The Ransom of Red Chief

The Ransom of Red Chief

"The Ransom of Red Chief" is a 1910 short story by O. Henry.

Plot

This story tells of a young boy held for ransom by two petty criminals, Bill Driscoll and Sam Howard. The two men are fugitives who have escaped to the Deep South searching for an easy way to get their hands on $2,000 they need in order to launch a land fraud scheme in Illinois. They set their sights on the quiet town of Summit, Alabama because of the "" - love for one's own children - that they believe is common in rural communities.

Bill and Sam decide they will kidnap the son of a citizen named Ebenezer Dorset, demand a ransom of $2,000, quickly collect the payoff, and be on their way. However, once they actually kidnap the boy and make their way to a hideout in the nearby hills, their plan quickly begins to unravel. Their young captive, a malevolent, redheaded brat who calls himself "Red Chief", actually enjoys his stay with his kidnappers, and thinks he is on a camping trip.

Red Chief proceeds to drive his captors to distraction with pranks and demands that they play wearying games with him, such as pretending to be a scout and using Bill as his horse. Bill and Sam are soon desperate to be rid of the little terror; they lower the price to $1,500 but still receive no answer. When they receive a reply to their ransom letter from Red Chief's father offering to take the boy off their hands for $250, they quickly return him and flee town as fast as they can.

External links

* cite web | title = Free online version | url = http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/3/
accessdate = 5 January | accessyear = 2008
* [http://curiousray.info/rorc.html Stage Adaptation] , royalty free.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Red Brigades — This article is about the Italian group. Red Brigade may also refer to the Japanese Red Army/Anti Imperialist International Brigade. The Red Brigades ( Brigate Rosse in Italian, often abbreviated as the BR ) were a communist terrorist group… …   Wikipedia

  • The Labours of Hercules — Infobox Book | name = The Labours of Hercules title orig = translator = image caption = Dust jacket illustration of the US (true first) edition. See Publication history (below) for UK first edition jacket image. author = Agatha Christie… …   Wikipedia

  • The Great Gildersleeve — Infobox Radio Show show name = The Great Gildersleeve imagesize = 200px caption = Sam Berman s caricature of The Great Gildersleeve for NBC s 1947 promotional book shows Harold Peary as Gildersleeve and Walter Tetley as Leroy Forester. runtime =… …   Wikipedia

  • The Blekinge Street Gang — ( da. Blekingegadebanden) (December 1972 to May 1989) was a group of ten communist political activists who during the 1970s and 80s committed a number of highly professional robberies in Denmark and sent the money to the Popular Front for the… …   Wikipedia

  • The Big Bad Wolf (novel) — The Big Bad Wolf is the ninth book by James Patterson featuring the former Washington, D.C. homicide detective and forensic psychiatrist and current FBI agent Alex Cross.Plot summaryThe book begins with a Russian mobster known as The Wolf buying… …   Wikipedia

  • The Hardy Boys — is a juvenile detective/adventure series, chronicling the fictional adventures of teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy. The original Hardy Boys series was produced by Stratemeyer Syndicate, published by Grosset Dunlap, and written by many… …   Wikipedia

  • The Military Orders —     The Military Orders     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Military Orders     Including under this term every kind of brotherhood of knights, secular as well as religious, historians of the military orders have enumerated as many as a hundred,… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • THE EVENTS — introduction European Jewry in the Early 1930s Germany in the Early 1930s the expansion of the reich …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • List of The Adventures of Tintin characters — The Adventures of Tintin sports a vast array of secondary and tertiary characters. The supporting characters Hergé created for his series The Adventures of Tintin have been cited as far more developed than the central character, each imbued with… …   Wikipedia

  • List of The Batman villains — The following is a list of the villains who have appeared in the Batman animated series, The Batman , their background in the show and their likely inspirations. NOTOC =Bane= * Voice Actor: Joaquim de Almeida (in Traction ); Ron Perlman (in Team… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”