The Writing on the Wall, while full of similar ironies, isn't as good a match to *this* trope as the example describes it to be. The inscriptions aren't in any language known to the characters except Dr. Thorn, and Daring Do and the others don't wait for him to return with a translation before entering the catacomb. (She flippantly offers an educated guess at what it says, which is about half right, but the denial is one of the things she doesn't anticipate.) The translation, when it comes, is presented all at once, so the denial in its early lines is immediately given context in the threat of "the hidden fire", an elaboration that effectively rules out its being a ruse.
The Writing on the Wall, while full of similar ironies, isn't as good a match to *this* trope as the example describes it to be. The inscriptions aren't in any language known to the characters except Dr. Thorn, and Daring Do and the others don't wait for him to return with a translation before entering the catacomb. (She flippantly offers an educated guess at what it says, which is about half right, but the denial is one of the things she doesn't anticipate.) The translation, when it comes, is presented all at once, so the denial in its early lines is immediately given context in the threat of "the hidden fire", an elaboration that effectively rules out its being a ruse.
Edited by TwentyYearsAfter