The Midnight visitor, chapter - 3 from Footprints without Feet, prescribed for Grade 10 C.B.S.E. The theme of the chapter suggests that one should not judge a person by merely his appearance.

1. The midnight visitor
By Robert Arthur

2. Theme of the story
The story highlights the theme that wisdom is more powerful
than other weapons. Ausable’s intelligence is highlighted in
the story. It is also based on the theme that one should not
judge a person by merely his appearance. Ausable is fat and
lazy but he is the most intelligent of all in the story.

3. Introduction
Ausable, a secret agent, is expecting a very important
report. Another secret agent, Max, threatens him with a
pistol, demanding the report. Does Ausable outwit him?
The story is about a secret agent, Ausable who has spent an
evening with a writer named Fowler who had expected that as
he would be meeting a secret agent he would be looking into a
lot of adventure. But instead, he rather gets bored when he
meets Ausable as the things that happened were exactly the
opposite of what he had imagined. How Ausable gets rid of his
unexpected guest proves his expertise as a secret agent.

4. Word meanings
* Musty- having a stale, mouldy, or damp smell.
* Corridor- a long passage in a building from which doors lead into
rooms.
* Gloomy- dark or poorly lit, especially so as to appear depressing or
frightening.
* Scarcely- only just; almost not.
* Accent- a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one
associated with a particular country, area, or social class.
* Passably- just well enough; tolerably well
* Espionage- spying
* Envisioned- imagine as a future possibility; visualize.
* Sloppy- carelessly dressed
* Prosaic- : ordinary
* Chuckled- : laughed quietly, without opening his mouth
* Disillusioned- disappointed in someone or something that one discovers
to be less good than one had believed.

5. Word meanings
* Authentic- of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine.
* Halfway- at or to a point equidistant between two others.
* Wheezed- spoke breathing noisily and heavily
* Slender- gracefully thin.
* Countenance- a person's face or facial expression.
* Menacing- suggesting the presence of danger; threatening.
* Murmured- say something in a low or indistinct voice.
* Missile- : weapons directed by remote control or automatically
* Raise the devil- make a noisy disturbance.
* Grimly- in a very serious, gloomy, or depressing manner.
* Nuisance- a person or thing causing inconvenience or annoyance.
* Balcony- a platform enclosed by a wall or balustrade on the outside of a
building, with access from an upper-floor window or door.
* Inflection- a change in the form of a word (typically the ending) to
express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person,
number, case, and gender.
* Passkey- a master key.

6. Word meaning
* Glanced- take a brief or hurried look.
* Explanatorily- serving to explain
* Stiffly- in a manner that is not relaxed or friendly.
* Waved- move to and fro with a swaying motion while remaining fixed
to one point.
* Commanding- having a position of authority.
* Gesture- a movement of part of the body, especially a hand or the
head, to express an idea or meaning
Evilly- morally wrong or bad

7. Word meaning
* Hesitate- to be reluctant or wait to act because of fear, indecision,
or disinclination
* Swiftly- moving or capable of moving with great speed or velocity;
fleet; rapid
* Sill- the horizontal piece or member beneath a window, door, or other
opening.
* Shrilly- piercingly; in a high pitch
* Deftly- dexterous; nimble; skillful; clever
* Uncorked- to draw the cork from
* Stammered- to speak with involuntary breaks and pauses, or with
spasmodic repetitions of syllables or sounds
* Sighed- to let out one's breath audibly, as from sorrow, weariness, or
relief

8. Plot (Key points)
● Ausable was a secret agent but he didn’t look like that .he was very fat
but not much tall but he is much alert in his mind.
● Ausable had a room on the sixth and top floor of a French Hotel.
● Fowler was a writer. Ausable told him that he would get an important
report that night concerning some new missiles.This report could change
the course of history.
● Fowler saw Max,another secret agent who threatens Fowler with a pistol
demanding the report.
● Ausable handled Max cleverly. He told Max that he would complain to the
hotel authorities about the balcony Which should be closed immediately.
● There was a loud knocking at the door.Ausable smiled and told that that
was the police.
● Max got nervous. His face was black with anger.He asked Ausable to send
the police back.In the meantime he would go and wait on the balcony.
● Max jumped into the balcony. In this way Ausable got rid of Max.

9. Summary
The story revolves around three characters, two rival spies named Ausable and
Max and one mystery writer Fowler. Ausable is a chubby, lethargic, messy and
clumsy man while Max is slender and rugged. The story is a short but
intriguing insight into the life of a spy which may not be as glamorous as in
the movies but still full of danger and suspense.
Ausable meets Fowler, a writer fascinated by spies and secrets. Ausable was
expecting a sensitive document to arrive that night and so asks Fowler to
follow him through the night. Disappointed at Ausable’s appearance and
mannerisms, Fowler agrees to do the same. Suddenly, Ausable gets a phone call
regarding someone who had entered his hotel room. Alarmed but not overly
worried he beckons Fowler to follow him to his room. The room was on the 6th
floor. As they enter the room, they are startled by a pistol-toting individual
staring at them. It is Max, the rival spy of Ausable. He asks them to enter
and lock the room. He threatens Ausable and warns him to hand over the
documents to him as soon as they arrive at his room later that night.

10. Summary
Playing rather composed Ausable sits down and complains about the balcony
window that he thought Max used to break into his room.
Max claims that he used the master key to get inside and had he known about
the balcony he would have used that instead. Ausable reiterates that he had
complained to the management about the balcony window several times and has
had previous break-ins. Fowler was listening to the conversation intently.
Suddenly there is a loud clamour at the door. Ausable suggests that it must be
the police that he had arranged to safe keep the documents.
Max gets anxious and asks Ausable to turn them away while he hides in the
balcony. He threatens to shoot if he smells any trickery. As soon as Max leaps
outside the window he yells out of horror as he crashes to the road below. The
room had no balcony after all. Next, the door opens and Fowler sees a waiter
holding Ausable’s drinks rather any policeman. Fowler is relieved and
impressed by Ausable’s presence of mind. He realizes that looks can truly be
deceiving.

11. Character list
* Fowler- He is a very young writer. He
wrote books related to the romantic aspect
of life. Shifting from this genre, he wanted
to write a book on the detectives. In his
mind, he had formed a picture of a detective
like James Bond. According to his
imagination, the detective would be young
with attractive personality. He assumed a
detective to be surrounded by equipment
related to the field. For his astonishment
when he met Ausable, he felt very
devastated.

12. Character list
* Ausable- Ausable is the protagonist
of the story “The Midnight Visitor”
by Robert Arthur. He is a secret
agent but his appearance did not
match his profession. He was very
sharp and had a quick and witty mind
to escape any situation with his
self-confidence. He was a short and
fat man who was quite lazy too. As he
was a secret agent, he tricked Max
and made him believe that there was a
balcony attached to his window even
though there was no balcony over
there. In this way, he saved his
crucial documents from Max.

13. Character list
* Max- Max was a slender man, not very tall. His
features suggested that he was slightly crafty and
cunning like that of a fox. He did not seem very
dangerous other than the fact that he was holding a
gun. He had come stealthily into A usable is room
and wanted the report on the missiles. But, Max was
also slightly gullible; he easily fell into the trap
set by Ausable. His gullibility probably cost him
his life. He was overconfident just because he had a
gun pointed at Ausable and Fowler. Max lacked the
presence of mind, he was so focused on pointing the
gun at both the men that he did not look down for a
second to see whether there was a balcony below the
window or not. He just blindly believed Ausable. Max
proved that he could be easily fooled. This did not
make him a very good secret agent.