English (Footprints Without Feet) · CBSE Class 10 · Supplementary Reader · Victor Canning · 25 Quiz
A Question of Trust — Summary, Author, Theme & Glossary
About the Author
Victor Canning (1911–1986) was a British writer of thrillers and adventure stories known for their clever twists.
Theme
The story humorously tests the sayings ‘set a thief to catch a thief’ and ‘honour among thieves’. It shows that a thief who trusts another thief may himself be cheated — there is really no honour among thieves.
Summary
Horace Danby is about fifty, unmarried, and appears a ‘good and respectable’ citizen — a successful lock-maker. But he is ‘not completely honest’: a lover of rare, expensive books, he robs one safe every year to buy them, stealing just enough to last twelve months. This July he plans to rob Shotover Grange, which he has studied carefully for two weeks. The family is in London and the servants have gone to the movies. He slips in (keeping his gloves on to avoid fingerprints), quietens the dog Sherry by using its name, and prepares to open the safe hidden behind a painting — all the while troubled by his hay fever.
Suddenly a young, pretty woman in red appears, behaving confidently as if she is the lady of the house. She chats with Horace, scolds the dog familiarly, and threatens to call the police. Then she offers him a deal: she will let him go if he opens the safe for her, claiming she has forgotten the numbers and wants her jewels for a party. Eager to escape, Horace takes off his gloves to light her cigarette and opens the safe without gloves, handing her the jewels, then leaves happily.
Two days later, Horace is arrested for the robbery. His fingerprints are all over the room (he had removed his gloves), and no one believes his story that the lady had asked him to open the safe — for the real wife is a grey-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty who calls the tale nonsense. The charming young woman was herself a thief who had tricked him. Horace, now the prison’s assistant librarian, grows very angry whenever anyone speaks of ‘honour among thieves’.
Glossary
hay fever = an allergy of the nose/throat caused by pollen or dust; meticulous = very careful about detail; faltered = made a mistake/hesitated; hindering = obstructing; ornaments = decorative objects; apt = suitable.
NCERT Textbook Solutions (A Question of Trust)
RF1-1Read and Find Out: What does Horace Danby like to collect?
Horace Danby loves to collect rare, expensive books.
RF1-2Why does he steal every year?
He robs one safe every year to get money to buy the rare books he loves. Each year he plans carefully, steals enough to last twelve months, and secretly buys the books through an agent.
RF2-1Read and Find Out: Who is speaking to Horace Danby?
A young, pretty woman dressed in red speaks to him. She behaves as if she is the lady (wife) of the house — but she is actually a thief in disguise.
RF2-2Who is the real culprit in the story?
The young woman in red is the real culprit. She is herself a clever thief who tricks Horace into opening the safe for her and makes off with the jewels, leaving him to be caught for the robbery.
TI-1Think about it: Did you suspect, before the end, that the lady was not who Horace thought? At what point, and how?
(Sample) Yes, one can begin to suspect her. The first real clue is when she asks Horace to open the safe because she has ‘forgotten the numbers’ — the true lady of the house would surely know her own safe’s combination. Her over-friendliness, her amusement at meeting a burglar and her readiness to let him go in exchange for a ‘favour’ also hint that she is not an honest house-owner but a fellow thief.
TI-2What subtle ways does the lady use to deceive Horace? Why doesn’t he suspect anything?
She behaves with complete confidence as if she owns the house — she scolds the dog Sherry familiarly (‘Anyone would think I’d been away for a month’), straightens the ornaments on the fireplace, casually takes a cigarette from the silver box, and talks naturally about ‘my husband’ and ‘my jewels’ and a party. These natural, assured actions convince Horace she is the lady of the house. He does not suspect anything because he is nervous, desperate to escape prison, and eager to please her — so he accepts her story gratefully.
TI-3Why is ‘good and respectable — but not completely honest’ apt for Horace? Why isn’t he a typical thief?
The description is apt because, outwardly, Horace is a respectable, successful lock-maker whom everyone thinks honest, yet he secretly robs a safe every year. He is not a typical thief because he is gentle and non-violent (he hates the thought of hurting the lady), kind to animals, steals only from the rich and only once a year for a specific, almost innocent purpose — to buy the books he loves — and hates both violence and prison. He is really a mild, book-loving man rather than a hardened criminal.
TI-4Horace was a meticulous planner, yet he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?
Horace’s fatal mistake was taking off his gloves — he removed them to give the young woman his cigarette lighter and then opened the safe without gloves, leaving his fingerprints all over the room. He went wrong because he blindly trusted a stranger (the fake lady) and, eager to please her and win his freedom, grew careless and abandoned his usual caution. His trust and carelessness undid all his careful planning.
TA-1Talk about it: Do you think Horace Danby was unfairly punished, or did he deserve what he got?
(Sample) In one sense Horace deserved punishment, for he was a thief who had robbed safes for fifteen years. Yet there is a bitter irony — he was punished for a theft he was tricked into, while the real thief, the clever young woman, escaped free with the jewels. So his punishment was partly deserved (for being a thief) but also unfair, since the true culprit went unpunished.
TA-2Do intentions justify actions? Would you do something wrong if the ends justified the means?
(Sample) No, good intentions do not justify wrong actions. Horace stole ‘for a good reason’ (to buy books) and only from the rich, yet stealing remained wrong and finally landed him in prison. The ‘ends justify the means’ argument is dangerous — if everyone broke rules for their own ‘good reasons’, society would collapse. Honesty and lawful means matter, whatever the goal.