Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
A Question of Trust - Victor Canning (Class 10 English, Footprints without Feet, Chapter 4)
A Question of Trust is Chapter 4 of Class 10 Footprints without Feet (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 20-25), by Victor Canning. Horace Danby is a respectable lock-maker who robs one safe every year to feed his love of rare books. This year's job at Shotover Grange goes perfectly - until a charming young lady catches him in the act, and Horace discovers that thieves do not always honour each other. This page gives a full summary, characters, theme, word meanings and fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - the thief who trusted a thief
Everyone thinks Horace Danby is a good, honest citizen. In fact he plans one careful robbery a year, steals enough to last twelve months, and secretly buys the rare, expensive books he loves through an agent. At Shotover Grange he has studied everything for two weeks - rooms, wiring, paths, garden. The servants are at the movies; about fifteen thousand pounds' worth of jewels sit in the safe, and three interesting books come up for sale in the autumn. He enters with the kitchen key from its hook, calms the dog Sherry by calling it by its right name, and sets to work behind a poor painting in the drawing room, hindered only by his hay fever and a great bowl of flowers. A young woman in red appears in the doorway, chatting about his sneezing. She lets him believe she is of the family. When he begs to be let go, she agrees - on one condition: she has 'forgotten' the numbers of her own safe and needs her jewels for a party tonight. Eager to please, Horace takes off his gloves, gives her his cigarette lighter, opens the safe for her and goes happily away. Two days later he thinks of the books and plans another safe - but by noon of the third day he is arrested for the Shotover Grange jewel robbery. His fingerprints, from opening the safe without gloves, are all over the room, and nobody believes his story about the owner's wife. The young lady was a thief too. Horace is now the assistant librarian in the prison, and 'gets very angry when anyone talks about honour among thieves.'
2. Characters
Horace Danby: about fifty, unmarried, a successful lock-maker with two helpers; 'good and respectable - but not completely honest'. He served one prison sentence fifteen years ago and has robbed a safe every year since to buy rare books through an agent. The young lady in red: charming, clever - and, it turns out, in the same profession as Horace. The real wife of the house: 'a gray-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty' who calls Horace's story nonsense. Sherry: the Grange's small, friendly dog.
3. Theme and word meanings
Honour among thieves: the story answers its own opening question - there is none; the cleverer thief robs the trusting one. The deceiver deceived: Horace, the meticulous planner, is undone by the one thing he never planned for - being trusted by someone exactly like himself. A small flaw with large consequences: removing his gloves to be polite leaves the fingerprints that convict him. Word meaning from the textbook glossary: hay fever - a disorder affecting the nose and throat, caused by allergy to pollen or dust.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Find the annual motive
Choose the method: One safe funds one passion.
EZT practice question
Why does Horace Danby rob a safe every year?
Show the worked solution
- Horace loves rare, expensive books.
- He buys them secretly through an agent, and legitimate income from lock-making cannot feed the habit.
- So each year he plans carefully, robs one safe, steals enough to last twelve months, and spends it on books.
Answer: He loves rare, expensive books, which he buys secretly through an agent with the proceeds of one annual, carefully planned robbery.
Check: Link the theft to the books through the agent - all three belong in the answer.
Watch for this: Do not say he steals to live richly - the money goes to books, not luxury.
Now try it yourself
What is coming up for sale in the autumn of the Shotover Grange year?
Check your answer
Three interesting books - the target of that year's proceeds.
The specific sale explains the timing of this particular robbery.
Trace the entry
Choose the method: Key, then kindness.
EZT practice question
How does Horace enter Shotover Grange, and how does he quiet the dog?
Show the worked solution
- He has studied the house for two weeks - rooms, wiring, paths and garden.
- He enters with the kitchen-door key he saw the housekeeper hang on a hook outside.
- When the little dog stirs, he calls it by its right name - Sherry - and the dog calms down and makes friends.
Answer: He uses the kitchen-door key he saw the housekeeper hang on a hook outside, and he quiets the dog by calling it by its right name, Sherry.
Check: Two details: the hooked key and the correctly named dog.
Watch for this: Do not say he breaks in - the whole point is how thoroughly he has prepared.
Now try it yourself
How long has Horace studied Shotover Grange before the robbery?
Check your answer
For two weeks - rooms, wiring, paths and garden.
The preparation shows the professional planner the young lady will out-plan.
Unpack the young lady's story
Choose the method: Three lies in one.
EZT practice question
What lie does the young lady tell about the safe?
Show the worked solution
- She lets Horace believe she is the owner's wife - she never says it plainly, she acts it.
- She says she has forgotten the numbers of the safe.
- She adds that she needs her jewels for a party that night - so he must open it for her at once.
Answer: That she is the owner's wife, that she has forgotten the numbers of the safe, and that she needs her jewels for a party that night.
Check: Three parts: identity, forgotten numbers, urgent party.
Watch for this: Do not say she forces him - she makes helping her feel like the polite choice.
Now try it yourself
What condition does she set before letting Horace go?
Check your answer
That he open the safe for her - only then will she let him leave.
Her 'kindness' is the mechanism of the theft.
Spot the fatal courtesy
Choose the method: Gloves off, prints on.
EZT practice question
Which single careless act gives Horace away to the police?
Show the worked solution
- Eager to please the young lady, Horace takes off his gloves.
- He gives her his cigarette lighter and then opens the safe for her bare-handed.
- His fingerprints are left all over the room, and they convict him of the Shotover Grange robbery.
Answer: Taking off his gloves - to light her cigarette and open the safe - so his fingerprints are all over the room.
Check: One act, two touches: the lighter and the safe.
Watch for this: Do not blame poor planning of the robbery itself - the plan was perfect; the courtesy was not.
Now try it yourself
When is Horace arrested?
Check your answer
By noon of the third day after the robbery, just as he is planning another safe.
The speed shows how complete the evidence was.
Prove the young lady was false
Choose the method: Match her against the real wife.
EZT practice question
How does the story prove the young lady was not the owner's wife?
Show the worked solution
- The real wife appears: 'a gray-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty'.
- She dismisses Horace's story as nonsense - no young, charming wife exists at the house.
- So the only reading left is that the young lady in red was another thief who used Horace's hands.
Answer: The real wife is a gray-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty who dismisses Horace's story; nobody at the house matches the charming young lady, so she must have been a fellow thief.
Check: Contrast the two women: charming young lady in red versus sharp-tongued sixty-year-old.
Watch for this: Do not treat the young lady as a mystery left open - the real wife's appearance settles it.
Now try it yourself
What work does Horace do in prison?
Check your answer
He is the assistant librarian in the prison.
The book-lover ends up among books - behind bars.
Measure Horace against a typical thief
Choose the method: Habits mark him out.
EZT practice question
What makes Horace different from a typical thief, according to the story?
Show the worked solution
- He steals only once a year and only enough to last twelve months.
- The proceeds buy rare books through an agent - not spending money.
- He is otherwise a successful, respectable lock-maker who hates the thought of prison, and he keeps his promise to the young lady for two days before planning again.
Answer: He steals only from the rich, only once a year, for books rather than spending; he hates prison; and he keeps his word to the young lady for two days.
Check: Frequency, purpose and temperament - one point of each kind.
Watch for this: Do not call him honest - the story's own words are 'good and respectable - but not completely honest'.
Now try it yourself
What phrase makes Horace angry in prison?
Check your answer
'Honour among thieves.'
He learned the hard way that there is none.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. The annual motive?
Show answer and reason
Rare, expensive books bought secretly through an agent.
One safe funds one passion.
2. Entry and dog?
Show answer and reason
Kitchen-door key from its hook; he calls Sherry by its right name.
Preparation, not force.
3. The fatal courtesy?
Show answer and reason
Opening the safe without gloves - fingerprints all over the room.
Politeness convicts him.
4. The ending?
Show answer and reason
Prison; assistant librarian; angry at talk of 'honour among thieves'.
The deceiver deceived.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Explain in two sentences why the title A Question of Trust fits the story.
- List the three lies the young lady tells Horace about the safe.
- Contrast Horace's careful planning with the one thing he failed to plan for.
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Questions about this practice page
- In A Question of Trust, who is the real culprit at Shotover Grange?
- The charming young lady in red - a fellow thief who tricks Horace into opening the safe and leaves him to take the blame.
- Why is A Question of Trust called a question of trust?
- Horace trusts the young lady because he believes she is the owner's wife; that misplaced trust - between two thieves - costs him his freedom.
- Does A Question of Trust show honour among thieves?
- No - the story ends by denying it: Horace, tricked by a fellow thief, now gets angry at the very phrase.
- Where is A Question of Trust in the Class 10 book?
- Chapter 4 of the supplementary reader Footprints without Feet (Reprint 2026-27, pp. 20-25), by Victor Canning.
- Who wrote A Question of Trust?
- Victor Canning. The textbook names him as the author and carries no author note, so this page makes no further biographical claims.