summary of chapter the midnight visitor cls 10
Answers
The story is about a witty secret agent named Ausable. He was with a writer named Fowler throughout the evening as Fowler was interested in spending time with a secret agent but when he spends time with Ausable he realizes that he is exactly the opposite of what he had imagined and that he was a bore. Ausable then told Fowler that he had been thinking wrong and that soon he would be looking at a report that would change the country’s future. Then Ausable takes Fowler to his room and when they entered the room a guy with a gun named Max was standing in the room. He asked them to be comfortable until the reports about the missiles arrived in 30 minutes as he was there to steal the reports. This was the first adventure out of many that Fowler had expected when he had thought of meeting a secret agent. While they were talking, Ausable started with a story about how a guy had entered from the balcony last month below his room. While this talk was going on, a sudden knock was heard at the door. Ausable said that it must be the police as he wanted them to check on him after sometime because he wanted to make the reports that were coming in extra secure. Max, pointing his gun towards them, said that he would be waiting in the balcony and that Ausable should send away the police otherwise he would shoot them and even take the risk of being caught by the police. As the doorknob is turned, Max jumps out of the window and a loud scream is heard. The door opens and a waiter comes in and says that he has brought the wine that Mr. Ausable had ordered. He keeps the bottle, tray and glasses on the table and leaves. Fowler is surprised and asks him about the police to which Ausable replied that there was no police. Then Fowler asked what about the person who was waiting in the balcony outside the window to which Ausable replied that the person would not return and that there was no balcony there. This shows the quick wit of Ausable as he took advantage of the situation and made Max nervous due to which he jumped out of the window without thinking and looking down. He had jumped from the top floor of the hotel and would have possibly died. This is how Ausable outwitted Max and saved himself from a very dangerous situation.
Answer:
The Midnight Visitor is a detective story written by Robert Arthur. The story is about a quick-witted secret agent Ausable. One day, he and his writer friend Fowler had gone out to spend an evening together. As the two men talked, Ausable told him that Fowler must have imagined him to be a secret agent who dealt with espionage and danger and envisioned mysterious figures in the night, the crack of pistols and drugs in the wine. On the contrary, when Fowler met Ausable, he found the latter to be a chubby-looking spy who spoke French and German moderately with an American accent, ever since he moved from Paris to Boston twenty years ago.
Soon, both of them headed towards Ausable’s room, he unlocked the door and switched on the light. When they entered the room, Fowler was startled to see a man holding a small automatic pistol halfway across the room. Ausable immediately recognised the other man to be Max, a secret agent. Max had come to demand for the report related to missiles that Ausable was expecting. Meanwhile, Fowler was in a state of shock and this was by far the most audacious experience for him to meet a secret agent in such a manner.
In the meantime, Ausable began his hypothetical story of the balcony beneath the window of the room to divert Max’s attention. Just then, somebody knocked at the door and it continued until the thumping became louder and more frequent. Ausable said that the police might have come to visit him as they did on a regular basis. Hearing this, Max was confused and while he pointed his gun towards the other two men in the room, he said he would wait in the balcony until the police left.
Max warned that he would shoot them if they didn’t listen to him. Saying so, he jumped out of the window and suddenly there was a loud scream. Meanwhile, Ausable opened the door and the waiter brought some wine that he had ordered. The waiter kept the wine bottle, glasses and tray on the top of the table and left. Fowler was surprised to see all this and asked him about the police. To this, Ausable lied about the police as he was trying to intimidate Max. Fowler again asked that Max must be waiting in the balcony, to which Ausable said there was no balcony attached to his window. He cooked up the entire story about the balcony in order to convince Max to believe him, which he blindly did.
This story exhibits how quick-witted Ausable took advantage of the dangerous situation and was successful in making Max nervous. Distraught Max jumped out of the window and fell to his death unknowingly. Although Ausable didn’t look like a well-groomed spy like we see in movies, he was an ingenious secret agent. He outwitted Max and successfully saved himself and his friend, Fowler from a life-threatening situation