[
 {
  "chunk": 177,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "Torchy picks out the office joke at once: a meek, old-fashioned elderly clerk in fifteen-year-old clothes, a low-paid sub-assistant of the kind always at risk of being cut in a shake-up.",
  "predicament": "A newcomer quickly spots the long-serving old hand everyone laughs at, who hangs on at the bottom year after year."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 178,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "Torchy jokes at the old clerk daily, but gets only a sad, gentle smile back, and decides there is no sport in teasing someone who never fights back.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior who mocks a meek old colleague finds no satisfaction in teasing someone who never fights back."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 179,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "The two become lunch friends; the old man proudly describes his reforming son out west, and Torchy meets the boastful small-time broker son-in-law the old man lives with.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior befriends an overlooked old colleague and learns of the relatives he props up his pride on."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 180,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "At home the son-in-law treats the old man with contempt and warns he had better keep his job; the old man's joy is his flower garden, and Torchy suggests he move west to his son.",
  "predicament": "An old colleague scorned at home and overlooked at work lives for a small private pleasure and a distant child."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 181,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "The old man is ashamed to face his son as a failure, meekly accepts his son-in-law's scorn, and says some must stay at the bottom and prop the ladder; he is useful at work but never credited.",
  "predicament": "A long-serving old hand accepts that he is a failure and says someone must stay at the bottom and steady the ladder."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 182,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "A state bribery investigation implicates the company through some cheques; the boss's son frets about his club friends, the top boss says let them prove it, and Torchy teases the flustered secretary.",
  "predicament": "When the organisation is caught up in a public scandal, the boss's first instinct is to fight rather than deny."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 183,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "During a tense emergency directors' meeting the boss sends Torchy for the old clerk, and Torchy fears they mean to make him the scapegoat.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior is sent to fetch a meek old colleague into a crisis meeting and fears he is to be made the scapegoat."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 184,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "Torchy urges the old clerk to put up a front; he returns calmly and says he was only given instructions, but is now writing his resignation, which Torchy begs him to tear up.",
  "predicament": "A meek old colleague comes back from a crisis meeting and calmly starts writing his resignation without saying why."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 185,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "The old man was told to alter his books to disguise the incriminating cheques; unaware of the scandal, he refuses simply because it would be a false entry and he has never made one.",
  "predicament": "An old hand ordered to falsify records would rather lose his living than do something he knows is dishonest."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 186,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "Though resigning will leave him jobless and at his son-in-law's mercy, he signs the resignation; Torchy admires his nerve and delivers it to the top boss.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior must carry to the boss the resignation of an honest colleague who refused the boss's own crooked order."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 187,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "The boss explodes, suspecting the clerk means to turn witness; Torchy says the man knows nothing and is simply too honest, so he is too valuable to lose and too risky to turn loose.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior faces an exploding boss and argues that an honest refuser is too valuable to lose and too risky to cast out."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 188,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "The boss calms, hears the old man's story from Torchy, and sends him west as a travelling auditor, to be retired on full pay near his son; the old man is chiefly glad the books need not be altered.",
  "predicament": "A boss takes a junior's advice and rewards an honest old hand with a dignified way out rather than punishment."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 189,
  "story": 14,
  "summary": "Torchy guesses from the secretary's nerves next morning that he was the one who altered the entries, and teases him about it.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior guesses which eager-to-please superior quietly did the dirty job the honest old hand refused."
 }
]