The Midnight Visitor by Robert Arthur tells how Ausable outwits Max by making up convincing stories. Ausable, a secret agent, is expecting to get a very important report. Another secret agent, Max, threatens him with a pistol, demanding the report.
Summary
Ausable was a secret agent in an organization. He was a fat man with a strange accent. He was an American and could speak German and French fluently. He lived in a small room on the top floor of a French hotel in Paris.
Fowler was a young and romantic writer. One day, he visited Ausable in the hope of finding some unusual happenings there. He was also a spy and dealt in espionage and danger. However, he felt disappointed at Ausable’s sight.
Ausable and Fowler spent the evening in a French music hall. Fowler was feeling bored. Ausable informed him that he would soon receive an important paper. The paper might affect the course of history. It had also made many men and women risk their lives. He had got a telephone call making an appointment in his room.
Ausable switched on the light after closing the door. There was a man with a pistol standing half way across the room. Fowler was thrilled. Ausable was surprised to see Max (another secret agent belonging to another agent’s organization) in his room. On being asked, Max informed him that he had come there at the odd hour to take from him the prospective report about some new missiles.
Ausable sat in an armchair in a serious and angry mood. He started saying that it was the second time in a month that somebody had got into his room through a balcony. Max had no knowledge about the balcony. He reported that he had a pass key. Ausable explained that the balcony belonged to the next apartment which used to be the living room. The balcony extended under his window. The management had not still blocked it off and intruders could get in from the apartment.
Max asked Fowler to sit down, rather than stand stiffly for half an hour till the report arrived. Ausable was at a loss to find how Max had learnt about the incoming report. Just then, there was a knock at the door. Fowler jumped at it. Ausable concocted another story that the Police might have come to provide him security for the important paper. Ausable told Max that the Police would enter the room any way and shoot if he did not open the door. Max got unnerved.
Max got infuriated and started backing swiftly towards the window. He opened the window with one hand behind. He wanted to escape through the balcony. He informed Ausable that he would wait on the balcony. He would shoot and take his chances if Ausable did not send the Police away. The knocking became louder. Somebody called Ausable repeatedly. Max dropped to the balcony, screamed loudly and died.
A waiter entered the room with a bottle and two glasses set on a tray, the drink ordered by Ausable. Fowler got perplexed. Ausable explained that he was waiting for the waiter and not for the Police. Fowler was afraid lest Max should shoot them from the balcony. Ausable assured Fowler that Max would never return.