter’s morality and empathy, Trease maintains the humanity of his characters despite the grittier tone of this section, adding to the jeopardy of their fate and the moral lesson of their individual choices.
This section heightens the stakes by introducing a real threat of violence, and revealing the full details of the conspiracy, furthering the plot in preparation for the climax of the final section.
