The Midnight Visitor
Chapter Sketch
Ausable, a secret agent, is expecting to get a very important report. Another secret agent, Max, threatens him with a pistol, demanding the report. This story tells how Ausable outwits Max by making up convincing stories.
About the Characters
Ausable: He is a secret agent who does not look like one at all, but shows great presence of mind to outwit another secret agent.
Fowler: He is a young and romantic writer who is looking for some excitement in the company of a secret agent like Ausable.
Max: A rival secret agent who is fooled by Ausable and falls to his death.
OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER
Meeting of Secret Agent Ausable and Writer Fowler :
Ausable was a smart secret agent, but did not look like one at all, being short and very fat. Fowler was a young writer who wanted to write about Ausable and so spent an evening with him. Fowler was feeling disappointed so far, as he could not find any characteristic of a secret agent in Ausable.
Another Secret Agent Max seen with a Pistol :
When both Ausable and fowler entered Ausable’s hotel room, another secret agent rmmed Max was waiting in the room with an automatic pistol pointed at them. Max was there because he had come to know that Ausable was going to receive an important report about some new missiles that night. Max threatened to shoot if Ausable tried to act smart.
Ausable Confuses Max:
To ensure the report’s safety as well as his own and the writer’s safety, Ausable invented a story about anybody entering his room easily through a balcony just below the window in his room. Actually there was no balcony – if anybody climbed out from the window, he would fall to his death, as the room was on the sixth floor. However, Max told them that he had entered the room through the door using a passkey.
Max Jumps In the Non-existing Balcony and Dies :
Suddenly there was a knocking on the door and Ausable pretended that it was the local police, who had been asked to provide him extra security for the important document he was about to receive. When the knocking was repeated, Max became angry at Ausable and decided to wait in the balcony (which he thought existed) until the police went away. He stepped out of the window and fell to his death. When the door opened, a waiter came in with drinks which Ausable had ordered to be delivered to his room when he had returned to the hotel.
Chapter Highlights
- Ausable was a smart secret agent, but did not look like one at all, being short and very fat. Fowler was a young writer who wanted to write about Ausable and so spent an evening with him.
- When both of them returned to Ausable’s sixth floor hotel room, another secret agent named Max was waiting for them with a gun so that he could take the important report on new missiles from Ausable.
- To ensure the report’s and their own safety. Ausable invented a story about anybody entering his room easily through a balcony just below the window in his room. Actually there was no balcony.
- Suddenly there was a knocking on the door and Ausable pretended that it was the local police.
- When the knocking was repeated, Max decided to wait in the balcony (which he thought existed) until the police went away. He stepped out of the window and fell to his death.
- When the door opened, a waiter came in with drinks which Ausable had ordered to be delivered to his room when he had returned to the hotel.
WORD MEANINGS
musty →smelling of mould/ fungus
gloomy →cheerless
let down →disappointed
setting →place
romantic adventure →exciting happening
accent →way of pronouncing words in a language
passably →just well enough to be understood
wheezily →with a whistling sound
espionage →spying
envisioned →imagined
music hall →hall where musical programmes are held
sloppy →carelessly dressed
slipped →passed secretly
beauties →beautiful women
prosaic →routine/ ordinary
chuckled →laughed quietly without opening the mouth
frustrated →bored
disillusioned →disappointed
take cheer → be happy
presently →soon
come →will be delivered
affect the course of history →change what happens
drama →excitement
authentic thrill →real feeling of excitement
wheezed →spoke breathing noisily and heavily
start →shock
slender →gracefully thin
crafty, pointed countenance →cunning look
menacing →dangerous
missiles →directed weapons
heavily →with force
raise the devil →make a strong protest
grimly →seriously
nuisance →causing annoyance
pressing blackly →showing total darkness
inflection →change of tone
passkey →duplicate key
block it off →close it
moodily →sadly
evilly →wickedly
protection →security
check on →meet
backed swiftly →went back quickly
take my chances →depend on my luck
shrilly →piercingly/at a high pitch
deftly →neatly and skilfully
uncorked →removed the top cover
white-faced →pale from fear