Richard Hannay
Hannay is a retired mining engineer recently return from Africa and getting bored with British life. That boredom is interrupted by the arrival of a stranger with an even stranger story. The story not only intrigues him, but eventually draws him into a world international espionage and a German plot to invade England. The only clue to stopping the invasion is an obscure note left behind the stranger.
Franklin Scudder
The strange man is Franklin Scudder, a private dick from America. He arrives at Hannay’s in a state of absolute fear for his life from an organization of spies known as the Black Stone. When he stabbed to death, the future of England hangs in the balance upon Hannay’s deciphering the handwritten message that Scudder has left behind.
Sir Walter Bullivant
Bullivant is the high-ranking official at the Foreign Office who becomes indispensable in helping Hannay stop the invasion despite being extremely skeptical of Scudder’s story. The association which begins in this novel is broadened in later sequels into an outright recruitment of Hannay as a spy due to his talents for working as an undercover agent.
Alexander Turnbull
Turnbull is essential in creating that aspect of Hannay’s character. He first appears as a drunk whose identity Hannay briefly steals in a successful effort to escape the clutches of the Black Stone. Later Turnbull will also turn out to be of great assistance in helping Hannay deal with the consequences of contracting malaria.
Members of the Black Stone
The various members of the Black Stone with whom Hannay comes into conflict are a various and assort group that change according to how much Hannay has learned about them at any particular time. Accordingly, a man who may seem the ultimate in harmless benevolence one minute may suddenly take on a malevolence never suspected a short time later.
