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 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Coming of the Black Stone”
Hannay helps Sir Walter make plans for how to stop the Black Stone. A French representative, Royer, will meet a small group of politicians at Sir Walter’s London house that night to receive intelligence about Britain’s naval arrangements. They suspect the Black Stone will try to steal the information.
Dressed as a chauffeur, Hannay drives Sir Walter from his country house to his London residence. They first visit an official at Scotland Yard, MacGillivray, to confirm that Hannay is no longer a suspect. From there, Hannay is told he can return to his London apartment and wait while the diplomats take care of their business.
Though he knows the details are out of his control, Hannay feels restless after being in the middle of the intrigue for several weeks. He feels the need to go to Sir Walter’s house. Along the way, he runs into Marmie, who yells out that he is a murderer and tries to get his friends and a nearby policeman to seize Hannay. As Hannay’s frustration breaks out, he punches Marmie and flees to Sir Walter’s.
Sir Walter’s butler allows Hannay to wait in the hall while the political meeting goes on in a back room. Hannay sees the First Sea Lord Alloa, who was supposed to miss the meeting, arrive at Sir Walter’s and go to join the others. After a while, Alloa leaves the meeting and passes by Hannay on his way out of the house. As he does, a flash of recognition crosses his face. Hannay believes the man must be someone he met during his recent adventures who now is in disguise. He quickly calls Alloa’s house and confirms that he is home in bed. Interrupting the meeting in the back room, Hannay announces that they have been tricked by the Black Stone.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Thirty-Nine Steps”
At first, the politicians in Sir Walter’s meeting doubt they would have missed an imposter. Hannay suggests they could have overlooked him because they did not think to be suspicious. Royer backs him up with a story about fishing in Senegal and not realizing his horse had been eaten by a lion because he did not think to look more closely until it was almost too late. They doubt, however, that the imposter would be able to remember everything, since he largely sat silently and did not take any materials with him. However, Royer suggests that a good spy can quickly memorize a large amount of information. The men agree they want to stop the spy before he leaves England. They worry that he might send the intelligence remotely, but Royer suggests spies like to deliver information and be rewarded in person.
Hannay remembers the line in Scudder’s notebook about 39 steps and high tide at 10:17 pm and suspects they are clues to a departure location. Sir Walter updates Scotland Yard while the rest visit the Admiralty offices to consult tide charts. To help them narrow down possible locations, Hannay writes out the details that are “Fairly Certain” and “Guessed” (109). They then ask where a small dock might be on the southeast coast, accessible by a 39-step staircase, and with the 10:17 pm high tide. They identify “the Ruff,” near Bradgate in Kent (111). Hannay worries he has guessed wrong. But the officials say they trust him, and he departs for Kent with a Scotland Yard deputy.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Various Parties Converging on the Sea”
Hannay and the deputy, Scaife, travel to where they hope to find the 39 steps and the German spies. Along the way, they see a British destroyer docked off the coast, which Scaife knows how to contact. They find several vacation homes with private stairs down a cliff to the water. Hannay observes their surroundings while Scaife counts stairs, and one is exactly 39 steps long. They learn the stairs belong to a house called Trafalgar Lodge that is reportedly owned by Mr. Appleton, a retired stockbroker. While they watch the house, a yacht named the Ariadne anchors just off the coast. Hannay and Scaife go out to it and chat with the seemingly British crewmembers while an officer with a short German-style haircut watches them.
Hannay sends Scaife to gather backup and observes the house until the evening, when they will converge. The longer he watches, the more he doubts they have the right place. The house flies a Union Jack and the residents, three men, chat in English accents with English turns of phrase. To reassure himself, Hannay remembers a scout he knew in Rhodesia named Peter Pienaar who told him that the best camouflage is a total commitment to one’s surroundings and that the best spies becomes the person they are impersonating (126).
As evening approaches, Hannay goes to the house. He says that, though he has gotten along well with both working-class Scots and upper-class politicians, he feels least confident in these middle-class surroundings. In the house, the three men are sitting down to dinner and act shocked and confused at Hannay’s announcement that they are under arrest. They are so convincing that Hannay delays action while they finish dinner and sit down to a game of bridge. Finally, in a moment of unconscious fidgeting, the old man taps his fingers on his knee. Hannay recognizes it as the precise gesture used by the archaeologist in the moorland house in Chapter 6. He blows the whistle to call the reinforcements just as one of the spies turns off the lights. In the following scuffle, the youngest of the men escapes. The old man declares the Black Stone has won, but Hannay reveals that the suspected getaway yacht, the Ariadne, has already been taken over by the British destroyer. Hannay reflects that the old man was “a patriot” in his own way (129). Then, the story ends with the observation that though this adventure was Hannay’s “best service” to his country (129), World War I started only seven weeks later.
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
This final chapter grouping is distinguished by a shift in titles. Chapters 1-7 are named for characters whom Hannay meets and whose identities he sometimes borrows. Chapters 8 and 10 are named for groups, “the Black Stone” and “Various Parties” respectively, while Chapter 9 is named for a location, mirroring the book title, “The Thirty-Nine Steps.” This shift from singular to collective titles reflects the narrative development as the elements of espionage and political maneuvering come together. While Hannay continues to show individual initiative, he also partners with Sir Walter and Scotland Yard to lead a confrontation with widespread geopolitical implications. While the novel remains centered on Hannay, Buchan lends it larger implications and potential interest for the audience by emphasizing the stakes of the events for people and groups beyond the protagonist.
Hannay returns to London in parallel to his departure at the beginning of the novel. He again feels restless, though now with a more specific cause. As in Chapter 2, he feels compelled to see Scudder’s project through to its conclusion. In contrast to his initial lighthearted attitude, however, Hannay feels increasingly anxious and angry until he lashes out at Marmie. This return to a familiar setting is often used to give stories a sense of coming full circle.
Chapter 9 answers lingering questions the audience might have before the novel’s climactic scene. Hannay and Sir Walter clarify what the Black Stone want and why they must be stopped. In addition, the Alloa disguise was foreshadowed by Hannay’s use of disguises throughout the novel. While the novel’s explanation for why the Black Stone doesn’t simply telegraph the information abroad is implausible (spies like to deliver information in person), it does allow for a dramatic confrontation at the story’s climax.
Hannay’s involvement in these details confirms the extraordinary lengths to which an ordinary man can go. He acknowledges the strangeness of his position, even when the politicians empower him to lead the confrontation in Kent. In doing so, Hannay feels compelled by political individualism to contribute to the counterespionage, even when he could hand over responsibility to professionals. Though the political establishment must be convinced not to wave away the threat of the spy network, it eventually accepts Royer’s and Hannay’s explanations.
The theme of Appearance and Reality becomes essential to the end of the novel. The politicians overlooked the imposter Alloa because they had no reason to be suspicious. In Chapter 10, Hannay worries repeatedly that he found the wrong men because they appear thoroughly convincing in their English middle-class appearances. Both instances highlight the skillfulness of the Black Stone. Hannay has to overcome this false perception. When he recognizes the old man’s unconscious gesture, he says, “Some shadow lifted from my brain” (126), suggesting a literal shift from darkness to light. Buchan is not the first author to play with identity or to use the revelation of hidden spies in a story’s climax. However, this novel serves as an early example of techniques that become increasingly popular in post-war international spy thrillers.
