The chase eventually led them back to London, to a crowded variety show at the . The climax didn't happen in a government office, but on a stage featuring Mr. Memory , a man with an uncanny ability to retain every fact he ever heard.

In the fog-drenched streets of 1930s London, was a man bored with the predictable pulse of city life—until the night a frantic woman named Annabella Smith burst into his flat. She spoke of a conspiracy that could dismantle the British government, a secret known only as the "Thirty-Nine Steps." By morning, Annabella was dead with a map in her hand, and Hannay was the prime suspect in a murder he didn't commit. The Flight to the Highlands

Hannay realized that the "Thirty-Nine Steps" weren't a physical location or a group, but a coded design for a secret British aircraft engine that the spies had forced Mr. Memory to commit to heart. When Hannay shouted out the question, "What are the Thirty-Nine Steps?" , Mr. Memory’s professional pride forced him to answer, exposing the conspiracy just as the spies fired their shots. The Legacy of the 39 Steps

Fleeing the police and a shadowy organization of spies, Hannay boarded a train for Scotland. In a desperate bid for survival, he leaped from a moving train onto the , narrowly escaping the law. He found himself a fugitive in the rugged Highlands, where he had to dodge both the authorities and the cold-blooded villains who could recognize him by the missing tip of a finger. An Unwilling Alliance