Summary of Chapter 1 to 4

Scudder is chased by German spies so he stops at Hannay’s flat and asks him for help, since he needs to a place to hide. Scudder tells Hannay that these spies are running after him because he knows about their plot to murder Primer Minister Karolides, who is coming to London on June 15th. Hannay lets Scudder hide in his flat for several days and Scudder warns him about two

dangerous German spies, Julia and an old man. Scudder asks Hannay to continue the fight if something happens to him. The following day, Hannay finds Scudder dead.

Hannay decides to continue Scudder’s work, but he needs to run away to Scotland before Scudder’s enemies, the German spies catch him. So he leaves his flat dressed up as a milkman. He then gets on a train to Galloway taking with him Scudder’s little book.

 While Hannay travels by train to Galloway, he reads Scudder’s notes and discovers that he used a special code. The next day, on a train to Dumfries, he reads the newspaper and finds out that the London police have discovered Scudder’s body and that they were looking for him, so he decides to get off the train. Hannay runs towards the river and up the hills and sees a plane flying around the place. He realises that the German spies are after him. He walks until he reaches an inn. The Young innkeeper is a writer, so Hannay decides to tell him his story but asks him not to do anything before June 15th. The German spies come to the inn looking for Hannay, but he manages to escape.

Hannay drives away in a stolen car. Now that he has learnt how to read Scudder’s code, he knows that the Germans are planning to kill Karolides to have an excuse to start the war. The words “thirty-nine steps” are everywhere in Scudder’s notebook but he does not understand what they mean. He realises that the local police and the German plane are chasing him so he jumps out of the car and lets it fall into a river. Hannay is lucky to be helped by a young man, Sir Harry, who happens to be the nephew of the Foreign Office Secretary, so Hannay tells him his story. Sir Harry decides to help Hannay by

sending a letter to his uncle to schedule a meeting with him before June 15th.