Name: The Ransom of Red Chief
Author: 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. There was a town down there, as flat as a pancake, and called Summit. Bill and I had about six hundred dollars. We needed just two thousand dollars more for an illegal land deal in Illinois.
We chose for our victim — the only child of an influential citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. He was a boy of ten, with red hair. Bill and I thought that Ebenezer would pay a ransom of two thousand dollars to get his boy back. But wait till I tell you.
About two miles from Summit was a little mountain, covered with cedar trees. There was an opening on the back of the mountain. We stored our supplies in that cave.
One night, we drove a horse and carriage past old Dorsets house. The boy was in the street, throwing rocks at a cat on the opposite fence.
"Hey little boy!" says Bill, "would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?"