THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR BY ROBERT ARTHUR

American Writer of
Mystery
Life : November 10,
1909 – May 2, 1969
Wrote mystery
books for children
romantic: imaginative; having a fantastic view
of reality
•Writers and journalists should be very romantic
passably: just well enough; tolerably well
•Take a bath twice a day to be clean
•Once a day to be passably clean
•Once a week to avoid being public menace
-Anthony Burgess
Learn the PRONUNCIATION of this word. It is very different from the normal words

espionage: spying
SOME SPIES OF FICTION
sloppy: (here) carelessly dressed
 prosaic: ordinary

•The word prosaic usually describes something that

is common
•Most of us live prosaic, ordinary lives

•A lackluster response or an unimaginative

description could be labeled as prosaic
chuckled: laughed quietly, without opening
his mouth
wheezed: spoke breathing noisily and heavily
• The illness like Covid -9 often leaves the patient
wheezing
 Characters
AUSABLE: A Secret agent
FOWLER: A Writer
MAX: Another Secret agent
THEME
1. we should not panic in any situation;instead we should
take a step and face the situation with great presence of mind
2. One should not judge a person merely by his/her
appearance.
"Don't judge a book by its cover"
 romantic: imaginative;
having a fantastic view of
reality passably: just well
enough; tolerably well
espionage: spying
sloppy: (here) carelessly
dressed
prosaic: ordinary
chuckled: laughed quietly,
without opening his mouth Ausable, a secret agent, is expecting to get
wheezed: spoke breathing a very important report. Another secret agent,
noisily and heavily Max, threatens him with a pistol, demanding
missiles: weapons directed the report. Does Ausable outwit him?
byhigh pitch

READ AND FIND OUT

• How is Ausable different from other secret agents?
• Who is Fowler and what is his first authentic thrill
of the day?
FOWLER MEETS SECRET AGENT AUSABLE
MUSTY= AUSABLE did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had ever
STALE read. Following him down the musty corridor of the gloomy French
hotel where Ausable had a room, Fowler felt let down. It was a
DAMP
small room, on the sixth and top floor, and scarcely a setting for a
romantic adventure.
Ausable was, for one thing, fat. Very fat. And then there was his
accent. Though he spoke French and German passably, he had never
altogether lost the American accent he had brought to Paris from Boston
twenty years ago.
“You are disappointed,” Ausable said wheezily over his shoulder.
“You were told that I was a secret agent, a spy, dealing in espionage
and danger. You wished to meet me because you are a writer, young
and romantic. You envisioned mysterious figures in the night, the crack
of pistols, drugs in the wine.”
“Instead, you have spent a dull evening in a French music hall
with a sloppy fat man who, instead of having messages slipped into
his hand by dark-eyed beauties, gets only a prosaic telephone call
making an appointment in his room. You have been bored!” The fat
man chuckled to himself as he unlocked the door of his room and
stood aside to let his frustrated guest enter.
IMPORTANT PAPER IN AUSABLE'S CUSTODY
“You are disillusioned,” Ausable told him. “But take cheer, my young
friend. Presently you will see a paper, a quite important paper for
disillusioned-disappointed
which several men and women have risked their lives, come to me.
Some day soon that paper may well affect the course of history. In that
thought is drama, is there not?”
As he spoke, Ausable closed the door behind him. Then he switched
on the light.
And as the light came on, Fowler had his first authentic thrill of
the day. For halfway across the room, a small automatic pistol in his
hand, stood a man.
Ausable blinked a few times.
MAX WITH A PISTOL
“Max,” he wheezed, “you gave me quite a start. I thought you were
in Berlin. What are you doing here in my room?”

READ AND FIND OUT

• How has Max got in?
• How does Ausable say he got in?
Max was slender, a little less than tall, with features that suggested
slightly the crafty, pointed countenance of a fox. There was about him —
aside from the gun — nothing especially menacing.
“The report,” he murmured. “The report that is being brought to
you tonight concerning some new missiles. I thought I would take it
from you. It will be safer in my hands than in yours.”

The Midnight Visitor 15

 AUSABLE COOKS UP A STORY ABOUT BALCONY

raise the devil-fight, raise an uproar

Ausable moved to an armchair and sat down heavily. “I’m going to
raise the devil with the management this time, and you can bet on it,”
he said grimly. “This is the second time in a month that somebody has
got into my room through that nuisance of a balcony!” Fowler’s eyes
went to the single window of the room. It was an ordinary window,
against which now the night was pressing blackly.
“Balcony?” Max said, with a rising inflection. “No, a passkey. I did
not know about the balcony. It might have saved me some trouble
had I known.”
“It’s not my balcony,” Ausable said with extreme irritation. “It belongs
to the next apartment.” He glanced explanatorily at Fowler. “You see,”
he said, “this room used to be part of a large unit, and the next room —
through that door there — used to be the living room. It had the balcony,
which extends under my window now. You can get onto it from the
empty room two doors down — and somebody did, last month. The
management promised to block it off. But they haven’t.”
Max glanced at Fowler, who was standing stiffly not far from Ausable,
and waved the gun with a commanding gesture. “Please sit down,” he
said. “We have a wait of half an hour, I think.”
“Thirty-one minutes,” Ausable said moodily. “The appointment was
for twelve-thirty. I wish I knew how you learned about the report, Max.”
The little spy smiled evilly. “And we wish we knew how your people
got the report. But no harm has been done. I will get it back tonight.
What is that? Who is at the door?” KNOCKING AT THE DOOR
Fowler jumped at the sudden knocking at the door. Ausable just
smiled. “That will be the police,” he said. “I thought that such an
important paper as the one we are waiting for should have a little
extra protection. I told them to check on me to make sure everything
was all right.”
Max bit his lip nervously. The knocking was repeated.
“What will you do now, Max?” Ausable asked. “If I do not answer the
door, they will enter anyway. The door is unlocked. And they will not
hesitate to shoot.”
Max’s face was black with anger as he backed swiftly towards the
window. He swung a leg over the sill. “Send them away!” he warned. “I
will wait on the balcony. Send them away or I’ll shoot and take my
chances!”
The knocking at the door became louder and a voice was raised.
“Mr Ausable! Mr Ausable!”

16 Footprints without Feet

 NERVOUS MAX JUMPS OUT OF THE WINDOW

deftly-carefully, cleverly

Keeping his body twisted so that his gun still covered the fat man
and his guest, the man at the window grasped the frame with his free
hand to support himself. Then he swung his other leg up and over the
window-sill.
The doorknob turned. Swiftly Max pushed with his left hand to free
himself from the sill and drop to the balcony. And then, as he dropped,
he screamed once, shrilly. WAITER APPEARS
The door opened and a waiter stood there with a tray, a bottle and
two glasses. “Here is the drink you ordered for when you returned,” he
said, and set the tray on the table, deftly uncorked the bottle, and left
the room.
White-faced, Fowler stared after him. “But...” he stammered, “the
police...”
“There were no police.” Ausable sighed. “Only Henry, whom I was
expecting.”
“But won’t that man out on the balcony…?” Fowler began.
“No,” said Ausable, “he won’t return. You see, my young friend,
there is no balcony.”

ROBERT ARTHUR

The Midnight Visitor 17

1. Why did Fowler want to meet Ausable? Why was he disappointed?
2. What is the significance of balcony inthe story? (CBSE 2012)

3. What did the secret agent tell Max when he heard the knock on the door

4. How did Ausable show presence of mind to get rid of the intruder?
5. Why did Max enter Ausable's room? How did he do so?
6. What impression do you form of Ausable from the lesson?/ Give a character
sketch of Ausable

Think about it
1. “Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had
ever read.” What do secret agents in books and films look like, in
your opinion? Discuss in groups or in class some stories or movies
featuring spies, detectives and secret agents, and compare their
appearance with that of Ausable in this story. (You may mention
characters from fiction in languages other than English. In English
fiction you may have come across Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot,
or Miss Marple. Have you watched any movies featuring James
Bond?)
2. How does Ausable manage to make Max believe that there is a
balcony attached to his room? Look back at his detailed description
of it. What makes it a convincing story?
3. Looking back at the story, when do you think Ausable thought up
his plan for getting rid of Max? Do you think he had worked out his
plan in detail right from the beginning? Or did he make up a plan
taking advantage of events as they happened?

Talk about it
1. In this story, Ausable shows great ‘presence of mind,’ or the ability
to think quickly, and act calmly and wisely, in a situation of danger
and surprise. Give examples from your own experience, or narrate
a story, which shows someone’s presence of mind.
2. Discuss what you would do in the situations described below.
Remember that presence of mind comes out of a state of mental
preparedness. If you have thought about possible problems or

18 Footprints without Feet

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 dangers, and about how to act in such situations, you have a better
chance of dealing with such situations if they do arise.
• A small fire starts in your kitchen.
• A child starts to choke on a piece of food.
• An electrical appliance starts to hiss and gives out sparks.
• A bicycle knocks down a pedestrian.
• It rains continuously for more than twenty-four hours.
• A member of your family does not return home at the usual or
expected time.
You may suggest other such situations.

Suggested reading
• ‘After Twenty Years’ by O. Henry
• ‘The Stolen Bacillus’ by H.G. Wells
• ‘The Face on the Wall’ by E.V. Lucas

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