issipation, and turned the
pistol upward as if it had been in the grasp of a mere child.

A blinding flash followed in the farthest corner of the room and a
huge puff of smoke. Before I could collect my wits another followed in
the opposite corner. The room was filled with a dense smoke.

Two men were scuffling at my feet. One was Kennedy. As I dropped down
quickly to help him I saw that the other was Danfield, his face purple
with the violence of the struggle.

"Don't be alarmed, gentlemen," I heard O'Connor shout, "the explosions
were only the flash-lights of the official police photographers.
We now have the evidence complete. Gentlemen, you will now go down
quietly to the patrol-wagons below, two by two. If you have anything
to say, say it to the magistrate of the night court."

"Hold his arms, Walter," panted Kennedy.

I did. With a dexterity that would have done credit to a pickpocket,
Kennedy reached into Danfield's pocket and pulled out some papers.

Before the smoke had cleared and order had been restored, Craig
exclaimed: "Let him up, Walter. Here, DeLong, here are the I.O.U.'s
against you. Tear them up--they are not even a debt of honor."

The Great K.& A. Train Robbery

BY PAUL LEICESTER FORD

CHAPTER I

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 make public a
plain statement concerning an affair over which there appears to be
much confusion. I have heard in the last five years not less than
twenty ren