Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der große Überfall auf die K. & A.
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who enjoy train adventures, quick comedy and a love story full of misunderstandings will feel at home here. So will fans of Western railroad life and of narrators who laugh at themselves.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Paul Leicester Ford wrote The Great K. & A. Robbery as a tale to read aloud on a rail trip across the American desert, and he dedicated it to the friends who shared that ride in two private cars. It is told by Dick Gordon, a former Yale football halfback who now runs the Kansas and Arizona Railroad from Albuquerque in 1890. He says he writes only to set straight the many false versions of a train holdup in which he played a part.
What you get is a brisk comic adventure with a railroad war behind it. There are two cheeky English guests, a spirited young woman named Madge Cullen, and a hunt for stolen letters that grows into a contest with a rival railroad, a crooked judge and a crowd of angry cowboys. There is also plenty of lively detail about telegraphs, private cars and Western towns. The story begins at a breakfast table on a train, where a visit that seems routine puts Gordon among the people he will soon be chasing.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A Routine Visit Starts EverythingFree
- 2Moonlight on the Back Platform
- 3Ghost Robbers and Empty Shells
- 4The Chase Ends in the Canyon
- 5A Telegraph War With the Great Southern
- 6Honor, Love and Plain Talk
Punkt 1 von 6
A Routine Visit Starts Everything
The story is told by Dick Gordon, who plays halfback at Yale and stays on for graduate study in engineering so the team can keep him. That training takes him to the Alton Railroad shops, and he climbs from section foreman to division superintendent. By 1890 he runs the Kansas and Arizona Railroad, a line from Trinidad, Kansas, to The Needles, Arizona, with his office in Albuquerque. The road leans on two bigger systems, the Missouri Western at one end and the Great Southern at the other. The two giants dislike each other and fight like cats on his board.
In October a letter comes from the president of the Missouri Western. His first vice president, Mr. Cullen, is also a K. & A. director and is travelling west to the yearly election at Ash Forks, Arizona. The family is with him in a private car, number 218, and wants to see the Grand Canyon on the way. Gordon is told to make himself useful. He puts his own car, number 97, on the overland train and steps aboard the Cullens' special at Trinidad.
At breakfast he meets Mr. Cullen, his tall son Albert, and two English guests, Lord Ralles and his heavy brother Captain Ackland. Then Madge Cullen comes in, a young woman of about twenty with light brown hair and the bluest eyes. Gordon has not seen a well-dressed woman in four years, and he is charmed at once. He notices Lord Ralles murmuring to her and decides, with a pang, that a title is about to win her.
The talk turns to train robbery, and Madge hopes the party will be held up. Lord Ralles scoffs at American courage and says no Englishman would sit still. Gordon, a little stung, answers that surprise attacks favor the robbers, and that the K. & A. has never been robbed because the canyon and the desert make escape almost impossible. Three days of riding around Santa Fe follow while the party waits for Frederic, Madge's older brother. By the end of them Gordon knows he is in love, and he sees no hope against a lord.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Questions about Der große Überfall auf die K. & A.
What is The Great K. & A. Robbery about?
A railroad superintendent in 1890 escorts a director's family across Arizona and then faces a strange train holdup. His search for the robbers, and for three stolen letters, becomes a fight over control of his railroad and a love story.
Who is Dick Gordon in The Great K. & A. Robbery?
Gordon is the narrator and superintendent of the Kansas and Arizona Railroad. A former Yale football halfback and trained engineer, he runs the line from Albuquerque and tells the story in a plain, humorous voice.
What do K. & A. and G. S. stand for?
K. & A. is the Kansas and Arizona Railroad, which Gordon runs. G. S. is the Great Southern, one of the two larger systems that connect with it and fight for its control. The other is the Missouri Western.
Is The Great K. & A. Robbery a true story?
It is fiction. Paul Leicester Ford wrote it after a rail trip across the American West, and he first read it aloud to his travelling friends. The railroads, towns and Grand Canyon setting give it a real Western flavor.
Is The Great K. & A. Robbery easy to read?
Yes, it is a short book with brief chapters, a friendly narrator and lively dialogue. The jokes, the telegraph tricks and the chase keep the story moving from one scene to the next.