The Reformation of a Bank Robber

by O. Henry

A guard came to the prison shoe-shop, where Jimmy Valentine was working, and took him to the office. There the warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which had been signed that morning. Jimmy took it tiredly. He had been in prison for nearly ten months of a four-year sentence. He’d expected to stay only about three at the longest. When a man with as many friends as Jimmy goes to jail, there’s not much point even cutting his hair.

"Now, Valentine," said the warden, "you'll leave in the morning. Make a man of yourself. You're not bad at heart. Stop breaking into bank safes, and live right."

"Me?" said Jimmy, in surprise. "Why, I never broke into a safe in my life."

"Oh, no," laughed the warden. "Of course not. Let's see, now. What about Springfield? Was it because you couldn't say where you were when the bank was robbed? Or was it simply an angry old judge that didn’t like you? It's always one or the other with you innocent victims."

"Me?" said Jimmy. "Warden, I was never in Springfield in my life!"

"Take him back, Cronin!" said the warden, "and give him some outside clothes. Unlock him at seven in the morning. Better think about my advice, Valentine."

At a quarter past seven the next morning Jimmy stood in the warden's office. He was wearing an uncomfortable suit and a pair of the uncomfortable shoes always given to released convicts.

The clerk handed him a railroad ticket and the five-dollars which the law gives him to become a good, hard-working member of society. The warden gave him a cigar, and shook hands. Valentine, 9762, was written in the book, "Pardoned," and Mr. Jimmy Valentine walked out into the sunshine.

Ignoring the bird song, the green trees, and the smell of the flowers, Jimmy headed straight for a restaurant. There he tasted the first sweet happiness of freedom – a roasted chicken and fresh juice, followed by a better cigar than the one the warden had given him. From there he continued slowly to the station. He threw a coin to a blind man sitting by the station door and got on his train. Three hours later, he got off in a little town. He went to the café of a Mike Dolan, who was alone there, and shook hands with him.

"Sorry we couldn't make it faster, Jimmy, my boy," said Mike. "But the people from Springfield, where you robbed the bank, complained about your early release from prison. Feeling all right?"

"Fine," said Jimmy. "Got my key?"

He got his key and went upstairs, unlocking the door of a room at the back of the house. Everything was just as he had left it. There was still Ben Price's jacket button on the floor that had been torn from that well-known detective's coat when he had fought with Jimmy to arrest him.

Pulling a bed away from the wall, Jimmy pulled out a dirty case. He opened this and gazed lovingly at the finest burglar's tools in the country. It was a complete set, made of special steel, invented by Jimmy himself, and he was very proud of it. They had cost him over $900 to make.

In half an hour Jimmy went downstairs and out of the café. He was now dressed in tasteful and well-fitting clothes, and carried his clean case in his hand.

"Got a job?" asked Mike Dolan.

"Me?" said Jimmy, in a puzzled voice. "I don't understand. I'm a salesman for a New York biscuit company."

A week after Valentine’s release, there was a clever burglary in Indiana. Only eight hundred dollars was stolen. Two weeks after that an improved burglar-proof safe in Logansport was opened in seconds and fifteen hundred dollars was taken in cash; contracts, gold and silver were untouched. That began to interest the detectives. Then an old-fashioned safe in Jefferson City gave five thousand dollars. The losses were now high enough to come to Ben Price's attention. The burglaries were surprisingly similar. Ben Price visited the scenes of the robberies and remarked:

"That's Jim Valentine's signature. He's started business again. Look at how professional these three thefts have been. Yes, I’m looking for Mr. Valentine. He'll spend a long time in prison now, without a pardon."

Ben Price knew Jimmy's habits. He had learnt them while working on the Springfield case. Quick escapes, works on his own and friendships with the rich and famous — these had helped Mr. Valentine to become a successful robber. Everyone got to know that Ben Price was following the elusive thief and other people with burglar-proof safes felt more comfortable.

One afternoon Jimmy Valentine and his case climbed out of a train in Elmore, a little town in Arkansas. Jimmy, looking like an athletic young student just home from college, went towards the hotel.

A young lady crossed the street and entered The Elmore Bank. Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgot he was a thief and became another man. She went a little red. Young men with Jimmy's style and looks were hard to find in Elmore.

Jimmy stopped a boy on the steps of the bank and began to ask him questions about the town, giving him coins every now and then. Eventually, the young lady came out, looking like she did not know the young man with the case, and went on her way.

"Isn't that young lady Polly Simpson?" asked Jimmy.

"No," said the boy. "She's Annabel Adams. Her father owns this bank. What did you come to Elmore for? Is that a gold watch? I'm going to get a dog. Got any more coins?"

Jimmy went to the Planters' Hotel, called himself Ralph D. Spencer, and got a room. He talked to the clerk. He said he had come to Elmore to look for business ideas. How was the shoe business, now, in the town? Was there an opportunity?

The clerk was impressed by Jimmy’s clothes. He, himself, was fashionable in a town of unstylish young men, but he was not in the same class as Jimmy. While looking carefully at Jimmy's clothes, shoes and hat, he politely gave him information.

Yes, there should be a good opportunity in the shoe business. There wasn't an exclusive shoe-store in the place. The grocer sold them like he sold everything else. Business was fairly good. He hoped Mr. Spencer would decide to stay in Elmore. He would find it a pleasant town to live in and the people very sociable.

Mr. Spencer thought he would stop in the town a few days and look around. No, the clerk didn’t need to help with his luggage because he could carry his case himself; it was rather heavy.

Mr. Ralph Spencer remained in Elmore, and his business did very well. He opened a shoe-store and soon did good trade. Socially he was also a success, and made many friends. And he got his heart’s wish. He met Miss Annabel Adams and became more and more interested in her.

At the end of a year Mr. Ralph Spencer’s situation was this: he had won the liking of the community, his shoe-store was doing excellent business and he and Annabel were to be engaged in two weeks. Mr. Adams, a typical, slow-moving country banker, liked Spencer. Annabel was very fond and proud of him. He was at home in Mr. Adams’ family and that of Annabel's married sister.

One day Jimmy sat down in his room and wrote this letter, which he mailed to the safe address of one of his old friends in St. Louis:

“Dear Old Friend,

“I want you to be at Sullivan's place, in Little Rock, next Wednesday night, at nine o'clock. I want you to finish some little bits of business for me. And, also, I want to give you a present: my tools. I know you'll be glad to get them — you couldn't copy them for a thousand dollars. Say, Billy, I left the old business a year ago. I've got a nice shop. I'm making honest money, and I'm going to marry the best girl in the world two weeks from now. I wouldn't touch a dollar of another man's money now for a million. After I get married I'm going to sell my shop and go West, where there won't be so much danger of people remembering my old trade. I tell you, Billy, she's wonderful. She believes in me. Be sure to be at Sully's because I must see you. I'll bring along the tools with me.

“Your old friend, Jimmy.”

On the Monday night after Jimmy wrote this letter, Ben Price came quietly into Elmore. He moved around town in his quiet way until he found out what he wanted to know. From the shop across the street from Spencer's shoe-store he got a good look at Ralph D. Spencer.

"Going to marry the banker's daughter are you, Jimmy?" said Ben to himself, softly. "Well, I don't know!"

The next morning Jimmy took breakfast at the Adamses. He was going to Little Rock that day to order his wedding-suit and buy something nice for Annabel. That would be the first time he had left town since he came to Elmore. It had been more than a year now since his last robbery and he thought he could safely move around these days.

After breakfast, the family went into town together — Mr. Adams, Annabel, Jimmy, and Annabel's married sister with her two little girls, aged five and nine. They came by the hotel where Jimmy still stayed, and he ran up to his room and brought along his case. Then they went to the bank.

Everyone went into the bank. The clerks too were pleased with the good-looking, agreeable young man who was going to marry Miss Annabel. Jimmy put his case down. Annabel, whose face was a picture of happiness, picked up the case.

"How heavy it is! It feels like it’s full of gold." said Annabel.

"Lot of shoes in there," said Jimmy, coolly, "that I'm going to return. Thought I'd save the money by taking them. I'm getting very economical."

The Elmore Bank had just put in a new safe. Mr. Adams was very happy with it and made everyone inspect it. The safe was a small one, but it had a new door with three solid steel bolts and a time-lock. Mr. Adams proudly explained it to Mr. Spencer, who showed a polite but not too intelligent interest. The two children, May and Agatha, were delighted by the shining metal and funny clock.

While they were talking, Ben Price wandered around in the street, looking casually inside. He told the clerk that he didn't want anything; he was just waiting for a man he knew.

Suddenly there was a scream from the women. Unnoticed by the adults, May, the nine-year-old girl had shut Agatha in the safe while they were playing. She had then locked the door and turned the time-lock as she had seen Mr. Adams do.

The old banker jumped to the safe and pulled it for a moment. "The door can't be opened," he shouted. "There is no secret code."

Agatha's mother screamed again.

"Quiet!" said Mr. Adams, raising his hand. "Everyone be quite for a moment. Agatha!" he called as loudly as he could. "Listen to me."

During the silence they could just hear the faint sound of the child screaming in the dark safe.

"My darling!" cried the mother. "She will die of fright! Open the door! Can't you men do something?"

"There isn't a man nearer than Little Rock who can open that door," said Mr. Adams, in a shaky voice.

"Spencer, what shall we do? That child — she can't stand it long in there. There isn't enough air."

Agatha's mother, frantic now, hit the door of the safe with her hands. Somebody wildly suggested dynamite. Annabel turned to Jimmy, her large eyes full of worry, but not yet hopeless. To a woman nothing seems quite impossible for the man she loves.

"Can't you do something, Ralph — try, won't you?"

He looked at her with a strange, soft smile on his lips and in his eyes.

Jimmy threw off his coat and pulled up his sleeves. Ralph D. Spencer vanished and Jimmy Valentine took his place.

"Get away from the door, all of you," he said, shortly.

He put his case on the table and opened it. From that time on, he did not seem to notice anyone else. He put out the tools quickly and efficiently, singing softly to himself as he always did when he was working. In deep silence, the others watched him.

In a minute Jimmy was next to the steel door. In ten minutes, he opened it.

Agatha collapsed but was safe in her mother's arms.

Jimmy Valentine put on his coat and walked towards the front door. As he went he thought he heard a far-away voice that he once knew call "Ralph!" But he never stopped.

At the door a big man stood in his way.

"Hello, Ben!" said Jimmy, with his strange smile. "Arrived at last, have you? Well, let's go. I don't know that it makes much difference, now."

And then Ben Price behaved rather strangely.

"I think you're mistaken, Mr. Spencer," he said. "I don't recognise you."

And Ben Price turned and walked away down the street.