One of the best know short stories of all time. Three-Ten to Yuma by Elmore Leonard was first published in 1953 in Dime Western Magazine.
Deputy Marshal Paul Scallen is escorting a dangerous criminal, Jim Kidd, first to a hotel in the town of Contention, and then to the station to catch the train to Yuma, Arizona where he will begin a prison sentence for murder. Scallen has tried every kind of ruse to minimize the chances that Kidd's friends will be able to help him escape. But his efforts don't work and now Scallen must face them.
The story has twice been made into a movie - in 1957 and 2007.
