It was first published in two instalments in the (London) Graphic Magazine in April and May 1924 then as a book in June 1924, so this month is the 96th anniversary of its first appearance.
The Three Hostages has already been the subject of one article, and there are references to the evil Dominick Medina and his powers of hypnotism in a few others.
So what more is there to say about this story?
There are two minor scenes that inspire commentary; one is rather painful to read and one is amusing. The first is where Richard Hannay is very reluctantly recalled to action and the other is where he reveals to the enemy that he has been playing a part all along.
A point of particular interest is that Dominick Medina behaves like a cult leader.
Back to the battlefield
People who have had similar experiences will understand how Richard Hannay feels when he is asked to leave his beloved home, family and farm to take part in an investigation.
He receives a letter that destroys his peace of mind. It is as if his Eden has been invaded by a snake:
“I…felt very angry. Why couldn't the fools let me alone? As I went upstairs I vowed that not all the cajolery in the world would make me budge an inch from the path I had set myself. I had done enough for the public service and other people's interests, and it was jolly well time that I should be allowed to attend to my own.”
His feelings are justifiable. After all, he has done his bit and paid his dues; he has earned the right to retire. Now he is settled, wants a quiet life and feels entitled to some peace.
Who after finally finding a safe harbour and a suitable niche after a lifetime of hard work, hardship and danger wouldn’t feel the same? Who would want to leave their comfortable sanctuary for the life and problems that they thought were behind them for good? It seems like a fate worse than death.
Richard Hannay not only does not want the assignment, he also considers himself unsuitable because he was primarily a soldier, a man of action. The business is not within his areas of expertise. He has neither the inclination nor the capacity to take it on.
Of course he does - grudgingly - accept the assignment, after a final outburst:
"Why the devil can't I be left alone?" I cried. "I don't ask for much—only a little peace. Why in Heaven's name should I be dragged into other people's business? Why on earth——"
He does his duty as a matter of honour and because he is appalled by the kidnapping of the small boy.
The mission is successful.
The three hostages are found and freed and Dominick Medina is destroyed, so Richard Hannay can return to his quiet life in the Cotswolds.
Fooling the enemy
In addition to displaying his professional expertise as mentioned in the article about Mr Standfast, Richard Hannay enjoys fooling the enemy by playing a part and hiding his real allegiance then when the time is right hitting them with the truth.
Being a spy in the enemy’s camp is very dangerous and people’s lives may depend on his ability to lead a double life, retaining his integrity and real self on the inside while pretending to be something he is not. This is a serious matter. but the big reveal has its amusing side - one in the eye for the evil ones and all that.
Hannay pretends to be under the hypnotic influence of Dominick Medina; he acts the part of a blind and adoring slave. People talk freely in his presence just as the Germans did in Greenmantle when he had another identity and pretended not to understand German.
Then comes the time when he drops his disguise and reveals the truth:
“I let you believe that your tomfoolery had mastered me—your performance in this room and Newhover and Madame Breda and the old blind lady and all the rest of it. When you thought I was drugged and demented I was specially wide awake. I had to abuse your hospitality—rather a dirty game, you may say, but then I was dealing with a scoundrel.”
Then it is Richard Hannay’s turn to get a big surprise.
The evil Indian guru Kharáma comes into the room:
“He was in evening dress, wearing a turban, and in the dusk his dark malign face seemed an embodied sneer at my helplessness. I did not see how Medina took his arrival, for all at once something seemed to give in my head. For the Indian I felt now none of the awe which I had for the other, only a flaming, overpowering hate. That this foul thing out of the East should pursue his devilries unchecked seemed to me beyond bearing. I forgot Medina's pistol and everything else, and went for him like a wild beast.
He dodged me, and, before I knew, had pulled off his turban, and tossed it in my face.
‘Don't be an old ass, Dick,’ he said.”
Kharáma is really Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay’s friend and colleague, so the ‘Indian’ was on Hannay’s side all along!
John Buchan obviously liked this scenario: something similar happens in Greenmantle, where Sandy disguises himself as a Muslim mystic who is on Germany’s side and Richard Hannay goes along with the deception.
Eventually Sandy outs himself and Hannay to the main enemy, Hilda von Einem:
“'Your friends!' she cried. 'What has a prince to do with these hirelings? Your slaves, perhaps, but not your friends.'
'My friends,' Sandy repeated grimly. 'You must know, Madam, that I am a British officer.
That was beyond doubt a clean staggering stroke. What she had thought of his origin God knows, but she had never dreamed of this.
'And these others?' she asked in a level voice.
'One is a brother officer of my regiment. The other is an American friend. But all three of us are on the same errand. We came east to destroy Greenmantle and your devilish ambitions.”
That told her!
Hitting the forces of darkness where it hurts most is obviously very satisfying.
Dominick Medina the cult leader
There are some familiar elements in the way that Dominick Medina speaks to and treats Richard Hannay once he is - or rather pretends to be - enslaved by various hypnotic spells:
“He seemed to take pains to rout out the codes and standards, the points of honour and points of conduct, which somebody like me was likely to revere, and to break them down with his cynicism. I felt that I was looking on at an attempt, which the devil is believed to specialise in, to make evil good and good evil.... “
Inducing members to reverse their values is standard cult procedure.
Medina encourages Hannay to break with his great friend Sandy Arbuthnot. Getting members to burn bridges and cut ties is classic textbook stuff.
“Of course I assented gladly. Never had master a more ready disciple.... He broke down, too, my modest ambitions. A country life, a wife and family—he showed that they were too trivial for more than a passing thought. He flattered me grossly, and I drank it all in with a silly face. I was fit for bigger things, to which he would show me the way. He sketched some of the things—very flattering they were and quite respectable, but somehow they seemed out of the picture when compared to his previous talk. He was clearly initiating me step by step into something for which I was not yet fully ready.”
All this speaks for itself. The water is heated slowly and people are corrupted one small step at a time. The use of ’initiation’ to describe the process is very interesting.
The Three Hostages versus Greenmantle
I have always considered these two books to be the best of the Richard Hannay stories, with Greenmantle slightly above The Three Hostages.
Greenmantle is perhaps the better story where action and exciting adventures are concerned; The Three Hostages is mainly about using the mind to solve the mystery.
John Buchan said this in his dedication:
“...Sir Richard took a modest pride in the affair, because from first to last it had been a pure contest of wits, without recourse to those more obvious methods of strife with which he is familiar...”
I like the references to various places in London in The Three Hostages and the mind power or psychological black magic aspects are of great interest, but for me Greenmantle is the greater book.
