The 39 Steps question

Hey Cosmic. I can't remember any particular symbolism that stands out to me, but I immediately was drawn to this statement at the beginning of the story, in which the soon-to-be-dead character brings the protagonist into a world of subterfuge:

“They won up to a point, but they struck a bigger thing than money, a thing that couldn't be bought, the old elemental fighting instincts of man. If you're going to be killed you invent some kind of flag and country to fight for, and if you survive you get to love the thing."

Something else I remember was the scene in which Hannay escapes bad guys by trading clothes with a milkman and slipping past them unnoticed. He also does the same as a road repairman....

And then, this quote about the nature of "acting", of playing a part:

"“What if they were playing Peter's game? A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different.

Again, there was that other maxim of Peter's which had helped me when I had been a roadman. 'If you are playing a part, you will never keep it up unless you convince yourself that you are it.'

That would explain the game of tennis. Those chaps didn't need to act, they just turned a handle and passed into another life, which came as naturally to them as the first. It sounds a platitude, but Peter used to say that it was the big secret of all the famous criminals.,,,"