Tms-Lockwood/Matis--After 20 Years-- OHenry

The impressiveness was habitual and not for show, for spectators were few.

The impressiveness was habitual and not for show, for spectators were few.

The time was barely 10 o'clock at night, but chilly gusts of wind with a taste of rain in them had well nigh de-peopled the streets.

Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

The vicinity was one that kept early hours.

Now and then you might see the lights of a cigar store or of an all-night lunch counter; but the majority of the doors belonged to business places that had long since been closed.

The light showed a pale, square-jawed face with keen eyes, and a little white scar near his right eyebrow.

We figured that in twenty years each of us ought to have our destiny worked out and our fortunes made, whatever they were going to be."

"Well, yes, for a time we corresponded," said the other.

You see, the West is a pretty big proposition, and I kept hustling around over it pretty lively.

I've had to compete with some of the sharpest wits going to get my pile.

And in the door of the hardware store the man who had come a thousand miles to fill an appointment, uncertain almost to absurdity, with the friend of his youth, smoked his cigar and waited.

The man from the West, his egotism enlarged by success, was beginning to outline the history of his career.

When they came into this glare each of them turned simultaneously to gaze upon the other's face.

Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth avenue, and became a "colony."

They had met at the table d'hote of an Eighth street "Delmonico's," and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studio resulted.

In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers.

Over on the east side this ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores, but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown "places."

A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer.

This way people have of lining-up on the side of the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopeia look silly.

Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window.

As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant horseshow riding trousers and a monocle on the figure of the hero, an Idaho cowboy, she heard a low sound, several times repeated.

An old, old ivy vine, gnarled and decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall.

He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp.

He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp.

Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe.

Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe.

In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty- five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece.

Old Behrman, with his red eyes, plainly streaming, shouted his contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings.

"Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine?

"She is very ill and weak," said Sue, "and the fever has left her mind morbid and full of strange fancies.

A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow.

Still dark green near its stem, but with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from a branch some twenty feet above the ground.

Still dark green near its stem, but with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from a branch some twenty feet above the ground.

He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute.

And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedly knitting a very blue and very useless woolen shoulder scarf, and put one arm around her, pillows and all.

And then they found a lantern, still lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it, and--look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall.

A RETRIEVED REFORMATION

Was it because you wouldn't prove an alibi for fear of compromising somebody in extremely high- toned society?

Was it because you wouldn't prove an alibi for fear of compromising somebody in extremely high- toned society?

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.

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.

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.

Valentine, 9762, was chronicled on the books, "Pardoned by Governor," and Mr. James Valentine walked out into the sunshine.

There he tasted the first sweet joys of liberty in the shape of a broiled chicken and a bottle of white wine— followed by a cigar a grade better than the one the warden had given him.

From there he proceeded leisurely to the depot.

"But we had that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the governor nearly balked.

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.

It was a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designs in drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and augers, with two or three novelties, invented by Jimmy himself, in which he took pride.

I'm representing the New York Amalgamated Short Snap Biscuit Cracker and Frazzled Wheat Company."

He's resumed business.

He'll do his bit next time without any short-time or clemency foolishness."

Long jumps, quick get- aways, no confederates, and a taste for good society—these ways had helped Mr. Valentine to become noted as a successful dodger of retribution.

It was given out that Ben Price had taken up the trail of the elusive cracksman, and other people with burglar-proof safes felt more at ease.

One afternoon Jimmy Valentine and his suit-case climbed out of the mail-hack in Elmore, a little town five miles off the railroad down in the black-jack country of Arkansas.

"Isn't that young lady Polly Simpson?" asked Jimmy, with specious guile.

"Isn't that young lady Polly Simpson?" asked Jimmy, with specious guile.

Jimmy went to the Planters' Hotel, registered as Ralph D. Spencer, and engaged a room.

At the end of a 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.

Be sure to be at Sully's, for I must see you.

It had been more than a year now since those last professional "jobs," and he thought he could safely venture out.

While they were thus engaged Ben Price sauntered in and leaned on his elbow, looking casually inside between the railings.

Suddenly there was a scream or two from the women, and a commotion.

He laid out the shining, queer implements swiftly and orderly, whistling softly to himself as he always did when at work.

In a minute Jimmy's pet drill was biting smoothly into the steel door.