When they pass the local police station, they say they are going to Inverary, 40 miles away. He is taken away the policemen insist Pamela accompany them. He gives a rousing impromptu speech, but Pamela gives him away to the police once more.

Hiding at a political meeting, he is mistaken for the introductory speaker. The sheriff does not believe him, since Jordan is his best friend. However, the bullet is stopped by a hymnary in the crofter's coat. He offers Hannay the opportunity to commit suicide, then shoots him and leaves him for dead. When Hannay states that the leader of the spies is missing the top joint of the little finger of his left hand, Jordan shows his right hand, which is missing that joint. He eventually reaches Alt-na-Shellach, the house of Professor Jordan, where a party is going on. The police chase after him, even employing an autogyro, but he eludes them. Early the next morning, Margaret sees the headlights of a police car approaching and wakes Hannay before he flees, she gives him her husband's coat. Making his way north, he stays the night with a crofter and his much younger wife, Margaret. However, she alerts the policemen, who stop the train on the Forth Rail Bridge. When he sees police searching the train, he goes to another compartment and kisses the sole occupant, Pamela, to try to avoid capture. At Waverley Station in Edinburgh, he learns that he is the target of a nationwide manhunt for Smith's murderer.

He then boards the Flying Scotsman express train to Scotland.

He sneaks out of his flat disguised as a milkman to avoid the waiting assassins. Hannay finds a map of the Scottish Highlands clutched in her hand, showing the area around Killin, with a building named 'Alt-na-Shellach' circled. Later that night, Smith bursts into Hannay's bedroom and warns him to flee, before dying from a knife in her back. She mentions 'The 39 Steps', but does not explain the phrase. She claims that she has uncovered a plot to steal vital British military information, masterminded by a man missing the top joint of one finger. She tells him her name is Annabella Smith, she is a spy and she fired the shots to create a diversion so she could elude assassins. In the ensuing panic, Hannay finds himself holding a seemingly frightened woman who persuades him to take her back to his flat. Memory' demonstrate his powers of recall when gunshots are heard. At a London music hall theatre, Richard Hannay is watching 'Mr.

The thirty nine steps by john buchan