[
 {
  "chunk": 0,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The narrator introduces the one woman the cold reasoner ever respected, a woman of doubtful memory who once got the better of him.",
  "predicament": "A proud, cool-headed person has met one opponent who outwitted them, and cannot stop measuring everyone else against her."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 1,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "Marriage has drawn the narrator away from his old friend, who has been living alone between drugs and bursts of work on cases the police gave up.",
  "predicament": "Someone whose own life has moved on has drifted away from an old companion and only hears of him secondhand."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 2,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "Passing his friend's old rooms, the narrator calls in on impulse; the investigator greets him quietly and reads from his looks that he has married and gone back to work.",
  "predicament": "Someone drops in on an old friend after a long gap and finds himself read at a glance, unsure of his welcome."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 3,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The investigator explains how he knew the narrator had been out in bad weather and has a careless servant, and that he is back in practice.",
  "predicament": "A person is unsettled to find that a companion can read the private details of his life from small signs."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 4,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The narrator admits he sees but does not observe; the investigator hands him an anonymous note that arrived by the last post.",
  "predicament": "A person is shown up as seeing without noticing, just as an unsigned message raises a question worth answering."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 5,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The unsigned note announces a masked visitor with a matter of the deepest importance; the investigator refuses to theorise and reads the paper's watermark instead.",
  "predicament": "An unsigned message promises a visitor with a grave secret, and an investigator must decide what to trust before meeting him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 6,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The investigator works out that the writer is a wealthy foreigner; a rich carriage arrives, and he makes the narrator stay to help.",
  "predicament": "An investigator has worked out who is coming before the door opens, and wants a trusted witness in the room."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 7,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "A huge, richly dressed man in a mask enters and asks to be heard, unsure which of the two men to address.",
  "predicament": "A powerful stranger arrives disguised, needing help but unwilling to show who he is to people he cannot yet trust."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 8,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The visitor gives a false title, binds both men to secrecy and admits he acts for someone great; the investigator coolly says he already knew.",
  "predicament": "A client hides behind a false name while asking for secrecy, and the investigator lets him know the pretence is already seen through."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 9,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The visitor tears off his mask and admits he is himself the royal client; years ago he became entangled with a famous adventuress.",
  "predicament": "A powerful man drops a disguise that fooled no one and must admit a past entanglement to a stranger he needs."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 10,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The client wrote compromising letters and had himself photographed with the woman; five attempts to steal the picture back have failed.",
  "predicament": "A powerful man's old indiscretion is preserved in proof he cannot buy or steal back, however hard he tries."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 11,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The woman threatens to send the photograph to his bride's family when the betrothal is announced; he gives the investigator a free hand and money.",
  "predicament": "A powerful man's planned marriage will collapse if a former lover makes good her threat to reveal their past."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 12,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The client pays heavily in advance and leaves; next day the narrator waits for the investigator, confident he will not fail.",
  "predicament": "An investigator is paid lavishly in advance by a client desperate for quick results, and the watcher assumes success is certain."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 13,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The investigator returns disguised as a drunken stable-hand and collapses laughing at how his morning ended.",
  "predicament": "An investigator comes back from watching a house in disguise, with a surprise he can hardly tell for laughing."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 14,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "Disguised as an out-of-work groom, he studied the woman's house and gathered gossip from the stablemen.",
  "predicament": "An investigator poses as a humble out-of-work stranger to learn a target's habits from the people who serve her."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 15,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "He learns she lives quietly with one frequent male visitor, a lawyer, and must decide whether that man holds the proof.",
  "predicament": "An investigator watching someone must decide whether a frequent visitor is an ally holding what he wants, or a lover."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 16,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The lawyer rushes out of the house and orders his cab to a church; the woman follows moments later in a hurry.",
  "predicament": "Someone watching a house sees the two people he is following suddenly race off, and must decide whether to follow."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 17,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The investigator follows them to the church and is suddenly dragged forward by the bridegroom, who needs a witness at once.",
  "predicament": "A person secretly following two others is suddenly pulled into their business and cannot refuse without giving himself away."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 18,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "He finds himself the witness at the woman's hasty wedding, then plans to act before the pair can leave, and asks the narrator's help.",
  "predicament": "An investigator has unwittingly helped his quarry's plans along and must now act fast before she slips out of reach."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 19,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The investigator asks whether the narrator will break the law and risk arrest; he agrees, and is told to stand at a window and throw something in at a signal.",
  "predicament": "A friend is asked to break the law for a cause he is told is good, without being told the whole plan."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 20,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "He is given a smoke device and instructions, and the investigator disguises himself as a mild, simple-minded clergyman.",
  "predicament": "A helper agrees to a staged false alarm while his friend prepares a disguise meant to win a stranger's sympathy."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 21,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "Waiting outside the house, the investigator reasons that the woman's marriage makes the proof a danger to her as well, and wonders where she keeps it.",
  "predicament": "Watchers outside a house reason that their quarry's new marriage makes her secret dangerous to her too."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 22,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "He reasons the proof must be in her own house and says he will not search but make her show him.",
  "predicament": "An investigator decides to trick his quarry into revealing where she has hidden what he has come to take."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 23,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "A staged street brawl breaks out as she arrives; the disguised investigator falls, apparently bleeding, while defending her.",
  "predicament": "A stranger fakes an injury defending a woman, trading on her decency to be carried into her home."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 24,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The kind woman has the injured man brought in; the narrator feels ashamed as she tends him, but hardens his heart to play his part.",
  "predicament": "A helper is ashamed to watch a kind woman tend a man who is deceiving her, and must choose loyalty or conscience."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 25,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "At the signal the narrator throws in the smoke device and cries fire; the investigator later explains the whole street crowd was hired.",
  "predicament": "A helper carries out his part in a deception and learns afterwards how much of the scene was staged."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 26,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The false alarm made the woman rush to the hiding place; the investigator saw it but did not take the proof, since her servant was watching him.",
  "predicament": "An investigator has tricked his quarry into showing her hiding place but holds back because someone is watching him closely."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 27,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "A passing youth wishes him good night by name; next morning the client arrives eager, and the investigator tells him the woman has married.",
  "predicament": "An investigator is greeted by name by a stranger in the street, a sign that his quarry may know more than he thought."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 28,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "At the house they learn she has fled abroad with her husband; the hiding place holds only a portrait of her and a letter.",
  "predicament": "An investigator arrives to collect his prize and finds his quarry has seen through him and fled first."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 29,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "Her letter says she saw through the disguise, followed him home, and will keep the photograph only to protect herself from the client.",
  "predicament": "Someone pursued by a powerful former lover outwits the investigator he hired, keeping her proof only as protection."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 30,
  "story": 0,
  "summary": "The client is relieved and offers a ring; the investigator asks only for her portrait and pointedly ignores the client's hand.",
  "predicament": "An investigator bested by his quarry thinks less of his client than of her, and lets the client see it."
 }
]