Lesson Eleven
The Midnight Visitor
Robert Arthur
Teaching Procedures
Introduction to the background knowledge
The structure of the text
Detailed discussion of the text
Conclusion of the text
Assignment
I. Espionage and related terms
1. spy
2. espionage
3. international spy
4. double agent
5. secret agent
6. secret service
7. special agent
8. intelligence
9. intelligence agency
10. counterintelligence agency
11. spy movies
12. detective stories
1. 间谍
2. 侦察、谍报
3. 国际间谍
4. 双重间谍
5. 秘密特工
6. 特工处
7. 特工
8. 情报
9. 间谍机构
10. 反间谍机构
11. 间谍片
12. 侦探故事
II. FBI and CIA
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

On July 26 in the year 1908, during the Presidency of Theodore
Roosevelt, Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered 9 newly
hired detectives, 13 civil rights investigators, and 12 accountants to
take on investigative assignments in areas such as antitrust,
peonage, and land fraud. Ninety-six years later, that small group of
34 investigators has grown into a cadre of over 28,000 employees.

The FBI also participated in intelligence collection. Its highly
skilled and inventive staff cooperated with engineers, scientists,
and cryptographers in other agencies to enable the United States to
penetrate and sometimes control the flow of information from the
belligerents in the Western Hemisphere.
II. FBI and CIA
CIA (Central Intelligence Administration)

The United States has carried out intelligence activities since the
days of George Washington, but only since World War II have
they been coordinated on a government-wide basis. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed New York lawyer and war hero,
William J. Donovan, to become first the coordinator of
information, then, after the US entered World War II become head
of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1942. The OSS—the
forerunner to the CIA—had a mandate to collect and analyze
strategic information. After World War II, however, the OSS was
abolished along with many other war agencies and its functions
transferred to the State and War Departments.
II. FBI and CIA

It did not take long before President Truman recognized
the need for a postwar, centralized intelligence
organization. Truman reviewed several plans and soon
created a small office Central Intelligence Group (CIG)
to screen and evaluate the large amount of information
and reports flowing into the White House. The Truman
administration later decided this new office didn’t meet
all their needs plus it was never fully accepted by the
military or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
President Truman also feared another Pearl Harbor and
that the Russians would attack the US. To make a fully
functional intelligence office, Truman signed the
National Security Act of 1947 establishing the CIA.
The structure of the text
Part 1 (paras. 1—5): Who Ausable is. & why Fowler wants
to see him.
Part 2 (paras.6-16): The unexpected visit of Ausable’s adversary
Max.
Part 3 (paras.17-26): How Ausable outwits Max and makes him
jump on the “balcony”.
Detailed Discussion of the Text
Ausable was, for one thing, fat… Though
he spoke French and German passably, he
had never altogether lost the New England
accent he had brought to Paris from Boston
twenty years ago.
(para. 2)

Ausable was, for one reason, fat… His French
and German were not very good, but
acceptable. Although he had been in Paris for
twenty years, he never lost the American
accent.
Ausable said wheezily… (para. 3)

Ausable was so fat that he had difficulty
breathing.
… a sloppy fat man who, instead of having
messages slipped into his hand by dark-eyed
beauties, gets only an ordinary telephone call
making an appointment in his room. (para. 4)

… an untidy fat man just has an ordinary phone call
agreeing to meet somebody later in his room. There are
no other imagined things as a beautiful lady with dark
eyes putting a slip of message secretly into his hand.
Before long you will see a paper, a quite important
paper for which several men and women have
risked their lives, come to me in the next-to-last
step of its journey into official hands. (para. 5)

Soon you will see a document/a report come to me.
Several people took chances in order to get it. When I
receive the paper, I will place it in the hands of the
proper authorities. By then I will have fulfilled my
mission.
For halfway across the room, a small
automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.
(para. 6)

In the middle of the room, there was a man with
a small automatic pistol in his hand.
I’m going to raise the devil with the
management this time. (para. 11)

He was making up a story, which turned out to
be a trap for Max. To make Max swallow this
bait, Ausable pretended to be angry with the
management and explained to Fowler (not to
Max) why he was going to complain to the
management about the balcony.
It might have saved me some trouble had I
known about it. (para. 12)

If I had known about it, I would not have spent
so much effort.
I wish I knew how you learned about the
report, … (para. 15)

I want to know how you succeeded in finding
out the report, but I have no idea.
Keeping his body twisted so that his gun
still covered the fat man and his guest, …
(para. 22)

He twisted his body in order to point his gun
right at the fat man and his guest .
Conclusion of the text
This is a common story of a secret agent or international
spy. What is uncommon is the way the author describes
this character. Ausable does not fit the description of secret
agents in Hollywood movies or popular literature. But it is
precisely this commonness that makes him so uncommon.
The author is very clever in portraying him in this way in
contrast to the general image because it makes the story
fresh, unexpected and dramatic.
This story will be good for making character sketches or
retelling. It may also be a good idea to ask the students to
turn it into a little play and act it out.