11. Summary of the lesson "The Midnight Visitor"

The lesson "The Midnight Visitor" is written by Robert Arthur. The story is about Ausable, a witty secret agent. One day, Ausable and Fowler (a young writer) had spent an evening together. As the two men talked, Ausable informed him that Fowler must have thought of him as a secret agent dealing with espionage and danger. When Fowler encountered Ausable, he discovered the latter to be a chubby-looking spy. Soon after, they both made their way to Ausable's room, where he opened the door and turned on the light. When they approached the room, Fowler was surprised to see a man halfway across the room clutching an automatic gun. Ausable recognised the other man right away as Max, a secret agent. Max had arrived to demand the missile report that Ausable was expecting. While seeing Max with a gun, Ausable began his hypothetical story of the balcony beneath the room's window to distract Max's attention. Just then, somebody banged at the door, and the knocking became louder. Ausable said that the person who was knocking at the door might be the police. Max was perplexed when he heard this, and while pointing his rifle at the other two guys in the room, he stated that he would wait on the balcony until the police departed. Max threatened to shoot them if they didn't listen to him. He leapt out the window as he said this, and there was a loud cry. After that, the door opened, and the waiter, Henry, delivered the wine Ausable had requested. Fowler was taken aback by what he saw and inquired about the cops. Ausable, to scare Max, lied about the police. Fowler then asked whether Max was waiting on the balcony, to which Ausable replied that there was no balcony adjacent to his window. He made up the entire balcony tale to escape from Max.