Read The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry -- full text free online. Two hapless kidnappers discover their captive is more trouble than he is worth in this hilarious classic. Includes free study guide with quiz questions.
" The Ransom of Red Chief " is a short story by O. Henry first published in the issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It follows two men who kidnap and demand a ransom for a wealthy man's son. Eventually, the men are overwhelmed by the boy's spoiled and hyperactive behavior, so they pay his father to take him back. The story and its main idea have become a part of popular culture ...
And now we'll write the letter to old Dorset." Bill and I got paper and pencil and worked on the letter while Red Chief, with a blanket wrapped around him, strutted up and down, guarding the mouth of the cave. Bill begged me tearfully to make the ransom fifteen hundred dollars instead of two thousand.
“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. HENRY It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you. We were down South, in Alabama—Bill Driscoll and myself— when this kidnapping idea struck us. It was, as Bill after ward expressed it, “during a moment of temporary mental apparition”; but we didn’t find that out till later.
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The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry Plot Summary | LitCharts
The Ransom Of Red Chief IT LOOKED like a good thing: but wait till I tell you. We were down South, in Alabama -- Bill Driscoll and myself -- when this kidnapping idea struck us. It was, as Bill afterward expressed it, "during a moment of temporary mental apparition"; but we didn't find that out till later. There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course. It ...