[
 {
  "chunk": 253,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The narrator introduces one of only two cases he brought to the investigator, a dramatic one already told badly in the papers.",
  "predicament": "A chronicler wants to tell properly a story the newspapers already told carelessly and without its real effect."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 254,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "Early one morning a grateful railway guard brings a new patient to the narrator's door so that he cannot slip away.",
  "predicament": "A grateful acquaintance delivers a stranger in trouble straight to a helper's door, making sure he stays."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 255,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "A pale young engineer with a bloodied hand explains he had an accident, then breaks into hysterical laughter.",
  "predicament": "A young man who has just survived something terrible holds himself together until relief makes him break down."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 256,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He shows that his thumb was hacked off, calls it a murderous attack, and the narrator dresses the wound.",
  "predicament": "A person arrives with a terrible wound and calmly says it was no accident but an attempt on his life."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 257,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He fears the police will not believe his strange story or be able to act; the narrator takes him to the investigator.",
  "predicament": "A victim fears no one will believe his story or be able to act on the vague clues he can give."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 258,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The investigator feeds him breakfast and settles him on the sofa to hear his story.",
  "predicament": "A shaken stranger is taken in kindly and made comfortable before he is asked to tell his story."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 259,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The engineer explains he is an orphan who set up alone and had almost no work in two years.",
  "predicament": "A young person starting out alone has waited two years for work, and has begun to lose hope."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 260,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "A strange, gaunt foreign client calls, having heard he is discreet, an orphan, a bachelor, and lives alone.",
  "predicament": "A struggling beginner is flattered by a stranger who has oddly checked that no one would miss him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 261,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The client demands absolute secrecy, checks the passage for listeners, and offers a large fee for a night's work.",
  "predicament": "A desperate beginner is offered far too much money by a stranger who insists no one must ever know."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 262,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The job is to inspect a machine at a remote country house late at night; the engineer hesitates but accepts for the money.",
  "predicament": "A person short of work swallows his doubts about a strange late-night job because the pay is too good to refuse."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 263,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The client begins to explain why the secrecy is necessary, checking again they cannot be overheard.",
  "predicament": "A stranger prepares to explain why an ordinary job must be kept secret, and checks again for listeners."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 264,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He claims he is secretly digging a valuable mineral to buy his neighbours' land cheaply before they know its worth.",
  "predicament": "A newcomer is given a plausible reason for secrecy that makes him a partner in a small deception."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 265,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The engineer finds the story odd and the client repellent, but decides the fee is worth it and goes, telling no one.",
  "predicament": "A person uneasy about a job and the stranger offering it decides the money outweighs his doubts, and tells no one."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 266,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "At a lonely country station the client hurries him into a closed carriage; the investigator asks about the horse.",
  "predicament": "A person who agreed to a secret job is met at night and hurried into a closed carriage to an unknown place."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 267,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "A long drive with frosted windows and a silent, staring companion ends at a house he cannot see.",
  "predicament": "A person is driven for an hour through the dark with no view out, watched closely by the man who hired him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 268,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "A frightened woman appears with a lamp, is pushed back, and he is left alone in a small room.",
  "predicament": "A stranger alone in an unknown house glimpses a frightened woman who is quickly hustled out of sight."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 269,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He waits uneasily in the silent barred room; the woman returns, sick with fear, and signals silence.",
  "predicament": "A person waiting alone in a strange house is secretly approached by someone who is plainly terrified."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 270,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "She begs him to leave before it is too late; he refuses because of the fee; footsteps come and she vanishes.",
  "predicament": "A stranger urgently warns a newcomer to flee, and he refuses because leaving would cost him the money."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 271,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The client, suspicious, brings a morose associate and leads him through a decaying house to the machine.",
  "predicament": "A person ignores a warning and follows his employers deeper into a strange, decaying house."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 272,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The client shows him into the machine itself, remarking how unpleasant it would be if someone turned it on.",
  "predicament": "A person is led into a confined place by a man who jokes about how dangerous it would be."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 273,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He finds the fault, but sees the story was false and scrapes at a metal crust on the floor; the client catches him.",
  "predicament": "A person hired for a job discovers his employers lied to him, and is caught looking where he should not."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 274,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He rashly lets on he knows the story is false; the client locks him in the machine.",
  "predicament": "A person angry at being deceived says so rashly and is at once trapped by the people he exposed."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 275,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The machine starts and the ceiling descends; he begs, then sees a gleam of hope.",
  "predicament": "A person trapped by killers faces a slow death and must keep his head long enough to see a way out."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 276,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The woman opens a panel and pulls him out; they run as the pursuers shout.",
  "predicament": "A trapped person is rescued at the last moment by the stranger whose warning he ignored."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 277,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "At a window she holds back the client, begging him to spare the engineer; the client cuts at him as he drops, severing his thumb.",
  "predicament": "A person helping a stranger escape pleads with her dangerous companion to spare him, and is thrust aside."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 278,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "He runs, faints, and wakes at dawn by the road near the station, the house gone from sight.",
  "predicament": "A person who escaped killers wakes injured in a strange place, unsure whether he is safe yet."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 279,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The porter knows nothing of the client; the investigator reads out a notice for an engineer who vanished a year earlier.",
  "predicament": "A survivor learns that someone in his position before him was never seen again."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 280,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The investigator calls the client a ruthless man; they travel with the police, puzzled why the victim was spared.",
  "predicament": "Investigators set out after a ruthless gang, wondering why their one survivor was spared."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 281,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "Each guesses a direction; the investigator says the house is in the middle, and names them counterfeiters the police have hunted.",
  "predicament": "Everyone guesses where a hidden gang is based, and the investigator sees they were misled by a trick."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 282,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "On arrival they find the house ablaze; the engineer recognises it.",
  "predicament": "Pursuers arrive to find the criminals' hideout burning and their quarry likely gone."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 283,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "The lamp crushed in the machine started the fire; the gang has fled without a trace.",
  "predicament": "Criminals escape with their goods while the hideout burns, and the one witness is left with nothing."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 284,
  "story": 8,
  "summary": "Footprints suggest the woman and the quieter associate carried the engineer to safety; he laments his losses.",
  "predicament": "A victim who lost much and gained nothing learns that the gang's gentler members quietly saved his life."
 }
]