The Great K. & A. Robbery

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

25333

Title

The Great K. & A. Robbery

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

Paul Leicester Ford's witty, first-person memoir recounts a fictionalized train robbery involving railroad officials and a charming young woman. Blending humor with Western adventure, the story explores themes of loyalty, mistaken identity, and the complexities of frontier justice through the eyes of a pragmatic railroad superintendent.

Summary up to 500 words

In Paul Leicester Ford's *The Great K. & A. Robbery*, railroad superintendent Dick Gordon accompanies the Cullen family on a special train traveling through the American West. During a stop in Santa Fe, a tense misunderstanding leads to Gordon, his companion Fred, and Lord Ralles being falsely accused of stealing stock certificates. Hostile cowboys and rival road agents, Camp and Baldwin, detain the men, threatening them with violence and offering money for the alleged stolen papers. Gordon eventually escapes the mob and the jail, only to discover the entire ordeal was a calculated setup designed to resolve a contentious business dispute between two rival railroad lines. The narrative takes a romantic and emotional turn when Gordon learns the truth about the Cullen daughter, Madge. He had wrongly suspected Lord Ralles of harassing her, but Madge reveals that her brother had actually been threatening her with exposure of her own conduct to protect their father's reputation. Having cleared Madge's name and successfully resolving the business conflict, Gordon is rewarded with a promotion to superintendent of the Missouri Western. However, this professional success comes at a personal cost: he realizes he has lost his chance with Madge, whom he had come to love. The novel concludes with Gordon departing, having learned valuable lessons about honor, the complexities of love, and the dangers of suspicion. The railroad lines are merged under new management, and the characters part ways. The story is framed as a first-person account by Gordon, who admits his writing style is rough but insists on telling the truth behind the many distorted versions of the 'great train-robbery' that have circulated. Through this adventure, Ford explores themes of mistaken identity, the clash between Eastern refinement and Western lawlessness, and the bittersweet nature of sacrifice in matters of the heart.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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Categories

• Adventure
• Fiction