The ransom of the red chief

Question 1: Which part of United States of America is this story set in?

Answer: The story is set in the state of Alabama in the south of United States of
America.

Question 2: What reason do Bill and Sam have for kidnapping the boy? Or Why
did the two men decide to kidnap someone?

Answer: The two men (Bill and Sam) needed money for an illegal land deal in
Illinois, USA. They were short of two thousand dollars for that deal, so they
decided to kidnap someone ie. the little boy.
Question 3: The boy catches Bill neatly in the eye with a piece of brick. Who is
the boy? What had Bill offered him?
Answer: The boy is little Johnny a ten years old son of Ebenezer Dorset. Bill
offered him a bag of candy and a nice ride.

Question 4: What is the first clue that the kidnapping may not turn out to be as
Bill and Sam planned?

Answer: When the kidnappers (Bill and Sam) approached the boy to lure him
away, the boy threw a piece of brick in Bill's eye and also took a fight with them
as they were putting him in the buggy. This was the first clue indicating that the
kidnapping may not turn out to be as they planned.

Question 5: What is the first sign we have in the story that the kidnappers have
picked a difficult 'victim'?
Answer: When the kidnappers (Bill and Sam) approached the boy to lure him
away, the boy threw a piece of brick in Bill's eye and also took a fight with them
as they were putting him in the buggy. This was the first sign indicating that the
kidnappers have picked a difficult 'victim'.
Question 6: What do we learn about Ebenezer Dorset?

Answer: Ebenezer Dorset, the father of the boy is a prominent citizen and a
respectable man known for his wealth. He was a financier into mortgaging,
collection and foreclosures.

The Ransom Of The Red Chief Questions & Answers

Question 7: What do we learn about Johnny Dorset?

Or

Describe Red Chief

Answer: Johnny Dorset or referred to as 'Red Chief' is a ten years old boy with
red hair. He is quite active, has great imagination, very talkative, asks lot of
questions as he wants to know the reason for various things. As he's
imaginative, he loves to play various characters like the Red Chief and the Black
Scout and its due to the act of these characters, he behaves violently which
causes harm to the people around. He hates going to school and loves camping
out.

Question 8: How does Red Chief feel about being kidnapped?

Answer: After being kidnapped the Red Chief was actually very happy. He was
out in the cave, camping and playing as Red Chief and having fun.

Question 9: Why does Mr Dorset ask the kidnappers for the money?

Answer: Mr Dorset, the boy's father knew about the violent behaviour of his son
and he was confident that the kidnappers would have lost their patience by now
and would be ready to do anything to get rid of the boy. Hence, he asked the
kidnappers for the money to drop the boy back home.
Question 10: Why did Bill try to release Johnny before they had the ransom?

Answer: Bill was a huge well-built man, however, the way he was being bullied
by Johnny for the past two days was driving Bill crazy. Johnny treated Bill as his
horse while he himself played as a Black Scout, drove on him, asked him to eat
sand as a substitute for oats, asked him plenty of questions, kicked him, bit him
and even had to get his hand cauterized. Bill lost his patience because of all
these incidents and tried to release Johnny before they had ransom.

Question 11: How did Sam and Bill get Johnny to go home?
Answer: Sam and Bill told him that his father had bought a silver-mounted rifle
and a pair of moccasins for him, they were going to hunt bears the next day.
This way they lured Johnny to go home.

The Ransom Of The Red Chief Questions & Answers

Question 12: Where did Bill say that he would get to in 10 minutes? Is that
possible? What does he mean?

Answer: Bill said that within 10 minutes, he would be able to cross the Central,
Southern and Middle Western States and would be touching the Canadian
border. In reality, that's not possible. Actually, Bill meant that in 10 mins, he
would try to go away as far as possible from Johnny.

Question 13: Read the extract and answer the questions: 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.
(a) Who is this about?
Answer: In above lines Sam is dreaming about Johnny, the Red Chief.

(b) Why is his sleep 'troubled'?

Answer: Sam along with Bill had kidnapped Johnny for a ransom, however, the
kidnapping had not gone as per the plan. The kidnapped boy is a big nuisance
and they had to deal with him.
(c) Why is this a strange dream for this character?
Answer: In reality, the boy has been kidnapped by, however, in his dream, the
roles have been reversed and he is being kidnapped by a red hair pirate i.e.,
Johnny.

Question 14: Read the extract and answer the questions: 'Great pirates of
Penzance!' says I; of all the impudent-

(a) Who does 'I' refer to?

Answer: 'I' here refers to Sam.

(b) What causes him to exclaim in annoyance?

Answer: Sam and Bill had planned a to get a ransom by kidnapping a boy.
However, their plan on getting ransom just flopped as instead of getting
ransom, they were about to pay the father of the boy to drop him back home
safely. Hence, he exclaimed in annoyance.
(c) What had he wished for?

Answer: He had wished to get a ransom amount in exchange of kidnapped boy.

Question 15: Read the extract and answer the questions: I think Mr Dorset is a
spendthrift for making us such a liberal offer.

(a) Who is the speaker and to whom are the words addressed?

Answer: Bill is addressing these words to Sam

(b) Who is Mr Dorset and what is his offer?

Answer: Mr Dorset is the father of Johnny, the Red Chief. His offer to Sam and
Bill was that instead of asking for ransom money from him, they (Sam and Bill)
should bring Johnny back home and pay him (Mr Dorset) two hundred and fifty
dollars in cash. Also, they should get him back at night, so that the neighbours
remain unaware on the person responsible for bringing him back.

(c) Why is the offer unusual in this situation?

Answer: In actual scenarios of kidnapping, it is always the kidnappers asking for

ransom for the release of the victim. However, in this scenario it was the other
way round. The kidnappers were paying a ransom to leave the kidnapped boy
back at his home. The boy's father knew about the violent behaviour of his son
and he was confident that the kidnappers would have lost their patience by now
and would be ready to do anything to get rid of the boy. Hence, they agreed on
his offer.