As the story opens, we meet the narrator named , and his con-man partner Bill . Between them they have hundred dollars, and they need thousand more dollars to pull off another scheme in Western Illinois. They are in an Alabama town called , that was “as flat as a flannel-cake”, and they decide to kidnap the “only child of a prominent citizen named Dorset”.
They take the boy, who has hair and freckles, to a cave about two away from Summit, where they learn that the boy calls himself Red Chief, and promises to Bill at daybreak. The young boy gives Sam the name Snake-eye, and tells him that he “…was to be broiled at the stake at the rising of the .” The young boy was having the time of his life out, and seemed to like being kidnapped better than being at home. The boy asks many questions and never stops talking throughout out the night. The next morning Sam wakes up to see Red on top of Bill holding a sharp attempting to scalp him.
That entire day the boy continues to torture and abuse the two men, especially Bill, while the town doesn’t seem to be searching, or even caring about the missing boy. When the two men write the ransom , Bill convinces Sam to only ask for 1500 instead of what they originally wanted because “…it ain't human for anybody to give up two dollars for that forty-pound chunk of freckled wildcat.” They sign the letter “Two Desperate Men”, and Sam leaves to deliver the note. While he is gone, Red Chief pretends he is now Scout, and that Bill is the horse that he has to ride ninety miles to “… warn the settlers that the are coming.” Sam brings the letter to the post office in Poplar Cove, and hears from a guy that the town of Summit is “… upset on account of Elder Ebenezer boy having been lost or stolen.”
When he gets back Bill and Red Chief are gone, and when Bill appears he tries to explain to Sam that he sent the boy because he could deal with him any longer. But when Bill turns around, he is shocked to see the boy standing behind him. Exactly on time a boy on a bike rides up and places a folded piece of paper into the designated under the tree that Sam was waiting in, and then returns in the direction in which he came. Sam waited an , and then grabbed the letter and went back to the cave to read it with Bill.
The letter was from Red Chief’s father and it read: “…You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. You had better come at , for the neighbors believe he is lost, and I couldn't be responsible for what they would do to anybody they saw bringing him back.”