2-09 "The Ransom of Red Chief"

I didn’t know what ransom meant. I looked up my dictionary and now I know what the word means. It means money that is paid to somebody to release a person who is being kept as a hostage. This book is about two men who try to get ransom by kidnapping a son of the richest man in town, Mr. Dorset.
Bill and Sam are in town and have only 200 dollars. They come up with kidnapping the son of Mr. Dorset, the richest man in town. But Mr. Dorset’s son, Johnny is a lot of trouble. When they catch Johnny, he resisted strongly. Johnny likes fighting very much. He says his name is Red Chief, not Johnny. Bill and Sam have a hard time taking care of Johnny because he is very perky and strong. They want to let him go as soon as possible. They write a letter to Mr. Dorset requesting the ransom. But Mr. Dorset turns down their request. Mr. Dorset writes them back requesting Bill and Sam paying 200 dollars to Mr. Dorset so that they can bring Johnny home and escape from him. Bill and Sam don’t want to pay him 200 dollars but they don’t want to be with Johnny even more. So they decide to escape from Johnny paying 200 dollars.
I thought this story was funny. They wanted lots of money but ended up paying some to ransom’s father. They picked wrong one. I hope they will succeed next time.

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