The Three Hostages

by

John Buchan

eBooks@Adelaide
2010

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Last updated Wed Aug 25 20:41:42 2010.

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Table of Contents

  1. Doctor Greenslade Theorises
  2. I Hear of the Three Hostages
  3. Researches in the Subconscious
  4. I Make the Acquaintance of a Popular Man
  5. The Thursday Club
  6. The House in Gospel Oak
  7. Some Experiences of a Disciple
  8. The Blind Spinner
  9. I Am Introduced to Strong Magic
  10. Confidences at a Wayside Inn
  11. How a German Engineer Found Strange Fishing
  12. I Return to Servitude
  13. I Visit the Fields of Eden
  14. Sir Archibald Roylance Puts His Foot in it
  15. How a French Nobleman Discovered Fear
  16. Our Time is Narrowed
  17. The District-Visitor in Palmyra Square
  18. The Night of the First of June
  19. The Night of the First of June — Later
  20. Machray
  21. How I Stalked Wilder Game than Deer

Dedication

To a Young Gentleman of Eton College

Honoured Sir,

On your last birthday a well-meaning godfather presented you with a volume of mine, since you had been heard on occasion to express approval of my works. The book dealt with a somewhat arid branch of historical research, and it did not please you. You wrote to me, I remember, complaining that I had “let you down,” and summoning me, as I valued your respect, to “pull myself together.” In particular you demanded to hear more of the doings of Richard Hannay, a gentleman for whom you professed a liking. I, too, have a liking for Sir Richard, and when I met him the other day (he is now a country neighbour) I observed that his left hand had been considerably mauled, an injury which I knew had not been due to the War. He was so good as to tell me the tale of an unpleasant business in which he had recently been engaged, and to give me permission to retell it for your benefit. Sir Richard took a modest pride in the affair, because from first to last it had been a pure contest of wits, without recourse to those more obvious methods of strife with which he is familiar. So I herewith present it to you, in the hope that in the eyes of you and your friends it may atone for certain other writings of mine with which you have been afflicted by those in authority.

J.B.

June, 1924.

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Last updated on Tue Jan 11 21:50:37 2011 for eBooks@Adelaide.