A Retrieved Reformation
by O. Henry
Margin Notes  (1)  A guard came to the prison shoe-shop, where Jimmy
Valentine was assiduously1 stitching uppers, and escorted him to the
front office.  There the warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which had
been signed that morning by the governor.  Jimmy took it in a tired
kind of way.  He had served nearly ten months of a four-year
sentence.  He had expected to stay only three months, at the longest.
When a man with as many friends on the outside as Jimmy
Valentine had is received in the “stir” it is hardly worthwhile to cut
his hair.
(2)“Now, Valentine,” said the warden, “you’ll go out in the
morning.  Brace up, and make a man of yourself.  You’re not a bad
fellow at heart.  Stop cracking safes, and live straight.”
(3)“Me?” said Jimmy, in surprise.  “Why, I never cracked a safe
in my life.”
(4)“Oh, no,” laughed the warden.  “Of course not.  Let’s see,
now.  How was it you happened to get sent up on that Springfield
job?  Was it because you wouldn’t prove an alibi for fear of
compromising somebody in extremely high-toned society?  Or was
it simply a case of a mean old jury that had it in for you?  It’s always
one or the other with you innocent victims.”
(5)“Me?” said Jimmy, still blankly virtuous.2  “Why, warden, I
never was in Springfield in my life!”
(6)“Take him back, Cronin,” smiled the warden, “and fix him up
with outgoing clothes.  Unlock him at seven in the morning, and let
him come to the bullpen.3  Better think over my advice, Valentine.”
(7)At a quarter past seven on the next morning Jimmy stood in
the warden’s outer office.  He had on a suit of the villainously
fitting, ready-made clothes and a pair of the stiff, squeaky shoes that
the state furnishes to its discharged compulsory guests.uppers
(8)The clerk handed him a railroad ticket and the five-dollar bill
with which the law expected him to rehabilitate himself into good
citizenship and prosperity.  The warden gave him a cigar, and shook
hands.  Valentine, 9762, was chronicled on the books “Pardoned by
Governor,” and Mr. James Valentine walked out into the sunshine.
1assiduously: carefully and busily
2virtuous: moral; upright
3bullpen: barred room in a jail, where prisoners are kept temporarily
(9)Disregarding the song of the birds, the waving green trees,
and the smell of the flowers, Jimmy headed straight for a restaurant.
There he tasted the first sweet joys of liberty in the shape of a
chicken dinner.  From there he proceeded leisurely to the depot and boarded his train.  Three hours set him down in a little town near the state line.  He went to the café of one Mike Dolan and shook hands with Mike, who was alone behind the bar.
(10)“Sorry we couldn’t make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy,” said
Mike.  “But we had that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the governor nearly balked.  Feeling all right?”
(11)“Fine,” said Jimmy.  “Got my key?”
(12)He got his key and went upstairs, unlocking the door of a
room at the rear.  Everything was just as he had left it.  There on the floor was still Ben Price’s collar-button that had been torn from that eminent detective’s shirt-band when they had overpowered Jimmy to arrest him.
(13)Pulling out from the wall a folding-bed, Jimmy slid back a
panel in the wall and dragged out a dust-covered suitcase.  He
opened this and gazed fondly at the finest set of burglar’s tools in the East.  It was a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designs in drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and augers,4 with two or three novelties invented by Jimmy himself, in which he took pride. 
Over nine hundred dollars they had cost him to have made at  ---, a place where they make such things for the
profession.
4drills . . . augurs: tools used in metalwork
(14)In half an hour Jimmy went downstairs and through the café.
He was now dressed in tasteful and well-fitting clothes, and carried his dusted and cleaned suitcase in his hand.
(15)“Got anything on?” asked Mike Dolan, genially.
(16)“Me?” said Jimmy, in a puzzled tone.  “I don’t understand.
I’m representing the New York Amalgamated Short Snap Biscuit Cracker and Frazzled Wheat Company.”
(17)This statement delighted Mike to such an extent that Jimmy
had to take a seltzer-and-milk on the spot.  He never touched “hard”
drinks.
(18)    A week after the release of Valentine, 9762, there was a neat
job of safe-burglary done in Richmond, Indiana, with no clue to the author.  A scant eight hundred dollars was all that was secured.  Two weeks after that a patented, improved, burglar-proof safe in
Logansport was opened like a cheese to the tune of fifteen hundred dollars, currency; securities and silver untouched.  That began to
interest the rogue-catchers.5  Then an old-fashioned bank-safe in
Jefferson City became active and threw out of its crater an eruption of bank-notes amounting to five thousand dollars.  The losses were now high enough to bring the matter up into Ben Price’s class of
work.  By comparing notes, a remarkable similarity in the methods of the burglaries was noticed.  Ben Price investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard to remark:
(19)“That’s Dandy Jim Valentine’s autograph.  He’s resumed
business.  Look at that combination knob --- jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in wet weather.  He’s got the only clamps that can do it.  And look how clean those tumblers were punched out!
Jimmy never has to drill but one hole.  Yes, I guess I want Mr.
Valentine.  He’ll do his bit next time without any short-time or
clemency foolishness.”
5rogue-catchers: police
(20) Ben Price knew Jimmy’s habits.  He had learned them while
working up the Springfield case.  Long jumps, quick getaways, no confederates,6 and a taste for good society --- these ways had helped Mr. Valentine to become noted as a successful dodger of
retribution.7  It was given out that Ben Price has taken up the trail of the elusive cracksman, and other people with burglar-proof safes felt more at ease.
(21)One afternoon, Jimmy Valentine and his suitcase climbed out
of the mail hack8 in Elmore, a little town five miles off the railroad down in the blackjack country of Arkansas.  Jimmy, looking like an athletic young senior just home from college, went down the board sidewalk toward the hotel.
(22)  A young lady crossed the street, passed him at the corner and
entered a door over which was the sign “The Elmore Bank.”  Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgot what he was, and became
another man.  She lowered her eyes and colored slightly.  Young
men of Jimmy’s style and looks were scarce in Elmore.
(23) Jimmy collared a boy that was loafing on the steps of the bank
as if he were one of the stockholders, and began to ask him
questions about the town, feeding him dimes at intervals.  By and by the young lady came out, looking royally unconscious of the young man with the suitcase, and went her way.
(24)“Isn’t that young lady Miss Polly Simpson?” asked Jimmy,
with specious guile.9
(25)“Naw,” said the boy.  “She’s Annabel Adams.  Her pa owns
this bank.  What’d you come to Elmore for?  Is that a gold watch chain?  I’m going to get a bulldog.  Got any more dimes?”
(26)  Jimmy went to the Planters’ Hotel, registered as Ralph D.
Spencer, and engaged a room.  He leaned on the desk and declared his platform10 to the clerk.  He said he had come to Elmore to look for a location to go into business.  How was the shoe business, now, in the town?  He had thought of the shoe business.  Was there an
opening?
6confederates: accomplices
7retribution: punishment for wrong-doing
8mail hack: horse and carriage used to deliver mail
9specious guile: crafty, indirect way of obtaining information
10platform: here, a statement of intention
(27)The clerk was impressed by the clothes and manner of Jimmy.
He, himself, was something of a pattern of fashion to the thinly
gilded11 youth of Elmore, but he now perceived his shortcomings.
While trying to figure out Jimmy’s manner of tying his four-in-
hand,12 he cordially gave information.
(28)Yes, there ought to be a good opening in the shoe line.  There
wasn’t an exclusive shoe store in the place.  The dry-goods and
general stores handled them.  Business in all lines was fairly good.
Hoped Mr. Spencer would decide to locate in Elmore.  He would
find it a pleasant town to live in, and the people very sociable. (29)Mr. Spencer thought he would stop over in the town a few
days and look over the situation.  No, the clerk needn’t call the boy.
He would carry up his suitcase, himself: it was rather heavy.
(30)Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy
Valentine’s ashes --- ashes left by the flame of a sudden and
alternative attack of love --- remained in Elmore, and prospered.  He opened a shoe store and secured a run of trade.
(31) Socially he was also a success, and made many friends.  And
he accomplished the wish of his heart.  He met Miss Annabel
Adams, and became more and more captivated by her charms. (32) At the end of the year the situation of Mr. Ralph Spencer was
this: he had won the respect of the community, his shoe store was flourishing, and he and Annabel were engaged to be married in two weeks.  Mr. Adams, the typical, plodding, country banker, approved of Spencer.  Annabel’s pride in him almost equaled her affection.
He was as much at home in the family of Mr. Adams and that of
Annabel’s married sister as if he were already a member.
11thinly gilded: coated with a thin layer of gold; here, appearing well dressed 12four-in-hand: necktie

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