The Three Godfathers first appeared in the November 23, 1912, issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
The Three Godfathers is a 1913 short story by American author Peter B. Kyne, about a trio of bank robbers who become godfathers to a newborn child. The story was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post (November 23, 1912), illustrated by N. C. Wyeth.[1]
Four men rob a bank in Wickenburg, Arizona. One man is shot and killed, and the other three flee to the wilderness. One of the fleeing men has a gunshot wound in his shoulder. They encounter a woman in labor in a covered wagon who delivers a baby, entrusts the child to the men's care (asking them all to act as godfathers to the child), and then dies. The men then try to get the baby back to civilization; two of them die on the way due to the lack of water. The final man, suffering from extreme thirst, carries the baby to the town of New Jerusalem, pursued doggedly by coyotes and aided by a burro.
Characters
Tom Gibbons, referred to as The Worst Bad Man
Bill Kearney, referred to as The Wounded Bad Man
Bob Sangster, referred to as The Youngest Bad Man
the woman
Robert William Thomas Sangster, the baby
Adaptations
The short story has been adapted into films multiple times:
The Sheriff's Baby, a 1913 Biograph film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Harry Carey, Lionel Barrymore and Henry B. Walthall.
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