PDF chapter test TRY NOW
His fingerprints, for he had opened the safe without gloves, were all over the room, and no one believed him when he said that the wife of the owner of the house had asked him to open the safe for her. The wife herself, a gray-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty, said that the story was nonsense.
Horace is now the assistant librarian in the prison. He often thinks of the charming, clever young lady who was in the same profession as he was, and who tricked him. He gets very angry when anyone talks about ‘honour among thieves’.
Explanation:
Horace's fingerprints were found to be the reason for his arrest. It was the first time in his life that he was caught for a burglary. It was because of his fingerprints, which he had never left anywhere during any of his other thefts.
Horace took off his gloves and broke the locker at Grange House, mistaking the young woman for the real owner of the house, which was not the case. In reality, the house's owner was an elderly woman who had never seen Horace before and dismissed Horace's claim of him assisting her in breaking the lock as complete nonsense. Horace then realised that the young woman who retrieved the jewels from the busted safe was not the true owner of the house but was also a thief.
Finally, Horace was arrested and was working assistant librarian in a prison. He often recalled how a woman from the same profession had deceived him and gotten him caught. When someone mentioned 'honour among thieves', he became enraged. The moral of the story is that theft is theft, regardless of whether it is done for a good or noble cause. And no matter how smart a thief is, he or she will be caught one day.
Reference:
National Council of Educational Research and Training (2008). Honeydew. A Question of Trust - Victor Canning (pp 20-24). Published at the Publication Division by the Secretary, National Council of Educational Research and Training, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi.
Register for free to see more content