Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures by Victor Appleton

"SIT down, please!"

The masked man at the head of the table-who seemed to be the leader-thus spoke to Tom and motioned to a chair, the only one in the room that was not occupied. Tom looked at it a bit suspiciously at first. He knew something of trick chairs-seats that, once occupied, gripped the sitter in arms of steel. Also this chair might be over some trapdoor which opened into a pit or into a tunnel that led to the lake.