Looking back at the story, when do you think Ausable thought up his plan for getting rid of Max? Do you think he had worked out his plan in detail right from the beginning? Or did he make up a plan taking advantage of events as they happened?
No, I don’t think that he had worked out his plan in so much detail. He took advantages of the event as they happened. Ausable made a story of the balcony which is attached outside the room. As there was a knock at the door, he told it would be police, all these events threatened max. In such a hurry, he became restless and without seeing anything jumped out of the window.
“Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had 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?)
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?
How does Ausable say he got in?
Who is Fowler and what is his first authentic thrill of the day?
How is Ausable different from other secret agents?
How has Max got in?
Why is Mrs Pumphrey worried about Tricki?
What does Horace Danby like to collect?
How did the invisible man first become visible?
How did a book become a turning point in Richard Ebright’s life?
What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is she always unhappy?
Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?
Why is Bholi’s father worried about her?
Why was the twentieth century called the ‘Era of the Book’?
Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?
What does she do to help him? Is she wise in this?
What other extraordinary things happen at the inn?
How is the problem solved?
What kind of a person do you think the narrator, a veterinary surgeon, is? Would you say he is tactful as well as full of commonsense?
Who is the real culprit in the story?
What does Horace Danby like to collect?
How can one become a scientist, an economist, a historian... ? Does it simply involve reading many books on the subject? Does it involve observing, thinking and doing experiments?
Did you begin to suspect, before the end of the story, that the lady was not the person Horace Danby took her to be? If so, at what point did you realise this, and how?
Do you think this is a real-life episode, or mere fiction? Or is it a mixture of both?
Does Anil realise that he has been robbed?
How did the invisible man first become visible?