A Question of Trust · Class 10 English · Footprints Without Feet: quick revision, 36 bites

Who Horace Danby Is

Everyone thought him a good, honest citizen.

Takeaway. Six ordinary facts, and not one of them belongs to a criminal.

Good and Respectable — But Not Completely Honest

The story's own verdict.

**Fifteen years earlier** he had served his **first and only sentence** — and spent it in the **prison library**.

Takeaway. A textbook question asks why this description is apt. Quote it and explain both halves.

One Safe a Year, for Books

Why does he steal at all?

Takeaway. Not need, not greed for money — an annual expense with a hobby at the end of it.

Preparing Shotover Grange

A fortnight of homework.

Takeaway. The textbook calls him a meticulous planner. This is the evidence.

The Arithmetic

Two numbers worth learning.

Takeaway. He is not stealing a fortune. He is buying three books.

Getting In

No broken window anywhere.

Takeaway. Every step is calm, practised and reversible.

A Collector's Aside

Books or pictures?

The safe is behind **a rather poor painting**, and he wonders for a moment whether to collect **pictures** instead.

Takeaway. A burglar pausing mid-job to review his hobby — the whole character in one aside.

A Bowl of Flowers

The one thing he did not plan for.

Takeaway. The small joke about his health becomes the hinge of the plot.

A Lock-Maker at Work

The safe holds no terrors.

Takeaway. His trade and his crime use exactly the same skill.

How Foolish People Are

He has a point.

A **magazine article** had described the house — with a **layout of every room** and a **photograph of this one**.

Takeaway. The owners published the one thing a burglar most wanted to know.

What Decides the Ending

Three details to carry forward.

Takeaway. Everything that destroys him is already in the room.

Answering on This Section

Two set questions live here.

Takeaway. Quote the story's own phrase: good and respectable, but not completely honest.

“A Cold or Hay Fever?”

Her first words are about his health.

Horace answers **before he can think** — and sneezes again.

Takeaway. The hay fever brought her downstairs, and gave her the opening line.

The Young Lady in Red

Who is standing there?

Takeaway. Nobody tidies somebody else's mantelpiece.

Five Suggestions, No Claims

She never once says she lives there.

Takeaway. Horace is never told she owns the house. He is allowed to conclude it.

“One of the Family”

And he says it out loud.

She seems **amused**, and Horace takes **hope** from it: he might avoid trouble if he handles her **the right way**.

Takeaway. The deception is complete the moment he puts it into words himself.

The Negotiation

Four moves, and he loses each.

Takeaway. His one threat is taken back the moment it is questioned.

Society Must Be Protected

The voice turns sharp.

He asks her to **forget she ever saw him**. Why should she? He was going to **rob her**, and if she lets him go he will only **rob someone else**.

Takeaway. The sharpness is a tool: it makes the softening that follows feel earned.

Horace's Defence

He explains himself — and hands her the key.

Takeaway. Every word is true, and every word tells her which lever to pull.

The Gloves Come Off

The single most important action in the story.

Takeaway. A small courtesy, and the whole of his undoing.

The Bargain

Freedom, on one condition.

Takeaway. Notice what is missing: any proof that the jewels are hers.

“You've Forgotten the Numbers”

He finishes the story for her.

Horace supplies the excuse himself, and she simply **agrees**.

Takeaway. Every objection he raises, she has an easy answer for.

Asked to Do What He Came For

Look at what has just happened.

A burglar who came to steal jewels has been asked, **as a favour**, to take them out of the safe — **with his gloves off**.

Takeaway. He does the work, she takes the jewels, and he keeps the fingerprints.

Answering on This Section

Two set questions live here.

Takeaway. The examiner's favourite single fact here is the gloves.

The Favour Is Done

He went away happy.

Takeaway. The crime is complete, and the wrong man is pleased with himself.

Two Days

How long does a promise last?

He kept his promise to the kind young lady for **two days**.

Takeaway. The books were always going to win. They are the reason he steals.

Arrested by Noon

He never got the chance.

Takeaway. He is charged with the one theft from which he gained nothing.

Fingerprints

The evidence is his own hands.

He had opened the safe **without gloves**, so his **fingerprints were all over the room**.

Takeaway. The examiner's favourite question: where did the meticulous planner go wrong?

The Story Nobody Believes

He told the exact truth.

Takeaway. Being truthful and being believed are not the same thing.

The Real Wife

And then she appears.

Takeaway. The young woman in red has no existence anybody can prove.

The Prison Library

Prepared in paragraph three.

His **first and only sentence**, fifteen years earlier, had been served in a **prison library**.

Takeaway. The story's driest joke, planted on the first page.

Honour Among Thieves

The last line answers the first.

Takeaway. Of the textbook's two proverbs, the story backs the other one.

Where the Planner Went Wrong

Three mistakes, in order.

Takeaway. A direct textbook question: answer it in exactly these three steps.

Read Correctly in Five Minutes

Why did such a careful man do it?

Takeaway. She used four true things about him, all of which he told her himself.

Fair Punishment? Do Intentions Justify?

Two questions to argue, not to answer.

Takeaway. The textbook asks both directly — argue from the text, either way.

Answering on This Section

Four traps in this ending.

Takeaway. Learn the two numbers: two days kept, arrested by noon on the third.