TALES OF THE LONG BOW TALES OF THE LONG BOW BY G. K. CHESTERTON AUTHOR OF “THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN,” “HERETICS,” ETC. [Illustration] NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1925 COPYRIGHT, 1925 BY GILBERT K. CHESTERTON PRINTED IN U. S. A. THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I THE UNPRESENTABLE APPEARANCE OF COLONEL CRANE 3 II THE IMPROBABLE SUCCESS OF MR. OWEN HOOD 39 III THE UNOBTRUSIVE TRAFFIC OF CAPTAIN PIERCE 81 IV THE ELUSIVE COMPANION OF PARSON WHITE 113 V THE EXCLUSIVE LUXURY OF ENOCH OATES 147 VI THE UNTHINKABLE THEORY OF PROFESSOR GREEN 177 VII THE UNPRECEDENTED ARCHITECTURE OF COMMANDER BLAIR 211 VIII THE ULTIMATE ULTIMATUM OF THE LEAGUE OF THE LONG BOW 247 I THE UNPRESENTABLE APPEARANCE OF COLONEL CRANE TALES OF THE LONG BOW I THE UNPRESENTABLE APPEARANCE OF COLONEL CRANE These tales concern the doing of things recognized as impossible to do; impossible to believe; and, as the weary reader may well cry aloud, impossible to read about. Did the narrator merely say that they happened, without saying how they happened, they could easily be classified with the cow who jumped over the moon and the more introspective individual who jumped down his own throat. In short, they are all tall stories; and though tall stories may also be true stories, there is something in the very phrase appropriate to such a topsy-turvydom; for the logician will presumably class a tall story with a corpulent epigram or a long-legged essay. It is only proper that such impossible incidents should begin in the most prim and prosaic of all places, at the most prim and prosaic of all times, and apparently with the most prim and prosaic of all human beings.