Chapter 4: A Question of Trust

Yes, we began to suspect before the story ended that the lady was the actual culprit who tricked Horace Danby into believing her. We noticed that she was unusually calm when she saw Horace trying to break the lock of the safe. This seemed weird because if she had been a family member of Shotover Grange, then she would have raised a theft alarm immediately. On the contrary, she approached Horace from the doorway and asked him to take out all the jewels from the safe on the condition that she would not inform the police and let him walk out freely. All these events seemed suspicious, and it was highly unlikely that she was a family member of the house and had forgotten the number combination to open the safe. Therefore, it was evident and quite clear that she was just using Horace to break open the safe for her. Long before the story ended, we could come to the conclusion that the lady was the real culprit and definitely not the one whom Horace had believed her to be.

The young woman’s confident walk, the way she touched up her make-up, her familiarity with the dog Sherry and the easy way in which she picked a cigarette from the right place are some of the subtle ways in which she managed to deceive Horace Danby to believe that she was the lady of the house. Horace was frightened and could not think properly. As a result, he didn’t suspect that she was trying to trick him into breaking open the safe for her.

Horace was a robber who would steal once in a year to buy rare and expensive books. He wasn’t a regular thief who robbed to make ends meet. He made locks and had two helpers who helped him in his successful business. Nonetheless, a crime, however small or big it may be, no matter how it is done, calls for punishment. Therefore, an act of theft is also a crime; no matter how well-behaved a thief is, he is bound to face punishment. Horace was one of this kind and he couldn’t be categorized as a typical thief or a regular offender like other thieves who robbed to feed themselves or their families. Horace’s motive behind a yearly robbery was merely to steal a big safe with proper planning that would last him for twelve months so that he could secretly buy the books he loved through an agent.

Horace Danby failed to execute his robbery properly even though he had enough information about the house at Shotover Grange, its rooms, location of valuable items, its electric wiring, its paths and its garden. But he did not have much information about the real occupants of the house. Although he exhibited smartness in knowing the dog’s actual name, he failed to get proper information about the occupants of the house. Hence, when the young lady caught him red-handed while trying to break the lock of the safe, he was too frightened and could not understand that the woman tricked him into believing her. When the lady assured him that she would let him freely without informing the police, Horace’s clever mind gave way to carelessness. He opened the safe without wearing gloves, thereby leaving his fingerprints all over the place.