The Great K. & A. Robbery

At your request I originally inscribed this skit to our whole party. In its republication, however, I can but feel that the dedication should be more particular. Written because you asked it, first read aloud to beguile our ride across the great American desert, and finally printed because you wished a copy as a souvenir of our journeyings, no one can so naturally be called upon to stand sponsor to the little tale. Should the story but give its readers a fraction of the pleasure I owe to your kindness, its success is assured. Faithfully yours, PAUL LEICESTER FORD. Contents I THE PARTY ON SPECIAL NO. 218 II THE HOLDING-UP OF OVERLAND NO. 3 III A NIGHT’S WORK ON THE ALKALI PLAINS IV SOME RATHER QUEER ROAD AGENTS V A TRIP TO THE GRAND CAÑON VI THE HAPPENINGS DOWN HANCE’S TRAIL VII A CHANGE OF BASE VIII HOW DID THE SECRET LEAK OUT? IX A TALK BEFORE BREAKFAST X WAITING FOR HELP XI THE LETTERS CHANGE HANDS AGAIN XII AN EVENING IN JAIL XIII A LESSON IN POLITENESS XIV “LISTENERS NEVER HEAR ANYTHING GOOD” XV THE SURRENDER OF THE LETTERS XVI A GLOOMY GOOD-BY THE Great K. & A. Train-Robbery THE PARTY ON SPECIAL NO. 218 Any one who hopes to find in what is here written a work of literature had better lay it aside unread. At Yale I should have got the sack in rhetoric and English composition, let alone other studies, had it not been for the fact that I played half-back on the team, and so the professors marked me away up above where I ought to have ranked. That was twelve years ago, but my life since I received my parchment has hardly been of a kind to improve me in either style or grammar. It is true that one woman tells me I write well, and my directors never find fault with my compositions; but I know that she likes my letters because, whatever else they may say to her, they always say in some form, “I love you,” while my board approve my annual reports because thus far I have been able to end each with “I recommend the declaration of a dividend of — per cent from the earnings of the current year.” I should therefore prefer to reserve my writings for such friendly critics, if it did not seem necessary to…