Chapter – 8

The Hack Driver

In this post, we have given the Important Questions of chapter 8 “The Hack Driver”. It is the 8th chapter of the Class 10th English.

Board	CBSE Board, UP Board, JAC Board, HBSE Board, UBSE Board, PSEB Board, RBSE Board
Textbook	NCERT
Class	Class 10
Subject	English Footprints without Feet
Chapter no.	Chapter 8
Chapter Name	The Hack Driver
Category	Class 10 English Important Questions
Medium	English

Chapter 8 The Hack Driver

Question 1. Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?

Answer: The lawyer was sent to New Mullion to serve summons on Oliver Lutkins, who was needed as a witness in a law case. He first thinks that the place must be a sweet and a simple country village.

Question 2. Who befriends lawyer? Where does he take him?

Answer: A hack driver at the station, who called himself Bill Magnuson, befriends him. He told the lawyer that he knew Lutkins and would help in finding him. Bill took him to all the places where Lutkins was known to hang out. He took the lawyer to Fritz’s shop, where Lutkins played a lot of poker; to Gustaff’s barber shop and then to Gray’s barber shop; to the poolroom and several other places before finally taking him to Lutkins’ mother’s farm. However, Oliver Lutkins was not found.

Question 3. What does Bill say about Lutkins?

Answer: Bill told the lawyer that Lutkins was a hard person to find as he was always busy in some activity or the other. He owed money to many people, including Bill, and had never paid back anybody. He also said that Lutkins played a lot of poker and was good at deceiving people.

Question 4. What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?

Answer: Bill told the lawyer that he knew mother of Lutkins’. He said that she was a terror. He narrated an incident when he took a trunk to her once and she almost took his skin off because he did not carry it carefully. He also said that she was very tall and bulky. She was very quick and could talk a lot. He said that Lutkins must have heard that somebody was chasing him and consequently would have gone into hiding at his mother’s place.

Question 5. Does the narrator serve the summons that day?

Answer: No, the narrator did not serve the summons that day.

Question 3. Who is Lutkins?

Answer: The hack driver himself is Lutkins but pretends to be Bill Magnuson. He tricks the lawyer to avoid the summons to be a witness in a case.

Answer the following questions

Question 1. Why was the lawyer not happy with his job?

Answer. The lawyer was not happy with the job because he was made to deliver summons, instead of preparing legal briefs. For that task, he had to go to dirty and shadowy corners of the city. He also feared of being beaten up by the witnesses.

Question 2. Why was the narrator sent Lutkins back to New Mullion? Who went with him?

Answer. Lutkins was to be produced in the court in a witness the next day. The narrator had failed to serve summons on him. Therefore he was sent back to New Mullion. A man who had worked with Lutkins went with him.

Question 3. Who was Lutkins? Did the narrator serve the summons that day? Why?

Answer. Oliver Lutkins was a man from New Mullion who was to be served a summon to testify for a pending court case. The narrator, the lawyer who was assigned the task, was cleverly tricked by Lutkins who exploited the gullibility of former and helped him chase himself, thus subjecting him to ridicule by the village folk. No, the lawyer could not serve the summons that day for its obvious reason.

Question 4. What attitude did the lawyer have to the country life? How did his experience at New Mullion change it?

Answer. The lawyer was under the impression that away from the hustle and bustle of city life, the people in the country led a pleasant, simple, honest, helpful and peaceful life. But his experience in New Mullion with the smart hack driver, who himself was Oliver Lutkins —who humiliated and befooled him with his clever tricks and quick thinking, made the lawyer change his overview towards the country life.

Question 5. Who befriended the narrator when he went to New Mullion? Where did he take him?

Answer. The hack driver who himself was Oliver Lutkins, befriended the narrator when he went to New Mullion for locating Lutkins against whom he had a summon. They went to Bieneke, Gustaffson’s, Gray barber’s shop and finally to Lutkin’s house. In this way, the hack driver took the lawyer all around the village to search for Lutkins.

Question 6. Who was Oliver Lutkins? How did he try to fool the young lawyer?

Answer. Oliver Lutkins was a middle-aged person from New Mullion town. He was the prime witness in a law case. When the lawyer was sent to his town to serve the summons, he fooled him by befriending him as such a hack driver who was willing to help him. He takes him all around the town but they were unable to find Lutkins.

Question 7. What did the hack driver tell the narrator about Lutkin’s mother?

OR

What does Bill say about Lutkin’s mother?

Answer. The hack driver told the young lawyer that Lutkin’s mother was quite a terror. She was nine feet tall and four feet thick. She had the agility of a cat and could talk a lot. Oliver must be hiding behind his mother’s skirts.

Question 8. With what impression did the lawyer come back to the city?

Answer.  At New Mullion, the lawyer was greatly impressed by the cheerfulness of Bill, the hack driver and his eagerness to help him in the task for which he had arrived there. Oblivious to the identity of the hack driver as Lutkins himself, he presumed the hospitality offered to him as the general attitude of the country folk. He was so impressed by the simplicity and forthcoming behaviour of Bill that he decided that he would settle at New Mullion.

Question 9. In life, people who easily trust others are sometimes made to look foolish. One should not be too trusting. Describe how Oliver Lutkins made a fool of the young lawyer.

Answer. The people who easily trust others are honest and simple-hearted. But they are also the people who are easily cheated. This is fully applicable to the young lawyer. Lutkins impressed the lawyer with his friendly manner. He led the lawyer to think that the people of the town were trustworthy. He also claimed to know most of the places where Lutkins could be found. He told lies about Lutkins and befooled the lawyer. He charged him with high price for the hack and food. He alerted Fritz and his mother not to reveal his identity to the lawyer. He even went to the railway station to see him off. On his second visit the lawyer learnt that the hack driver himself was Lutkins. Hence, one should not be too trusting.

Question 10. What does Bill say about Lutkin’s character to the narrator?

Answer. The Hack Driver is a story of gripping interest. It depicts a battle of wits between a country folk and a city born lawyer. In fact lawyer is the narrator himself. The narrator had failed to locate Lutkins, still he was excited about meeting a man like Bill. Bill was Lutkins himself. He exploited narrator’s simple nature. Bill gives funny picture of Oliver Lutkins. He says that Lutkins never pays a cent to anyone. He plays poker very much. He drove the narrator to the different places in his village. He pretended that he was looking for Lutkins when he was Lutkins himself in real life. Bill keeps the narrator out of sight and talks to the shopkeeper and even to his own mother.

Question 11. How many places did the hack driver take to the narrator to search Lutkins? Did they succeed in their search? Explain.

Answer. When the hack driver who was Oliver Lutkins himself, got the information that the lawyer had come New Mullion to serve a summon to him, he made a plan to befool the lawyer. He behaved very friendly towards the lawyer and won his faith. He himself offered his help to search Oliver Lutkins. The narrator hired his hack and went many places. First they went to Fritz’s shop. But they did not find Lutkins there. Then the hack driver took him to Gustaff’s barber shop. The hack driver entered the shop and asked Gustaff if he had seen Lutkins. At this Gustaff hesitated a little but then answered that he was there for a little ago. After this the hack driver took him to Gray’s shop. But even then Lutkins could not be found. There they came to know that Lutkins had left for poolroom. At last a friend of Lutkins informed them that he had gone to his mother’s farm. Thus they went to Lutkins’ house at last. There when the hack driver told his mother that the lawyer had to serve a summon to Lutkin, she went inside the kitchen and returned with an iron of an old stove. She ran after them. They ran away from there. Thus they could not succeed in their search.

Think About It

Question 1. When the lawyer reached New Mullion, did ‘Bill’ know that he was looking for Lutkins ? When do you think ‘Bill’ came up with his plan for fooling the lawyer?

Answer:

• No, ‘Bill’ did not know initially that the lawyer was looking for him.
• He must have made his plan for fooling the lawyer when the lawyer told him that he was looking for Lutkins, as he knew that he was required as a witness but did not want to give his testimony.

Question 2. Lutkins openly takes the lawyer all over the village. How is that no one lets out the secret? (Hint : Notice that the hack driver asks the lawyer to keep out of sight behind him when they go into Fritz’s.) Can you find other such subtle ways in which Lutkins manipulates the tour?

Answer: Lutkins never allows the lawyer to reach the place where the imaginary Lutkins is supposed to be present at a given time. The way he weaves stories about Lutkins’ vagabond nature and the way he scares the lawyer about Lutkins’ mother are ways of fooling the lawyer devised by the hack driver. Everywhere he does not allow the lawyer to ask about Lutkins but he himself pretends to ask about him, which the villagers are knowing is a pretence. So the villagers also join in the whole drama.

Question 3. Why do you think Lufkin’s neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer?

Answer: Almost the entire village had enjoyer Lutkins making a fool of the lawyer. Only Lutkins’ neighbours had not seen the lawyer but had come to know what happened. They wanted to see the gullible man who Lutkins had taken for a ride. That is why tiny wanted to meet him.

Question 4. After his first day’s experience with the hack driver the lawyer thinks of returning to New Mullion to practice law. Do you think he would have reconsidered this idea after his second visit?

Answer: No, absolutely not. After knowing how Lutkins had made fool of him, he would never return to New Mullion to practice law.

Question 5. Do you think the lawyer was gullible? How could he have avoided being taken for a ride?

Answer: Yes, the lawyer was gullible. He believed every word of what Oliver Lutkins said. He should have asked about Lutkins from other villagers. Instead, he depended completely on the hack driver.

Talk About It

Question 1. Do we come across persons like Lutkins only in fiction or do we encounter them in real life as well? You can give examples from fiction, or narrate an incident that you have read in the newspaper, or an incident from real life.

Answer: Persons like Lutkins are found in real life as well. They do not just appear in stories. They are very much real. Newspapers are full of reports of such tricksters. There is this famous con man in ‘David Copperfield’ written by Charles Dickens. His name is Uriah Heep. He traps a gullible, rich old man. The old man depends on him entirely. He takes advantage of his trust and takes all his money. He makes the old man an addict to alcohol. Then he forces the old man to marry his daughter to him.

Question 2. Who is a ‘con man’, or a confidence trickster?

Answer: A ‘con man’ or a confidence trickster is a person who makes a fool out of other people. He wins their trust first and then, he gets from them whatever he wants.

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