[
 {
  "chunk": 126,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The verse epigraph alone: a step off the well-ordered road leads into an old land where spirits and powers of darkness keep company with travellers.",
  "predicament": "A traveller is warned that a single step off the familiar road leads into a strange, dark world with its own powers."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 127,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The narrator describes the tenants of an old man's house in the city: a moneylender, a man who claims to cut seals, two courtesans; the old man counts him a friend because his recommendation got a relative a post.",
  "predicament": "An old man counts you his friend because your word once got his relative a post, and expects great things of you in return."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 128,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The sham seal-cutter exploits the old man's fear for his sick son by arranging daily telegrams of the son's health; the old man sends for the narrator.",
  "predicament": "A clever trickster exploits an old man's fear for his sick son, and the old man sends for his influential friend."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 129,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The old man asks whether magic is against the law; the narrator jokingly gives it his sanction, learns how much the old man has already paid, and goes to watch.",
  "predicament": "An old man asks your blessing on a costly ritual to save his son, and you begin to suspect he is being robbed."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 130,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "At the darkened house one of the women whispers that the ritual is a trick to get the old man's money; the narrator hides in a window recess.",
  "predicament": "Watching an old man being fleeced in the dark, you learn that someone under that roof already knows it is a fraud."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 131,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The seal-cutter comes up, has the lamp put out, and a pale flame rises from a basin as the old man throws himself on the floor.",
  "predicament": "In the dark a frightened old man throws himself down as a performer begins a ritual meant to terrify him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 132,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "Stripped and eyes rolled back, the seal-cutter crawls round the basin in utter silence for ten minutes; everyone, the narrator included, is horrified.",
  "predicament": "A performance in the dark is so uncanny that even a sceptical onlooker feels his nerve beginning to give way."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 133,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The seal-cutter spouts fire from his nostrils, a trick the narrator knows, and he realises the whole business is a fraud.",
  "predicament": "One overdone trick gives the performer away, and the frightened onlooker realises he is watching a fraud he could expose."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 134,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "A shrivelled head appears in the basin and speaks by ventriloquism, reporting the son's illness and demanding that the fee be doubled.",
  "predicament": "The trickster's performance ends by demanding double payment to save the old man's son, and the victim is ready to pay."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 135,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The woman mutters that it is a fake; the seal-cutter vanishes with his props; the old man wails that he cannot raise more, and the woman calmly calls it a sham.",
  "predicament": "The trickster slips away, the frightened victim wails that he cannot pay more, and a shrewd onlooker coolly declares it all a sham."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 136,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "She explains she dare not expose the fraud: she is in debt to the moneylender, the trickster's friend, who could poison her; and she had hoped to get the old man's money herself.",
  "predicament": "Someone who could expose a fraud dares not, because she is in debt to its backers, and she wanted the victim's money herself."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 137,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "She says the old man brought the narrator only to be sure he was not breaking the law, and that the trickster has forbidden him to visit his son.",
  "predicament": "A frightened old man wanted your presence only as proof he was not breaking any rule, while a trickster runs his life."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 138,
  "story": 16,
  "summary": "The narrator is helpless: he has seemed to abet the fraud, has no witnesses, cannot act without endangering the woman, and fears she will poison the trickster.",
  "predicament": "Having lent your name to a fraud without meaning to, you can neither expose it nor stop it, and fear worse is coming."
 }
]