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"The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry

Two men kidnap a rambunctious nine-year-old boy and attempt to hold him for ransom, but they get more than they bargained for. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for other works by O. Henry: A Retrieved Reformation, The Gift of the Magi
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. fraudulent
    intended to deceive
    Bill and me had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and we needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois with.
  2. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
    We knew that Summit couldn't get after us with anything stronger than constables and maybe some lackadaisical bloodhounds and a diatribe or two in the Weekly Farmers' Budget.
  3. prominent
    conspicuous in position or importance
    We selected for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset.
    "Ebenezer" is a prominent ("having a quality that thrusts itself into attention") name, not only because it sounds funny, but also because it's the first name of the miser in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." This allusion suggests that the plot to squeeze money out of Ebenezer Dorset is doomed to fail. Another allusion is to Stevenson's "Kidnapped"--in which Ebenezer Balfour, also a miser, arranges to have a nephew kidnapped and sold into slavery in order to keep an inheritance.
  4. pesky
    causing irritation or annoyance
    Every few minutes he would remember that he was a pesky redskin, and pick up his stick rifle and tiptoe to the mouth of the cave to rubber for the scouts of the hated paleface.
    The definition makes the boy sound annoying but easily swatted away. This might be how the narrator Sam wants the situation to look on his end. But Bill, who has more interactions with the boy, would agree with the more serious dangers seen in the Latin root: "pestis" means "deadly contagious disease; a curse, bane."
  5. terrorize
    frighten greatly
    That boy had Bill terrorized from the start.
  6. screech
    utter a harsh abrupt scream
    He kept us awake for three hours, jumping up and reaching for his rifle and screeching: "Hist! pard," in mine and Bill's ears, as the fancied crackle of a twig or the rustle of a leaf revealed to his young imagination the stealthy approach of the outlaw band.
    The word probably has onomatopoeic origins. The example sentence repeats the harsh sound in "reaching" and "screeching" so that the reader or listener (at the beginning of the story, Sam addresses a "you") can hear and feel the pain.
  7. ferocious
    marked by extreme and violent energy
    At last, I fell into a troubled sleep, and dreamed that I had been kidnapped and chained to a tree by a ferocious pirate with red hair.
  8. humiliate
    cause to feel shame
    They weren't yells, or howls, or shouts, or whoops, or yawps, such as you'd expect from a manly set of vocal organs—they were simply indecent, terrifying, humiliating screams, such as women emit when they see ghosts or caterpillars.
    The tone of this example sentence is both humorous and humiliating. Sam's audience might find the descriptive comparisons humorous, but Bill, as the big, grown man who is being tortured by a small boy, would not. In telling about the humiliation, Sam is also humiliating Bill--possibly to draw attention away from his own cowardly avoidance of the boy.
  9. industrious
    characterized by hard work and perseverance
    In the other he had the sharp case-knife we used for slicing bacon; and he was industriously and realistically trying to take Bill's scalp, according to the sentence that had been pronounced upon him the evening before.
  10. reconnoiter
    explore, often with a goal of finding something or somebody
    Now, you and the Chief get up and cook breakfast, while I go up on the top of this mountain and reconnoitre.
  11. dastardly
    extremely wicked
    Over toward Summit I expected to see the sturdy yeomanry of the village armed with scythes and pitchforks beating the countryside for the dastardly kidnappers.
    The adjective also means "despicably cowardly." This is suggested by the author's developments of the characters and plot. But Sam does not intend this meaning. Even though he chose Summit because he knew that the town does not have the resources to actually hunt them down, he would prefer to be seen as a dangerously wicked man that others would need weapons to fight.
  12. somnolent
    inclined to or marked by drowsiness
    There was a sylvan attitude of somnolent sleepiness pervading that section of the external outward surface of Alabama that lay exposed to my view.
    Both the town and the kidnappers are somnolent. But the sleepy nature of the town is due to its semi-rural location, where nothing much happens, while the sleepy nature of Bill and Sam is due to the boy keeping them up most of the night with his screeching and threats. The contrast implies that the peaceful somnolence of the town could be due to the boy's absence.
  13. peremptory
    not allowing contradiction or refusal
    Also, I thought it best to send a peremptory letter to old man Dorset that day, demanding the ransom and dictating how it should be paid.
  14. decry
    express strong disapproval of
    "I ain't attempting," says he, "to decry the celebrated moral aspect of parental affection, but we're dealing with humans, and it ain't human for anybody to give up two thousand dollars for that forty-pound chunk of freckled wildcat.
    Bill is attempting to sound intelligent with the use of the word "decry" to make his point, but the author uses the word to remind the reader that just before this speech, Bill was tearfully begging Sam to lower the ransom demand.
  15. comply
    act in accordance with someone's rules, commands, or wishes
    If you attempt any treachery or fail to comply with our demand as stated, you will never see your boy again.
  16. accede
    yield to another's wish or opinion
    These terms are final, and if you do not accede to them no further communication will be attempted.
    Compare with "comply"--both verbs connect to submitting to someone else's wish (often in an unhappy, reluctant way). But as the definitions and example sentences show, compliance requires action, while an accession can simply be a passive agreement.
  17. foil
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
    I guess Mr. Bill will help you foil the pesky savages.
  18. scheme
    an elaborate and systematic plan of action
    "You'd better keep him interested," said I, "till we get the scheme going.
  19. surreptitious
    conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
    I bought some smoking tobacco, referred casually to the price of black-eyed peas, posted my letter surreptitiously and came away.
  20. renegade
    a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause
    "Sam," says Bill, "I suppose you'll think I'm a renegade, but I couldn't help it.
    A renegade can also be "someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw." In terms of his relationship to society, Bill is already a renegade, because he uses unlawful ways to make money. But in the example sentence, he is referring to his relationship to Sam and their kidnapping plan, which he had betrayed by trying to send the boy home.
  21. proclivity
    a natural inclination
    I'm a grown person with masculine proclivities and habits of self-defense, but there is a time when all systems of egotism and predominance fail.
  22. subjugate
    put down by force or intimidation
    None of 'em ever was subjugated to such supernatural tortures as I have been.
  23. depredation
    an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding
    I tried to be faithful to our articles of depredation; but there came a limit.
  24. cauterize
    burn, sear, or freeze using a hot iron or electric current
    On the way he kicks my legs black-and-blue from the knees down; and I've got to have two or three bites on my thumb and hand cauterized.
    The verb also means "make insensitive or callous; deaden feelings or morals." This does not apply to the example sentence. If Bill were able to cauterize his heart, he would not need to cauterize his thumb and hand. He is a strong man who could easily hurt the boy if he chose to, but instead, he allows the boy to play with him so roughly that he gets hurt.
  25. brace
    prepare for something unpleasant or difficult
    So Bill braced up enough to give the kid a weak sort of a smile and a promise to play the Russian in a Japanese war with him as soon as he felt a little better.
  26. proposition
    a suggestion offered for acceptance or rejection
    I think you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined to believe you will accept.
  27. impudent
    improperly forward or bold
    "Great pirates of Penzance!" says I; "of all the impudent—"
  28. bedlam
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    One more night of this kid will send me to a bed in Bedlam.
    The Bethlehem Royal Hospital in London is an asylum for the mentally ill. The word "Bedlam" was originally a shortened pronunciation of the place, but it now refers to a general state of confusion and disorder. Bill puns on the asylum's name with his point about a bed. Sam continues the pun by referring to the boy as a lamb. The author might be ending the story with the pun by describing the kidnappers on the lam--where they're not running from the police but from their intended victim.
  29. abstract
    make off with belongings of others
    Just at the moment when I should have been abstracting the fifteen hundred dollars from the box under the tree, according to the original proposition, Bill was counting out two hundred and fifty dollars into Dorset's hand.
  30. leech
    carnivorous or bloodsucking aquatic or terrestrial worm
    When the kid found out we were going to leave him at home he started up a howl like a calliope and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill's leg.
Created on Tue Jan 27 15:02:42 EST 2015 (updated Wed Sep 05 17:48:18 EDT 2018)

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