- The full story of a careful burglar who is out-tricked by a cleverer thief
- Who Horace Danby is, and why he steals only once a year
- How the lady in red fools him, and the one small slip that sends him to prison
- The irony of the title and the two old sayings in the book’s opening note
- Characters, themes, key lines, the glossary word and short answers to every “Read and find out”, “Think about it” and “Talk about it” question
1The Author and the Opening Note
The story ends with the name VICTOR CANNING. As general knowledge (not stated in the book), Victor Canning was a British writer best known for thrillers and crime stories.
1.1 Two Old Sayings
Before the story begins, the book sets out two old sayings and asks which one the story proves:
“Set a thief to catch a thief”
- Only a thief understands how another thief thinks, so a thief is best at catching one.
- In the story, a thief (the lady) sees through a thief (Horace) and uses him.
“Honour among thieves”
- The idea that criminals keep faith with one another.
- The story shows the opposite: one thief happily lets another go to prison.
The story illustrates “set a thief to catch a thief”. It proves “honour among thieves” false, which is why Horace now gets very angry whenever someone uses that phrase.
2The Story, Step by Step
2.1 Horace Danby: Two Lives
To his neighbours, Horace Danby was a good, honest citizen. The book describes him as “good and respectable”, then adds that he was “not completely honest”.
| The life people saw | The secret life |
|---|---|
| About fifty, unmarried, looked after by a housekeeper who fussed over his health | Robbed one safe every year |
| A successful lock-maker with two helpers | Took just enough to live on for twelve months |
| Healthy, apart from hay fever in summer | Bought rare, expensive books secretly through an agent |
| Respected in society | Had been in prison once, fifteen years ago, serving his only sentence in the prison library |
Hay fever (book’s glossary) is a disorder of the nose and throat caused by an allergy to pollen or dust. It makes a person sneeze again and again, and it is Horace’s weakness all through the robbery.
2.2 The Careful Plan
On a bright July afternoon Horace was sure this year’s job would go as smoothly as every other. His target was the house at Shotover Grange.
2.3 Inside the House
- Sherry the dog lay in the kitchen. It only wagged its tail. Horace’s rule: dogs stay quiet if you use their right names and are kind to them.
- The safe was in the drawing room, behind “a rather poor painting”. Horace briefly wondered about collecting pictures instead, but they need too much space; in a small house, books suit better.
- A magazine article had printed a plan of the rooms, a picture of this room and even the fact that the painting hid a safe. Horace thought how foolish owners of valuable things can be.
- The burglar alarm was poorly built, so he went into the hall and cut its wire.
- A large bowl of flowers on the table set off his hay fever. He sneezed, and in the end had to bury his face in his handkerchief.
2.4 The Lady in Red
A voice from the doorway asked, “What is it? A cold or hay fever?” Without thinking, Horace answered “Hay fever”. The voice even gave him advice: find out which plant causes it and get special treatment, and see a doctor if he was serious about his work. She had heard his sneezing from the top of the house.
The speaker was a young, quite pretty woman dressed in red, with a quiet, kind voice that still sounded firm. Sherry rubbed against her, and she tidied the ornaments on the fireplace as if she lived there.
| What she said or did | What Horace concluded |
|---|---|
| “Anyone would think I’d been away for a month!” (to Sherry) | She belongs to the house |
| Threatened to telephone the police | She is on the side of the law |
| “Society must be protected from men like you.” | She is an honest citizen |
| Spoke of “my husband” and “our bank” | She is the owner’s wife |
| Took a cigarette from a silver box on the table | She knows where things are kept |
2.5 The Bargain
Horace first thought of running, and even hinted he would cut the phone wires and keep her quiet for a few hours. He then admitted he was only trying to scare her; she replied that he had not scared her at all. So he begged instead: he steals only from the very rich, for a good reason, and he hates the idea of prison. He promised never to steal again.
She shook her head and said, “I have always liked the wrong kind of people.” As she picked up a cigarette, Horace, keen to please her, took off his gloves and offered his lighter. This was his fatal slip.
Her price for letting him go: she had promised her husband to take her jewels to the bank but had left them in the safe; she needed them for a party that night and had forgotten the numbers that open the safe. Horace said he would have to break it. She did not mind: her husband would be away for a month, and she would get the safe mended by then. Within an hour the safe was open, the jewels were in her hands, and Horace walked away happy.
2.6 The Twist
The young lady in red. She was not the owner’s wife but a thief herself. She got away with the jewels, while every piece of evidence pointed at Horace.
3Characters
| Point | Horace Danby | The young lady in red | The real wife |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Lock-maker and once-a-year safe robber | A thief posing as the lady of the house | Wife of the owner of Shotover Grange |
| Looks | About fifty | Young, quite pretty, dressed in red | Gray-haired, about sixty |
| Main trait | Careful planner, but trusting and easily rattled | Calm, confident, quick-thinking, a skilled actor | Sharp-tongued |
| Weakness or strength | Hay fever; eager to please | Turns his fear into her chance | Her word decides the case |
| At the end | In prison as assistant librarian | Escapes with the jewels | Calls Horace’s story nonsense |
3.1 Horace Danby
- Methodical: studies the house for two weeks, wears gloves, cuts the alarm, knows the dog’s name.
- An unusual thief: steals once a year, only from the rich, only enough for his books; he is gentle with the dog and never really means harm.
- Lover of books: rare books are his only passion; even in prison he works in the library.
- Too trusting under pressure: frightened of prison, he believes the lady at once and forgets his own rule about gloves.
3.2 The Lady in Red
- Cool and self-assured: she shows no fear at finding a burglar and even seems amused.
- A convincing actor: small natural touches (the dog, the ornaments, the cigarette box, “my husband”) make her role believable.
- Cunning: she lets Horace do the risky work, leaves him to carry the blame, and is never caught.
4Themes and Message
4.1 The Big Ideas
Trust and deception
Horace trusts a stranger because she seems kind and well placed. Blind trust is exactly what ruins him.
Crime does not pay
However neatly planned, a crime can go wrong. Horace loses his freedom over a robbery he did not profit from.
Appearance versus reality
The pretty, gentle “lady of the house” is a thief; the respectable lock-maker is a burglar.
Irony
A man who never left fingerprints is convicted by his fingerprints, and a thief is robbed of his freedom by another thief.
Irony is a situation in which the result is the opposite of what is expected. Horace, the expert at not getting caught, is caught; the woman who talks of protecting society is the real criminal.
4.2 The Title
The whole story turns on trust. Horace trusts the lady’s word, and the lady counts on that trust. When he is caught, he asks the police to trust his word, and nobody does. The phrase “honour among thieves” assumes thieves can trust one another; the story shows they cannot.
4.3 Key Lines and What They Mean
| Line from the story | Meaning |
|---|---|
| “He loved rare, expensive books. So he robbed a safe every year.” | Horace’s only reason for crime is his love of books. |
| “He was always careful not to leave any fingerprints.” | His key precaution, which he later forgets. |
| “How foolish people are when they own valuable things” | Horace mocks owners who let their secrets be printed in a magazine. |
| “Society must be protected from men like you.” | The lady plays an honest citizen; spoken by a thief, it is deeply ironic. |
| “I have always liked the wrong kind of people.” | Her pretended softness, which makes Horace relax. |
| “He gets very angry when anyone talks about ‘honour among thieves’.” | Horace has learnt that thieves do not keep faith with one another. |
5Words to Know
6The Book’s Questions, Answered Briefly
6.1 Read and Find Out
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What does Horace Danby like to collect? | Rare, expensive books. |
| Why does he steal every year? | To pay for those books; each robbery gives him enough money for twelve months. |
| Who is speaking to Horace Danby? | A young, pretty woman in red who acts as if she is the lady of the house. |
| Who is the real culprit in the story? | That same young woman: a thief who used Horace to open the safe and then vanished with the jewels. |
6.2 Think About It
- When does suspicion begin? A reader may doubt her when she stays calm and even amused on meeting a burglar, and more strongly when the owner’s wife cannot open her own safe and happily lets it be broken. The truth is clear only when the real wife, a woman of sixty, appears.
- How she fools him: she talks to Sherry by name, tidies the fireplace ornaments, knows the cigarette box, mentions her husband and the bank, and threatens to call the police. Horace does not suspect her because he is scared of prison and grateful for a way out, so he stops thinking clearly.
- Why the description fits: he is a respected tradesman, polite and kind, who steals only once a year, only from the rich and only for books. He is not a typical thief because he is not greedy, not violent and not a habitual criminal, yet stealing still makes him dishonest.
- Where he went wrong: he studied the house but not the people in it, so he could not tell an impostor from the owner’s wife. Under stress he took off his gloves to light her cigarette and then opened the safe bare-handed, leaving his prints everywhere.
6.3 Talk About It (points to discuss)
- Fair or unfair? He did not take the jewels this time, so in that sense he was wrongly convicted. Yet he had entered the house to rob it and had robbed many safes before, so most readers feel he got what his choices earned.
- Do good ends justify bad means? Points for discussion: a crime stays a crime whatever the motive; Horace’s “good reason” was only his own hobby; a few hard cases (such as a small lie to protect someone from harm) may be debated, but stealing for pleasure is not one of them.
Suggested reading in the book: ‘The Unexpected’ by Ella Edkin, ‘The Confession’ by Anton Chekhov, ‘A Case for the Defence’ by Graham Greene.
- Author Victor Canning; headnote: “set a thief to catch a thief” vs “honour among thieves”
- Horace Danby: about fifty, unmarried, lock-maker with two helpers, hay fever in summer
- Robs one safe a year for rare books, bought through an agent; one earlier prison term, fifteen years ago
- Shotover Grange: two weeks of study, servants at the movies, four hours, jewels worth fifteen thousand pounds
- Gloves, kitchen key on a hook, Sherry the dog, safe behind a poor painting, alarm wire cut, flowers set off sneezing
- Young lady in red: “A cold or hay fever?”; plays the owner’s wife
- Gloves off to light her cigarette; opens the safe within an hour; she takes the jewels
- Third day, by noon: arrested on fingerprints; real wife is gray-haired, sharp-tongued, sixty
- Now assistant librarian in prison; angry at “honour among thieves”; themes: trust, deception, irony
- Can I explain why Horace steals and why he is not a typical thief?
- Can I list four steps in his plan for Shotover Grange?
- Can I give three ways the lady made Horace believe she owned the house?
- Can I name the single mistake that led to his arrest?
- Can I explain the irony of “honour among thieves” in this story?