Page 2 - LN3- MODULE- THE HACK DRIVER
P. 2
About the Author
Victor Canning (16 June 1911-21 February 1986) was a prolific British writer of novels
and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was personally reticent,
writing no memoirs and giving relatively few newspaper interviews.
Key points
Horace Danby :
Personality: good, unmarried, honest, but not completely, fifty years old, healthy
(except attacks of hay fever)
Profession: makes locks with two helpers
Previous life: fifteen years old had served his first and only sentence in a prison library
Hobby: loves to read rare and expensive books. He robs every year to buy rare and
expensive books.
Shotover Grange: This year his target house to be robbed.
He studied the house, its room, electric wires, paths, garden etc. for two
weeks.
Got a chance when two servants remained in the Grange while the family was
out in London.
Came from behind the garden wall, with tools packed in a bag carefully.
During the theft a lady in red came as owner.
He thought that she was the owner and opened the safe on her demand to
save himself from cops.
He was caught for it after two days as his fingerprints were found.
he was cheated by the person of the same profession
summary
Horace Danby had a good reputation in the society. He was about fifty and
unmarried. He made locks and had two helpers. He loved rare and expensive books.
Horace robbed a safe every year. He was now out on committing a robbery.
For two weeks Horace had studied the house of Shotover Grange. He had
to burgle this house. Horace Danby entered the house. Horace had an allergy caused
by flowers; he started sneezing. Then he heard a voice. The voice told him that he
could cure the sneeze. It was the voice of a woman. She stood in the doorway. She
was young and pretty. His first thought was to run. The lady told him that she would
telephone the police. She would tell them about him. Horace Danby told him to let
him go and forget she ever saw him. The lady put one condition for letting Horace
go.
She told him that she had promised her husband to take her jewel to the bank. She
had, however, left jewels in the safe. She told him that she wanted to wear the
jewels in a party that night. She came down to get them. But she had forgotten the
numbers to open the safe. So she needed his help and Horace opened the safe for