Quick Revision

Ausable tricked Max into believing there was a balcony outside the window of his room. When the police knocked, Max panicked and jumped out of the window — thinking he would land on the balcony. But there was no balcony; Max fell from the sixth floor. Ausable used his quick wit and storytelling to outmanoeuvre Max without any physical confrontation.

Fowler was disappointed because Ausable did not look like a stereotypical spy from novels. Instead of being tall, slim, and dashing, Ausable was fat, spoke with an American accent, and lived in a small musty room on the sixth floor of a French hotel. He did not match the glamorous image of a secret agent that Fowler had imagined.

Ausable showed remarkable presence of mind by creating a completely fictional story under pressure. His plan had three elements: (1) He invented a non-existent balcony below his window, claiming it belonged to the next apartment and that someone had entered through it before. (2) When the waiter knocked (to deliver drinks), Ausable pretended it was the police he had called. (3) The combination of the 'police' arriving and the 'balcony' as an escape route made Max jump out of the window to his death. All this was improvised on the spot — Ausable never raised his voice, showed no panic, and controlled the entire situation through his words alone. This showed that true espionage relies on intelligence and quick thinking, not physical action.

The title refers to Max, the rival secret agent who breaks into Ausable's room at midnight to steal an important report about missiles. The word 'visitor' is ironic — Max is not a welcome guest but an intruder. The 'midnight' setting adds to the suspense and danger typical of spy stories. However, despite the dramatic setup, the actual confrontation is resolved not through violence but through Ausable's clever deception.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation. Ausable was successful precisely because he relied on his wits. He defeated Max without any weapon or physical force — purely through a cleverly constructed lie about a balcony. His success as a spy came from his ability to think quickly under pressure.