3 h 47 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On the American rails, a robbery puts more than cargo at stake.
In The Great K. & A. Robbery, Paul Leicester Ford places a train robbery at the center of a short American adventure. The railroad is the stage: a place where fortunes and nerves are tested, and where railroad workers, passengers, and the law share an uneasy world.
Rival railroads and a race against time frame this mystery of the American West. Ford turns to the rails in an age when trains shape American life. The stakes reach beyond a single traveler: a robbery concerns the crew, the clerks guarding cargo, the passengers, and the company behind the line.
What you’ll discover
- The rails at the center Enter a world where the railroad is more than a way to travel.
- A robbery with wider stakes Consider how one crime touches workers, travelers, and the company that runs the trains.
- Rivals and urgent stakes Follow an adventure shaped by competing railroads and the pressure of time.
- Mystery meets Western adventure Explore the meeting of crime, the law, and life on the American rails.
- A short escape Step into a brief work of fiction with a train robbery at its heart.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Routine Visit Starts Everything
- Moonlight on the Back Platform
- Ghost Robbers and Empty Shells
- The Chase Ends in the Canyon
- A Telegraph War With the Great Southern
- Honor, Love and Plain Talk
Who’s who
- Dick GordonThe narrator, a former Yale halfback and superintendent of the Kansas and Arizona Railroad, who wants to catch the robbers and win Madge.
- Madge CullenA quick, spirited young woman of about twenty who craves adventure and will do almost anything to protect her father.
- Mr. CullenA vice president of the Missouri Western and a K. & A. director, who has risked his fortune in a railroad fight.
- Frederic CullenMadge's brother, who is clever, quick and willing to bend the rules for his family.
- Albert CullenThe older Cullen son, an Oxford graduate and a languid talker who boasts of his part in resisting the robbers.
- Lord RallesA small, proud English guest who scorns American courage and wants Madge's attention.
- Captain AcklandLord Ralles's heavy, quiet brother, a friend of the Cullen sons and a fellow guest in the private car.
- Mr. CampA director of the K. & A. and the Great Southern, who will use any means to get the three letters.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 3 h 47 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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El gran robo de la K. & A.
by Paul Leicester Ford · 1897
A railroad superintendent hunts train robbers whose trail leads to a private car and a girl with blue eyes.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
The author
Paul Leicester Ford
1865–1902 · American novelist and biographer
Paul Leicester Ford was an American novelist, biographer, and editor. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1865 and died in New York City in 1902. His books included The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894), The True George Washington (1896), and The Great K. & A. Robbery (1897).
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