The Roads We Take by O. Henry. Short summary

5 seconds

Three bandits rob a mail car and carry off $30,000. One of them is shot and killed by the conductor. The criminals have one horse left on the road, and to escape, one of them shoots the other.

1 minute

Three stowaways enter the train: Bob Tidball, Dodson, nicknamed Shark, and Indian John Big Dog. No one dared to stop the men because they had guns. The machinist agreed to unhook the locomotive from the rest of the train and pull it back a few yards.

The robbers went into the mail car. The conductor offers them no resistance as the bandits put a colt to his head. They manage to get hold of about 30 thousand dollars in gold and credit cards.

The criminals put the loot in a bag and run away. The conductor of the mail car runs out and fires a Winchester. One of the robbers drops dead. The rest of the bandits gallop off on their horses.

Bob’s horse slips and breaks his legs and has to be shot. The outlaws stop for a short halt. They were reminiscing about the past that got them on the crime spree. Shark realizes that they will be chased and they will not escape on one horse. In order not to risk it, he shoots his partner, with whom he has been friends for three years.