40 pages • 1 hour read
John BuchanThe Thirty Nine Steps
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1915A 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 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Adventure of the Bald Archaeologist”
Hannay wakes up having spent a night outdoors under a cover of heather. Though he is hungry and regrets leaving several of his possessions at Turnbull’s cottage, he reflects that he has been lucky so far. Almost as soon as he wakes up, he realizes police are nearby and attributes their proximity to Marmie getting revenge for his kidnapping the night before. Hannay flees on foot, doing his best to lose the police.
Hannay finds a moorland house decorated like a museum, with artifacts in glass cases. Inside is an old archaeologist. The man agrees to hide Hannay, saying he dislikes policemen. Once the police are gone, however, he calls Hannay by name, and, when his eyelids droop, Hannay realizes he is one of the Black Stone spies whom Scudder mentioned. Though scared, Hannay sticks to his alias of Ned Ainslie, an innocent man who found money in the crashed car. The old man is doubtful but “badly puzzled” and decides to lock Hannay in a storeroom (71).
Hannay finds a flashlight and “lentonite,” an explosive he recognizes from his work in the mining industry (74). He connects the lentonite to a fuse and trigger box to create an explosion that collapses the outside wall of the storeroom. The blast causes Hannay to temporarily lose consciousness, choke on yellow smoke, and have a block of debris injure his shoulder. He does, though, manage to get out of the house. He hides first in a nearby mill and then in a dovecote. Hannay stays there for several hours, feeling weak and thirsty. While looking around, he realizes the monoplane that followed him is parked at a landing site in a group of trees near the house. Hannay is angry that “our enemies” have a base of operations hiding on British soil and regrets not knowing how to sabotage the plane (79). Once darkness falls, he crawls across the lawn, gets a drink of water from a stream, and escapes onto the open moors.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Dry-Fly Fisherman”
Hannay makes it back to Turnbull’s home, where he spends 10 days recovering. Turnbull provides quiet but considerate hospitality. He grows almost angry at Hannay’s insistence on paying him when he departs. Hannay has other worries, though. Since he has spent a total of three weeks in Scotland, he has only a few days remaining to thwart the Black Stone’s scheme.
Hannay boards a train to Artinswell, near where Sir Harry’s godfather, Sir Walter, lives. Once there, Hannay walks along a road and begins whistling “Annie Laurie.” A dry-fly fisherman fishing a nearby stream begins whistling along. When Hannay mentions “a black stone,” the fisherman asks if his name is Twisdon, the alias Hannay told Sir Harry (86). The fisherman is, in fact, Sir Walter, and he invites Hannay to his sumptuous country home.
Sir Walter loans Hannay formal clothes for dinner and reveals that he heard about him from a note Scudder sent before his death. Sir Walter also states that he cleared Hannay’s name with the London police, so he is no longer suspected of murder. Though Sir Walter believes enemies want to know the position of England’s navy, he doubts anyone would want Karolides dead. He suggests that Scudder could be over-dramatic, self-important, and antisemitic. Sir Walter is proven at least partially wrong, however, when an urgent call informs him that Karolides has been shot dead.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
Hannay’s adventure has shifted from being a welcome diversion to having personal as well as political consequences. Hannay sleeps in the open for the first time and experiences extreme hunger, thirst, and pain after the explosion. The natural landscape, a motif of comfort up to now, is beginning to wear him out. Though the skills he developed abroad continue to help him, Hannay acknowledges that his success has also come from luck. This caveat raises the question, for Hannay and the audience, of whether that luck will run out. Buchan also uses these details to keep Hannay grounded as an ordinary man, if one with a convenient set of skills. Hannay’s rigging of the explosive in Chapter 6 is a familiar trope in spy stories, demonstrating ingenuity in the face of desperation.
While Hannay’s patriotic individualism keeps him motivated as he adapts to the challenges of Chapter 6, Chapter 7 also suggests that he cannot complete his task alone. He is helped by Turnbull and Sir Walter, who contrast greatly in social class and manners. Turnbull is quiet while Sir Walter chats easily. Turnbull asks no questions about Hannay’s business while Sir Walter openly acknowledges the ongoing espionage. Hannay is nursed to recovery in Turnbull’s small cottage, then well-clothed and fed in Sir Walter’s country manor. These contrasting scenes align with Buchan’s life: He was a political elite who wrote for and about the average British citizen.
These chapters also highlight the contrast between two secondary characters: the old man of the Black Stone and Sir Walter. Both men are shrewd observers, the old man suspecting Hannay even through his alias, and Sir Walter quickly identifying Hannay on the road near his home. The old man represents the underworld machinations Scudder introduced at the beginning. Though the audience receives few details about the Black Stone’s activities, the hidden airport and hideout in the Scottish countryside suggest a skillful secrecy that make Hannay and the audience wary of the old man. In contrast, Sir Walter remains skeptical of the full extent of the German plot until confronted with Karolides’s assassination. Sir Walter’s identification as a dry-fly fisherman highlights his bridging role. Dry flies stay on the surface of the water, suggesting that Sir Walter keeps a distance from the darker aspects of espionage. The old man and Sir Walter show how bureaucratic systems can both aid in the uncovering of truth, like clearing Hannay’s name, and be blind to realities, like the old man’s scheming in plain sight.
