The Thirty-Nine Steps: Chapter Four Quiz

The Journey Begins

• The narrator starts his journey in a 40 h.p. car, driving away from the inn on a crisp May morning
• He is preoccupied with the contents of Scudder's pocket-book, which reveals a different story than what Scudder had told him

Scudder's Story Unravels

• Scudder's stories about the Balkans, Jew-Anarchists, and the Foreign Office Conference are lies
• However, the narrator believes the new story in the pocket-book, despite being let down earlier
• The story seems desperately true, and the first yarn had a truth to it in spirit

Constantine Karolides

• Karolides is a man who has wrecked games and is the one big brain in the show
• He is honest and has been marked down for the past 12 months
• Scudder found out how Karolides was going to be gotten, and that knowledge was deadly

The Plot to Get Karolides

• Karolides is coming to the city on the 15th day of June for an International tea-party
• Scudder's friends plan to get him on that day, and Karolides will not return to his country if they succeed
• Scudder's goal is to warn Karolides and keep him at home

The Cipher

• Scudder gives the narrator a cipher to decode, using the name Julia Czechenyi as the key
• The cipher is cracked, and the narrator reads Scudder's pages with a whitish face and drumming fingers

The Pursuers Arrive

• Two men in aquascutums and tweed caps arrive at the inn, looking for the narrator
• They are described as a dark-eyed thin fellow with bushy eyebrows and a smiling man who lisps

Test your knowledge on Chapter Four of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by answering questions related to the events, characters, and themes in this part of the story.