4. We selected for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser. The kid was a boy of ten, with bas-relief freckles, and hair the color of the cover of the magazine you buy at the news-stand when you want to catch a train. Bill and me figured that Ebenezer would melt down for a ransom of two thousand dollars to a cent. But wait till I tell you.
Setting for main action.
5. About two miles from Summit was a little mountain, covered with a dense cedar brake. On the rear elevation of this mountain was a cave. There we stored provisions.
Main Action Begins: First Plot Incident.
6. One evening after sundown, we drove in a buggy past old Dorset’s house. The kid was in the street, throwing rocks at the kitten on the opposite fence.
7. “Hey, little boy!” says Bill, “would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?”
8. The boy catches Bill neatly in the eye with a piece of brick. Contributory Incident.
As a matter of technique, note that contributory incidents might be varied or omitted without altering the plot essentially. These are not all specifically noted in this story.
9. “That will cost the old man an extra five hundred dollars,” says Bill, climbing over the wheel.
10. That boy put up a fight like a welterweight cinnamon bear; but, at last, we got him down in the bottom of the buggy and drove away. We took him up to the cave, and I hitched the horse in the cedar brake. After dark I drove the buggy to the little village, three miles away, where we had hired it, and walked back to the mountain.
“Bill” and “the Kid” serve as the contesting characters.