[
 {
  "chunk": 281,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "Steelman and Smith reach a cooperative gang working on a new railway line in New Zealand; a gloomy navvy tells them the boss is only the party's elected spokesman.",
  "predicament": "Two tricksters looking for free board approach a gang of hard-working men and ask who is in charge."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 282,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "Steelman, dressed as a scientific gentleman with Smith as his servant, chats with the young spokesman, who says they worked the swamps up to their waists in midwinter for eighteenpence a yard.",
  "predicament": "A trickster posing as a gentleman of learning chats up the leader of a hard-worked gang, sizing him up as an easy mark."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 283,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "Asked if he is a commercial traveller, Steelman introduces himself as Stoneleigh the geologist, with Smith as his man, and watches the boss grow uncertain.",
  "predicament": "A trickster introduces himself with an impressive false title and a hired helper in tow, and waits for the other to be impressed."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 284,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "He claims to be vice-president of a geological society and lectures on the strata of the cutting as if reading a book.",
  "predicament": "A trickster wins over a plain working man with a flood of learned-sounding nonsense about his own place of work."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 285,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "He declares the country geologically ancient, sends Smith up a slippery bank for a specimen, and talks of upheavals and restoring the mineral kingdom.",
  "predicament": "A pretender keeps up a show of expertise and orders his companion about to make the act more convincing."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 286,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "He says the rock is rotting, which makes their work easier, hints at gold, tin and silver in the gullies, and asks where he might find lodgings.",
  "predicament": "Having dazzled his listener, a trickster drops a hint of hidden riches and angles for a free place to stay."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 287,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "The boss invites them to camp with the party and use an empty hut; after tea Steelman lectures the more thoughtful men.",
  "predicament": "The leader of a working crew, taken in by a learned stranger, offers him shelter and hospitality for as long as he likes."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 288,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "Smith entertains the other men, and in drink calls geology bosh and his employer Old Rocks, while praising his easy, well-paid billet.",
  "predicament": "The trickster's sidekick, loosened by drink, grumbles about his supposed master to the workers, which only adds to the act."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 289,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "In the hut Steelman reads a cheap adventure novel, then hurriedly resumes his spectacles when a serious navvy brings coffee and cake and asks if they are comfortable.",
  "predicament": "Hard-working men who have little themselves go out of their way to make a pair of pretending strangers comfortable."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 290,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "The pair wink and chuckle in the dark; they stay on for days, poking at rocks in sight of the works each morning, then loafing in the bush till dinner and lecturing on stones at night.",
  "predicament": "Two tricksters settle in as guests of a working crew, making a show of work each morning and loafing out of sight all day."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 291,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "A grinning young navvy tells Steelman the boss is a university man and the country's best mineralogist, ruined by drink; Steelman decides to stay one more day and take them down.",
  "predicament": "A trickster learns that his host may know far more than he ever pretended to, and wonders whether the joke is on him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 292,
  "story": 48,
  "summary": "Another man says the boss can barely write his name and that the grinning navvy is the college man; Steelman decides there is too much humour in the camp and they leave next day.",
  "predicament": "Unsure which of his hosts has seen through him, a trickster decides it is time to move on before he is exposed."
 }
]