Character guide

Smooth Sam Fisher

major

Also known as Sam, Sam Fisher, Smooth Sam, Sammy, Fisher, Samuel, Mr. Fisher

Among the professional kidnappers circling Ogden Ford, Sam Fisher is the one the hotel detective White genuinely admires — a man with brains who can use them, and who has chased the Nugget before without success. Buck MacGinnis, by contrast, is all bluster and sandbags, and the running joke is that Peter Burns gets mistaken for Sam simply because Buck has never laid eyes on his rival. Sam's unseen, patient menace hangs over the early chapters, promising that the real attempt on the boy is still to come.

Audrey Blake

major

Also known as Audrey, Presently Audrey

Audrey is the ghost in Peter's past: an engagement broken off so abruptly that he vanished from his friends' lives for three years, and a name he has never spoken since. When she turns up at Sanstead, the old pull returns with unsettling force, and their conversations about whether he has truly forgotten her become the emotional spine of the middle chapters. Her presence forces Peter to confront what he owes to Cynthia, to himself, and to a love he has been pretending is dead.

Peter Burns

major

Also known as Mr. Peter Burns, Peter, old Peter, Mr. Burns, Burns, dear Peter

Peter Burns arrives at Sanstead posing as a master while secretly engaged to Cynthia Drassilis and privately haunted by Audrey Blake, the woman he once nearly married. His assignment is to keep the Little Nugget safe from kidnappers, but the job quickly becomes tangled with his own unresolved feelings and a growing friendship with the very woman he thought he had buried. His dry, self-aware narration carries the book's comedy and its quieter ache.

Cynthia Drassilis

supporting

Also known as Cynthia, Drassilis

Cynthia is largely offstage but never absent: her letter to Peter, and her evident love for him, sit in his pocket and his conscience throughout his time at Sanstead. When Audrey learns of the engagement, it changes everything — Audrey refuses to let Peter abandon a girl who believes in him, and Cynthia becomes the third point of a triangle that neither woman will let Peter resolve by selfishness. Her faith in him is the quiet standard against which his choices are measured.

Buck MacGinnis

supporting

Also known as Buck, Mr. Buck MacGinnis, Mr. MacGinnis, MacGinnis, poor old Buck

Buck is the blunt instrument of the kidnapping world — no brains, no patience, just a Browning pistol, a gang of look-alike toughs, and a grudge against anyone who gets between him and Ogden Ford. His comic misidentification of Peter as Smooth Sam sets the plot's mistaken-identity engine running, and his gang's raid on Sanstead supplies one of the book's most chaotic set pieces. He is dangerous enough to matter and foolish enough to be funny.

Mr. Arnold Abney

supporting

Also known as Mr. Abney, Abney, Sometimes Mr. Abney

Mr. Abney presides over Sanstead with the solemn self-importance of a schoolmaster who believes his school is above the vulgarities of the world outside. That belief is tested when professional criminals, a disguised detective, and a fortune in the form of a small boy all converge on his premises. His obliviousness to the chaos brewing under his nose is part of the novel's comedy, and his school is the stage on which every faction must play its hand.

Ogden Ford

supporting

Also known as Ogden, Ford, Ogden Ford, Little Ford, little Ogden, Kidnapping Ogden

Ogden is the prize everyone in the story is maneuvering to possess: his mother keeps a framed oil-painting of him in her hotel suite and gazes at it hungrily, while kidnappers have already nicknamed him 'the Little Nugget' for the many attempts to steal him. Repellent and overfed, he is less a boy than a contested asset, and the portrait's stony eye makes even visitors wince. His value as a pawn — to his mother, to his father, to schemers on both sides — sets the whole plot in motion.

White

minor

Also known as II White

A servant or staff member at the school, involved in the unfolding events.

Mrs. Elmer Ford

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Elmer Ford

Mrs. Elmer Ford is a wealthy New Yorker whose hard, imperious manner softens only before her son's portrait; she paces her hotel suite like a caged tigress, waiting for word of him. Convinced her financier husband's world will ruin the boy, she has already committed one kidnapping herself and coolly enlists Peter Burns for another, trading on his old feelings for her. Her jealous streak toward Audrey Blake and her serene assumption of Peter's consent make her both the engine and the moral tangle of the early plot.

The Little Nugget

minor

Also known as the Nugget, Nugget, the lawless Nugget

A nickname for Ogden Ford, referring to his value as a kidnapping target.

Lord Mountry

minor

Also known as Mountry

A nobleman who becomes involved in the events at the school.

Glossop

minor

Also known as Mr. Glossop, Bister Glossop

A teacher or staff member at Sanstead School.

Mrs. Drassilis

minor

Cynthia's mother, a presence at the school.

Mennick

minor

Also known as Mr. Mennick

A detective or investigator involved in the case.

Mrs. Sheridan

minor

Also known as Sheridan

A woman connected to the school or the Ford family.

Reggie

minor

Also known as Poor Reggie, Reggie Broster, Broster, Mr. Broster

A young man at the school, possibly a student or teacher.

Augustus Beckford

minor

Also known as Augustus, Beckford

A character mentioned in connection with the school or plot.

Mrs. Attwell

minor

A woman connected to the school or household staff.

Elmer Ford

minor

Also known as Mr. Elmer Ford, Mr. Ford, Master Ford

Ogden's wealthy father, concerned about his son's kidnapping.

Smith

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or criminal associate.

Stanborough

minor

Also known as Billy Stanborough, little Willie, William

A student at Sanstead School.

Inspector Bones

minor

Also known as Bones

A police inspector investigating the kidnapping.

Mr. Tankerville Gifford

minor

Also known as young Mr. Gifford, Mr. Gifford, Tanky, Tanky Gifford

A young man involved in the social circle at the school.

Jarvis

minor

A servant or staff member at the school.

Miss Benjafield

minor

A female teacher or staff member at Sanstead School.

Nesta

minor

Also known as Dear Nesta

A young woman, possibly a student or relative of a character.

Hugo Drassilis

minor

Also known as the Hon. Hugo Drassilis, Hugo

Cynthia's brother, a minor nobleman.

Constable Johnson

minor

Also known as Johnson

A local police constable assisting in the investigation.

Miss Vanderley

minor

Also known as a Miss Vanderley

A young woman mentioned in passing, possibly a social acquaintance.

Lefty

minor

A criminal associate of Sam Fisher's gang.

Mr. Blake

minor

Audrey Blake's father or relative, mentioned briefly.

Father

minor

A generic reference to a character's father, possibly Peter Burns'.

Parker

minor

A servant or minor staff member at the school.

The Dad

minor

Also known as Dad

A colloquial reference to a father figure in the story.

Colonel Boone

minor

Also known as Boone, the Boones

A military man mentioned in connection with the school.

Lady Wroxham

minor

A noblewoman mentioned in the social context of the story.

Sybil

minor

A young woman, possibly a student or acquaintance.

Oggie

minor

A nickname for Ogden Ford, used by some characters.