Chapter 4 Solutions — A Question of Trust

Horace Danby was a maker of locks who lived a seemingly respectable life, but he had one secret passion.

The text says, "He loved rare, expensive books." Each year he stole enough to buy them and "secretly bought the books he loved through an agent."

So the thing he collected was rare and expensive books.

Yes, the lady's behaviour gives subtle hints that she is not the real lady of the house.

The suspicion grows when, instead of being alarmed at finding a burglar, she seems "amused at meeting him" and says, "I have always liked the wrong kind of people."

The strongest clue comes when she claims she has forgotten the numbers to open her own safe and needs Horace to break it. A genuine owner would not need a burglar's help to open her own safe. By the end it is confirmed that she too was a thief.

So one realises she is a fraud when she casually asks a burglar to open the safe for her.

Horace Danby robbed a safe once every year, planning each robbery carefully.

He did this to fund his love of books. He "stole enough to last for twelve months" and used the money to buy the rare, expensive books he loved through an agent.

Thus, his yearly theft was a means to pay for his book-collecting habit.