{"product_id":"2940012859082","title":"THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  1.  The Man Who Died\u003cbr\u003e  2.  The Milkman Sets Out on his Travels\u003cbr\u003e  3.  The Adventure of the Literary Innkeeper\u003cbr\u003e  4.  The Adventure of the Radical Candidate\u003cbr\u003e  5.  The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadman\u003cbr\u003e  6.  The Adventure of the Bald Archaeologist\u003cbr\u003e  7.  The Dry-Fly Fisherman\u003cbr\u003e  8.  The Coming of the Black Stone\u003cbr\u003e  9.  The Thirty-Nine Steps\u003cbr\u003e 10.  Various Parties Converging on the Sea\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER ONE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Man Who Died\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon\u003cbr\u003epretty well disgusted with life.  I had been three months in the Old\u003cbr\u003eCountry, and was fed up with it.  If anyone had told me a year ago that\u003cbr\u003eI would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but\u003cbr\u003ethere was the fact.  The weather made me liverish, the talk of the\u003cbr\u003eordinary Englishman made me sick, I couldn't get enough exercise, and\u003cbr\u003ethe amusements of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been\u003cbr\u003estanding in the sun.  'Richard Hannay,' I kept telling myself, 'you\u003cbr\u003ehave got into the wrong ditch, my friend, and you had better climb out.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt made me bite my lips to think of the plans I had been building up\u003cbr\u003ethose last years in Bulawayo.  I had got my pile--not one of the big\u003cbr\u003eones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways\u003cbr\u003eof enjoying myself.  My father had brought me out from Scotland at the\u003cbr\u003eage of six, and I had never been home since; so England was a sort of\u003cbr\u003eArabian Nights to me, and I counted on stopping there for the rest of\u003cbr\u003emy days.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut from the first I was disappointed with it.  In about a week I was\u003cbr\u003etired of seeing sights, and in less than a month I had had enough of\u003cbr\u003erestaurants and theatres and race-meetings.  I had no real pal to go\u003cbr\u003eabout with, which probably explains things.  Plenty of people invited\u003cbr\u003eme to their houses, but they didn't seem much interested in me.  They\u003cbr\u003ewould fling me a question or two about South Africa, and then get on\u003cbr\u003etheir own affairs.  A lot of Imperialist ladies asked me to tea to meet\u003cbr\u003eschoolmasters from New Zealand and editors from Vancouver, and that was\u003cbr\u003ethe dismalest business of all.  Here was I, thirty-seven years old,\u003cbr\u003esound in wind and limb, with enough money to have a good time, yawning\u003cbr\u003emy head off all day.  I had just about settled to clear out and get\u003cbr\u003eback to the veld, for I was the best bored man in the United Kingdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat afternoon I had been worrying my brokers about investments to give\u003cbr\u003emy mind something to work on, and on my way home I turned into my\u003cbr\u003eclub--rather a pot-house, which took in Colonial members.  I had a long\u003cbr\u003edrink, and read the evening papers.  They were full of the row in the\u003cbr\u003eNear East, and there was an article about Karolides, the Greek Premier.\u003cbr\u003eI rather fancied the chap.  From all accounts he seemed the one big man\u003cbr\u003ein the show; and he played a straight game too, which was more than\u003cbr\u003ecould be said for most of them.  I gathered that they hated him pretty\u003cbr\u003eblackly in Berlin and Vienna, but that we were going to stick by him,\u003cbr\u003eand one paper said that he was the only barrier between Europe and\u003cbr\u003eArmageddon.  I remember wondering if I could get a job in those parts.\u003cbr\u003eIt struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man\u003cbr\u003efrom yawning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbout six o'clock I went home, dressed, dined at the Cafe Royal, and\u003cbr\u003eturned into a music-hall.  It was a silly show, all capering women and\u003cbr\u003emonkey-faced men, and I did not stay long.  The night was fine and\u003cbr\u003eclear as I walked back to the flat I had hired near Portland Place.\u003cbr\u003eThe crowd surged past me on the pavements, busy and chattering, and I\u003cbr\u003eenvied the people for having something to do.  These shop-girls and\u003cbr\u003eclerks and dandies and policemen had some interest in life that kept\u003cbr\u003ethem going.  I gave half-a-crown to a beggar because I saw him yawn; he\u003cbr\u003ewas a fellow-sufferer.  At Oxford Circus I looked up into the spring\u003cbr\u003esky and I made a vow.  I would give the Old Country another day to fit\u003cbr\u003eme into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for\u003cbr\u003ethe Cape.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place.  There\u003cbr\u003ewas a common staircase, with a porter and a liftman at the entrance,\u003cbr\u003ebut there was no restaurant or anything of that sort, and each flat was\u003cbr\u003equite shut off from the others.  I hate servants on the premises, so I\u003cbr\u003ehad a fellow to look after me who came in by the day.  He arrived\u003cbr\u003ebefore eight o'clock every morning and used to depart at seven, for I\u003cbr\u003enever dined at home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was just fitting my key into the door when I noticed a man at my\u003cbr\u003eelbow.  I had not seen him approach, and the sudden appearance made me\u003cbr\u003estart.  He was a slim man, with a short brown beard and small, gimlety\u003cbr\u003eblue eyes.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079147110640,"sku":"2940012859082","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012859082_p0.jpg?v=1763573154","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012859082","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}