NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Chapter 3 The Midnight Visitor

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English for Footprints without feet Chapter 3 The Midnight Visitor

Read and Find Out 

1. How is Ausable different from other secret agents?
Answer
Ausable was different from other secret agents in more ways than one. He had a small room in the musty corridor of a gloomy French hotel. It was on the sixth and top floor and it was scarcely the setting for a romantic adventure. He was extremely fat. Inspite of living in Paris for over twenty years, he spoke French and German only passably and had an American accent. Instead of getting messages slipped into his hands by dark-eyed beauties, he got only a telephone call making an appointment. In these ways, he was different from the conventional notion of a spy.

2. Who is Fowler and what is his first authentic thrill of the day?
Answer
Fowler was a writer and he had come to meet Ausable.
Fowler’s first authentic thrill of the day came when he saw a man in Ausable’s room pointing a pistol towards Ausable and himself.

Read and Find Out

1. How has Max got in?
Answer
Max had got into the room with a passkey or a master key.

2. How does Ausable say he got in?
Answer
Ausable said that he thought Max had got into the room through the balcony. He said that it was the second time in a month that somebody had got into his room this way.

Think about It

1. “Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler hand 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?)
Answer
Secret agents in fiction are projected like ideal men, ‘Tall dark and handsome’. They are usually well built and keep have beautiful women for company. They would always smoke pipe or cigar and do death defying stunts. James Bond is a very famous character by Ian Fleming. Movies based on James Bond show hi-tech gizmos whch assist the detective in countering villains. There are some exceptions as well. There is a character named Feluda which was created by Satyajit Ray, the famous Bangla Filmmaker. Feluda was typical bhadralok by appearance.

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?
Answer
Ausable tells Max that someone entered his room through the balcony before also. He also told him that he had asked police to give him protection as he had some important papers with him. On listening Max became nervous and just wanted to escape from police, as a result without noticing he jumped out of the window and fell down. Ausable’s ability to think quickly and calmly, in a situation of panic makes it convincing.

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.
Answer
This story is reference to the play ‘If I were you’. Gurrad was captured by a criminal and the criminal pointed gun towards him but he treated the criminal as a guest and trapped him in his confidence. He achieved the criminal to run away as police is behind him. He told the criminal to run through the exit door, which was actually a cupboard door. The criminal exited through the door and was caught in the cupboard.

Short Answer Type Question

1. describe Ausable . How is Ausable different from other secret agents?
Answer
Abel was a secret agent. However, his nature of profession did not match his physical appearance. He was not fit, and did not live in a grand house. On the other hand, he was quite chubby and lived in a gloomy French hotel. He was very observant and come and knew how to react in a difficult situation.
In contrast to the other secret agents, he didn’t live a very glamorous life. He was the opposite of mysterious, and described himself as a sloppy fat man.

2. Who is Fowler and what is his first authentic thrill of the day?
Answer
Fowler was a writer who was a romantic. He was sent to Ausable to write an article on the life of spies. He initially thought that Abel was a bore and wasn’t anything like a secret agent. Able took Fowler to his room and that’s when Fowler had the first authentic thrill of the day. Halfway across the room, there stood a man with a small automatic pistol in his hand. The man was Max, and he demanded the report containing information about missiles. He noticed how calm Abel was, and how he fooled max into falling to his own doom.

3. How is Max described in the story?
Answer
Max was slender, a little less than tall, with features that suggested slightly the crafty, pointed countenance of a fox. There was nothing about him specially menacing.

4. What happens to him ( Max) in the story?
Answer
Max was threatening Ausable with a gun to give him the important reports. Ausable asked him if he had entered through the balcony, and made up a story about how it was bad for security. Max believed him and upon hearing and the knocking at the door, Ausable promptly told him that it was the police. Scared, Max tried to get to the balcony but to his surprise, there was no balcony. Ausable and Fowler heard a scream, and Max fell out of the window.

5. how does Ausable manage to make max believe in his story?
Answer
When Max threatened possible, Ausable thought of an escape plan. He told Max about his faulty balcony, and how people got into his room from the adjacent empty room because of the common balcony. His story was very convincing because considering the quality of the hotel, it was a situation that could happen. He said that he had called the police to have some extra protection as he was receiving an important report. This was a very practical story. However, as we see later in the story, both the stories turned out to be false.

6. A calm mind can help you tackle any challenging situation. Elaborate with reference to the midnight visitor 
Answer
This is a question with reference to “ The Midnight visitor “by Robert Arthur. It is about a secret agent, Ausable, and how he outwits Max even when Max had a gun.
When Ausable turned on the light, he saw Max standing halfway across the room, armed with a gun. However, Ausable was only slightly startled and remained calm, chatting along with Max to give himself time to think. If he had panicked, he would have not been able to get rid of Max. When Ausable narrated his story, it seemed very practical and believable which was partly because he narrated it so calmly, as if he was stating actual facts.
Panicking would have caused his mind to block and only think of the worst and not of the solution. Thus, a calm mind helped him tackle the situation effortlessly.