The moment when Dickson McCunn relinquishes his timid wish to remain strictly inside the law and decides to take a hand against the foreign conspirators gives an ironic insight into McCunn's social conditioning, whereby the veranda is an acceptable way to break into a house and the coal hole is unacceptable.
"They both looked at Dickson, and Dickson, scarlet in the face, looked back at them. He had suddenly found the thought of a solitary march to Auchenlochan intolerable. Once again he was at the parting of the ways, and once more caprice determined his decision. That the coal-hole was out of the question had worked a change in his views, Somehow it seemed to him less burglarious to enter by a veranda. He felt very frightened but for the moment quite resolute. “I’m coming with you,” he said." Huntingtower chapter five.