Source identified1
Image design Golden Hour
Read & copy
“It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.”
Meaning & context
The narrator signals immediately that a scheme which appeared profitable will become a comic disaster, making hindsight part of the joke before the plot unfolds.
Source details
“The Ransom of Red Chief,” represented in Project Gutenberg #1595. The first-person narrator introduces the kidnappers’ scheme with comic foreshadowing; the story satirizes their criminal plan rather than endorsing it.