The Thirty Nine Steps

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.