John Buchan Trivia

1. How did Hannay escape from his flat after Scudder's murder?

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: He was disguised as a milkman.

He gave the milkman a sovereign in return for the loan of his clothes and milk crate.

From Quiz The Thirty-Nine Steps

Answer: The Greek Premier, Karolides

Scudder told Hannay that after college, he had spent time traveling in Europe and made many contacts; through them, he had pieced together a plot against Constantine Karolides. Hannay had just been reading about Karolides in the newspaper that day, so he became particularly interested in the story. Scudder told him that Karolides was being targeted because he was "an honest man" who had interfered with the anarchists' plans. They weren't able to get to Karolides in Greece because he was too well protected, but they believed they could get him in England. Scudder believed that he could stop the assassination if he could just keep alive until June 15th, the day that Karolides was scheduled to be in London. Unfortunately, the group that was after Karolides knew about Scudder, and they were following him now, which was why he faked his death.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: In the tobacco jar

The murderer(s) ransacked the flat but did not find it.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: He wants to be a writer.

Hannay confides in him and he helps Hannay on his way by misleading the pursuers.

From Quiz The Thirty-Nine Steps

Answer: Scotland

Hannay decided to head to Scotland because he believed there would be places to hide there, and since his family was Scottish, he thought he could pass for a Scotsman. He decided on Galloway since it wasn't heavily populated. After ditching the milkman disguise he used to escape his apartment, he went straight to St. Pancras station and got on a train headed north.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: Julia Czechenyi

Scudder had given Hannay the clue since he had repeatedly said that this woman was the key to the whole plot.

From Quiz The Thirty-Nine Steps

Answer: Give a speech on free trade at a political meeting

Sir Harry helped Hannay after their near collision; he offered to take him to his house and give him a bed for the night. But when he found out that Hannay was a colonial, he talked him into giving a speech at a meeting that was taking place that evening. Sir Harry was campaigning and had lined up a speaker who had canceled at the last moment. Hannay presented the speech, pretending to be an Australian ("praying there should be no Australian there"). Afterward, Hannay told his true story to Sir Harry, and not only did Sir Harry believe him, he offered to help. Sir Harry's godfather was the Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, so Sir Harry wrote him a letter, asking him to listen to Hannay (who was going by the name of Twisdon).

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: Mention The Blackstone and whistle " Annie Laurie"

Sir Walter Bullivant was permanent Secretary to the Foreign Office.

From Quiz The Thirty-Nine Steps

Answer: Road construction worker

In the chapter, "The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadman", Hannay had spotted the roadman, Alexander Turnbull, as Hannay was trying to find somewhere to hide from his pursuers (not only were the Black Stone agents looking for him, the police were also pursuing him as a suspect in Scudder's murder). Turnbull was a bit the worse for wear, as he told Hannay, because he'd been up late drinking at his daughter's wedding, and he was worried because the new road surveyor was doing an inspection that day, and he'd be in trouble because of his condition. Hannay volunteered to take his place since the surveyor didn't know what Turnbull looked like. Turnbull was apparently too much out of it to question why Hannay would do so; he just gladly turned over his coat, hat and glasses to Hannay, and he returned to his house to sleep it off. Hannay meanwhile scuffed up his boots and rubbed dirt into his skin to disguise his appearance and then set to work in Turnbull's place. The disguise worked; when agents of the Black Stone stopped and questioned him, they believed him to be a workman.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: He had a hangover.

He had celebrated too well at his daughter Merrin's wedding. His name was Alexander Turnbull, otherwise known as Specky.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: He could hood his eyes like a hawk.

In the many film versions other means of recognition have been used, presumably because of the difficulty of hooding one's eyes like hawk!

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: Trafalgar Lodge

The house was on the Ruff, a big chalk headland in Kent, and had thirty nine steps leading down to the beach.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: Ariadne

One of the villains escapes to the Ariadne but finds she has been taken over by the British.

From Quiz The Thirty-Nine Steps

Answer: A staircase from a villa to the sea

Hannay determined that the Black Stone spies were going to leave the country from some place where high tide would occur at 10:17 pm and that somehow, there were thirty-nine steps at that location. He guessed that the location was probably a remote site on the east coast and that the high tide was necessary for a boat to reach the location. A Coastguard Inspector was brought in and questioned regarding possible locations, and he mentioned the Ruff, "a big chalk headland in Kent, close to Bradgate. It's got a lot of villas on the top, and some of the houses have staircases down to a private beach." Hannay then went to the Ruff and asked a house agent to count the steps on the private staircases; sure enough, one of them had a staircase with thirty-nine steps. The house belonged to a retired gentleman named Appleton, and both he and his property appeared to be traditionally British. But Hannay knew better than to trust appearances, and he arranged for Scotland Yard to send some men to station around the property. Meanwhile, he went on a fishing trip that gave him an opportunity to see the property from the sea. He also was able to get a close-up view of a yacht that had dropped anchor offshore and realized that the officer on board was German. When he later went to the villa and confronted Appleton and his guests, he began to think that he made a mistake; the men seemed to truly be English gentleman living a quiet life. But then he noticed Appleton tapping his fingers on his knee, the same gesture that the bald archaeologist had made when he trapped Hannay in the farmhouse. He saw through their disguises and blew his whistle to alert the authorities who captured the men.

From Quiz Plunder with the Buchaneers!

Answer: Playing bridge with them

He recognizes that Mr Appleton is the same man as the bald archaeologist who could hood his eyes like a hawk.

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