Speaker 1: Hey, says dead mam.
Speaker 2: Come on your story.
Speaker 3: Hours are presenting your story, hour building for a better
Speaker 3: tomorrow to day's story.
Speaker 1: Come here to the window, Jim. I want to show
Speaker 1: you something.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1: Look out there, Jim. Some people call this the slums.
Speaker 1: The neighborhood is tough. I'm told. Our new house maybe
Speaker 1: isn't just what we'd like, and three rooms can be
Speaker 1: awfully cramped, but it's ours. It's clean and neat inside
Speaker 1: our home. And we can be happy here if we try, Jim.
Speaker 1: When people try to be happy, they can be That's
Speaker 1: what your dad always told me. He was a brave man,
Speaker 1: very brave, all during the long, hard years when he
Speaker 1: was so sick and in such terrible, aizing pain. I
Speaker 1: know if you can grow up to be like Fred,
Speaker 1: I'll feel rewarded. Jim. He was a fine man, a
Speaker 1: good husband.
Speaker 2: I won't disappoint you, Mom, like you said yesterday, I
Speaker 2: even look like that now that I'm growing taller.
Speaker 1: Oh, off to bed with you. You've got a busy
Speaker 1: program ahead of you. Tomorrow. It'll be your first day
Speaker 1: at the new school. You'll have a lot of catching
Speaker 1: up to do. Okay, Mom, good night, Oh Jim, Yes,
Speaker 1: don't don't worry about those school supplies. Tell your teachers
Speaker 1: if they can give me just a week, I'll have
Speaker 1: enough money to buy them all right, mam my purse,
Speaker 1: Oh yes, here it is four dollars and thirty five cents.
Speaker 1: It's got to last us until next Friday. Oh, dear
Speaker 1: God in heaven, please help me to keep my boy
Speaker 1: from knowing how poor we really are. I I I'm
Speaker 1: trying so hard to make a home for him, but
Speaker 1: I'm alone, all alone.
Speaker 4: Hello Uncle Dan, Hello to you, Aunt Carol, And hello
Speaker 4: to all you boys.
Speaker 5: And girls, teens, moms and dads.
Speaker 4: Grandma's and grandpa's, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, and neighbors.
Speaker 5: Welcome one and all.
Speaker 4: We're so glad to be with you again.
Speaker 5: Now we have a question for all you adults listening in.
Speaker 5: Have you ever attended your high school or college reunion.
Speaker 4: If you have, you've probably been surprised by how some
Speaker 4: of your former classmates have changed.
Speaker 5: Of course, there are physical differences, but while everyone grows older,
Speaker 5: some get thinner, others heavier.
Speaker 4: And some grow beards while others go ball.
Speaker 5: You're surprised that the class clown became a successful pediatrician.
Speaker 4: And that shy little wallflower of a girl blossomed into
Speaker 4: a beautiful fashion model.
Speaker 5: Then perhaps you sadly learned that the boy voted most
Speaker 5: likely to succeed didn't make it to the reunion. He
Speaker 5: died a few years back from a drug overdose.
Speaker 4: Though you're all classmates at one time, the choices each
Speaker 4: individual made let many directions.
Speaker 5: Some made good choices, some made bad ones.
Speaker 4: Even children from the same family make very different choices.
Speaker 4: For example, just think of Jacob and Esau, the twin
Speaker 4: sons of Isaac and Bible Times.
Speaker 5: Or what about the sons of Adam and Eve canaan Abel.
Speaker 5: Their choices let in opposite directions.
Speaker 4: What we're saying is we need to think carefully about
Speaker 4: the choices we make in life and how those choices
Speaker 4: will influence our future.
Speaker 5: That's certainly true, Uncle Dan, and I think this classic
Speaker 5: O Henry story will make that apparent.
Speaker 4: Well, time is marching right along, so I think we'd
Speaker 4: better get right to it.
Speaker 5: Good idea we call this story after twenty years. The
Speaker 5: policeman on the beat moved briskly up the avenue. The
Speaker 5: time was barely ten o'clock at night, but chilly gusts
Speaker 5: of wind with a taste of rain in them. It
Speaker 5: almost emptied the streets, trying doors as he went, twirling
Speaker 5: his club, he now and then turned to cast his water,
Speaker 5: watchful on the quiet neighborhood The vicinity kept early hours.
Speaker 5: Now and then you might see the lights of a
Speaker 5: store or of an all night lunch counter, but the
Speaker 5: majority of the business places had long since been closed.
Speaker 5: When he was about midway along a certain block, the
Speaker 5: policeman suddenly slowed his walk. In the doorway of a
Speaker 5: darkened hardware store, a man leaned his hands thrust deep
Speaker 5: into his pockets, his coat collar turned up. As the
Speaker 5: policeman walked up to him.
Speaker 6: The man spoke.
Speaker 7: Quickly, Oh it's it's all right, off, sir, I'm just
Speaker 7: waiting here for her friend friend day.
Speaker 8: Well, we don't allow loitering. Maybe you'd better move along.
Speaker 7: No, no, honest officer, I won't cause any trouble. I'm
Speaker 7: back here in town to keep an appointment, an appointment
Speaker 7: made out of this very spot twenty years ago.
Speaker 8: Twenty years that's a long time.
Speaker 9: Oh you bet it is. It sounds a little funny,
Speaker 9: doesn't it. Well, well, i'll explain if you like.
Speaker 7: You see, twenty years ago, there used to be a
Speaker 7: restaurant where you and I are standing right now, Big
Speaker 7: Joe Brady's Restaurant.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I remember. Big Joe's dead. Now some new owners
Speaker 8: bought the restaurant, tore it down, put up this modern
Speaker 8: hardware store that was about ten years ago.
Speaker 3: Oh it's a big Joe died.
Speaker 9: Well, look at that sky.
Speaker 8: We're gonna have rain, mister, and hear it.
Speaker 9: Come were here, obviously step up in the doorway. You'll
Speaker 9: get dreaded.
Speaker 8: Thanks. I should have worn my raincoat out tonight.
Speaker 9: How I was lucky.
Speaker 7: I got the weather forecast early in the day, so
Speaker 7: I was ready for the bad weather.
Speaker 9: Hey, come on you, that's y room. Oh careful, it's dark.
Speaker 9: Drop my billy club. Wait, I gott imagine it's dragging up.
Speaker 9: Locate your club in a jiffy.
Speaker 6: The man in the doorway struck a match, stooped, and
Speaker 6: retrieved the billy club. His figure, which had been shrouded
Speaker 6: in darkness, was suddenly illuminated, and the police officer looked
Speaker 6: at him cure the match flame revealed a short, stocky
Speaker 6: looking man with his hat brim pulled low over his face,
Speaker 6: but there was just enough light for the officer momentarily
Speaker 6: to see a pale, square jawed face with keen eyes
Speaker 6: and a little white telltale scar near his right eyebrow.
Speaker 6: In the handsome scarf worn round his neck to keep
Speaker 6: out the brisk fall wind was an expensive diamond pin.
Speaker 8: Did you say you were waiting for a friend.
Speaker 7: Oh, not just a friend, Officer, I'm waiting for my
Speaker 7: best friend. His name is Jim, Jimmy Wells as the
Speaker 7: finest chap in the world.
Speaker 8: You seem eager to see him.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 8: I am.
Speaker 7: You know, exactly twenty years ago tonight, Jim and I
Speaker 7: had dinner together at Big Joe Brady's restaurant, the last
Speaker 7: time I saw him. You see, Officer, Jimmy Wells and
Speaker 7: now are both reared here in New York, same neighborhood.
Speaker 7: Were just like brothers. Jim was twenty and I was
Speaker 7: eighteen when we parted. Oh say, you couldn't have dragged
Speaker 7: him out of New York. He thought it was the
Speaker 7: only place on earth. But me, Well, I was ambitious
Speaker 7: and wrestless. I wanted to go out into the big, wide,
Speaker 7: wonderful world and find excitement. Wanted to pit my brains
Speaker 7: against other men see if I could survive. Jimmy hated
Speaker 7: to see me go, but I promised to meet him
Speaker 7: here exactly twenty years later. Then we both see how
Speaker 7: life had treated us and find out whether either or
Speaker 7: well both.
Speaker 9: Of us had found success real success.
Speaker 7: So we struck the bargain, and that's why I'm here
Speaker 7: tonight in this doorway, Oh good old Jimmy.
Speaker 9: The next morning, the next morning.
Speaker 7: After we had dinner together, I left for the West coast,
Speaker 7: chasing that elusive phantom men call success.
Speaker 8: Did you find it success? I mean find it?
Speaker 9: Listen.
Speaker 7: I matched my wits against some of the best brains
Speaker 7: afloat came out of winter.
Speaker 9: Every time, Yes, siree, every time. Success.
Speaker 7: Success isn't an elusive phantom, not if you're tough and
Speaker 7: you got the neck and they know how why I
Speaker 7: caught success and swawk it.
Speaker 9: By the table.
Speaker 8: Well, I see you're your friend. He may not show up,
Speaker 8: not in a soaking rain like this.
Speaker 7: Hey, now there's where you're wrong, dead wrong, my pell
Speaker 7: Jimmy Wells wouldn't let fire or flood keep him from
Speaker 7: meeting his old buddy tonight.
Speaker 9: Not to mention a little drism like this.
Speaker 8: No, you just wait, you'll see.
Speaker 9: Besides, it's it's only ten o'clock. He's got another thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: Yet.
Speaker 8: You have a lot of confidence in your friend, mister.
Speaker 8: But in twenty years, people change change a lot. Often
Speaker 8: they they forget promises.
Speaker 9: Not a chance.
Speaker 7: Oh some people, yes, But Jimmy Wells forget Jimmy Wells changed.
Speaker 9: Ah. Never.
Speaker 7: Well, we're waiting for the rain to stop.
Speaker 9: Now, I'll tell you about jim home.
Speaker 7: By that time, he should be here, and you can
Speaker 7: see for yourself what a true blue fellow he is.
Speaker 7: I first met Jimmy Wells when I was twelve years old,
Speaker 7: about three days.
Speaker 3: After he moved into our old East Down neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Mam, mam, is that you?
Speaker 1: Yes, Jimmy, what are you doing out of bed? It's
Speaker 1: four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2: I know. I woke up when was worried. Ma'm you're
Speaker 2: a getting home, and I've thought maybe something that happened
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: I am a little late, Jimmy, I'd admit, but we
Speaker 1: had a lot of extra work to do. It made
Speaker 1: me miss the two o'clock bus, so I stood for
Speaker 1: an hour waiting for the next one. I think I'll
Speaker 1: just sit, just sit here for half an hour without moving. Tonight,
Speaker 1: I feel as though I'd scrubbed every inch of the
Speaker 1: Empire State Building.
Speaker 2: Mom, I made some breakfast for you. I thought maybe
Speaker 2: you be hungry, and you got in. The eggs are fine,
Speaker 2: but I saw to burn the tolls.
Speaker 1: Well, now that makes us even yesterday I burned your toast.
Speaker 1: Remember never mind, Darling. I'm sure your breakfast will taste marvelous,
Speaker 1: maybe even better than mine. You're a thoughtful boy, Jim.
Speaker 1: Any mother would be proud to have a son like you.
Speaker 2: I wish you didn't have to work so hard, especially
Speaker 2: at night.
Speaker 1: Now, Jim, we must be grateful. This job as a
Speaker 1: scrub woman at the Caston Building was all I could find.
Speaker 2: I wish we were back in Allenville, Ma.
Speaker 1: So do I Jim. But there was no way for
Speaker 1: me to make money there, and we're so desperately poor
Speaker 1: since your father died, we simply had to come to
Speaker 1: the city. Come here to the window, Jim. I want
Speaker 1: to show you something, Yes, ma'am. Look out there, Jim.
Speaker 1: Some people call this the slums. The neighborhood is tough.
Speaker 1: I'm told our new home maybe isn't just what we'd like.
Speaker 1: And three rooms can be awfully crowded, but it's ours.
Speaker 1: It's clean and neat inside our home, and we can
Speaker 1: be happy here if we try, Jim, When people try
Speaker 1: hard to be happy, they can be That's what your
Speaker 1: dad always told me. He was a brave man, very brave,
Speaker 1: all during those long, hard years when he was so
Speaker 1: sick and in such terrible, agonizing pain. I know, ma'am,
Speaker 1: if you can grow up to be like Fred, I'll
Speaker 1: feel rewarded. Jim, he was a fine man, a good husband.
Speaker 2: I won't disappoint you, ma'am. Like you said yesterday, I
Speaker 2: even look like Dad now that I'm growing taller.
Speaker 1: Yes, you do resemble him, son, especially with those blue
Speaker 1: eyes and that unruly mop of sandy here tumbling down
Speaker 1: over your forehead. But now off with you, back to bed,
Speaker 1: you scamp. You've got a bite program ahead of you.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow it'll be your first day at the new school.
Speaker 1: Mother wants you to be arrested. You'll have a lot
Speaker 1: of catching up to do. You missed a whole year
Speaker 1: when you had scarlet fever.
Speaker 2: Okay, mam, good night.
Speaker 1: Oh Jim, Yes, don't don't worry about those school supplies.
Speaker 1: Tell your teachers if they can just give me a week,
Speaker 1: I'll have enough money to buy them all right, mam,
Speaker 1: Oh my purse. Oh yes, here it is four dollars
Speaker 1: and thirty five cents. Oh it's got to last us
Speaker 1: until next Friday. Oh, Dear God in heaven, please help
Speaker 1: me to keep my boy from knowing how poor we
Speaker 1: really are. I I'm trying so hard to make a
Speaker 1: home for him, but I'm alone, all alone.
Speaker 4: Say we'll find out if Jimmy tangles with the toughest
Speaker 4: boy in the sixth grade in just a moment. But first,
Speaker 4: please listen to this letter from a thirteen year old
Speaker 4: girl who lives in Tennessee.
Speaker 5: Dear Aunt Carroll and Uncle Dan, I just wanted you
Speaker 5: to know that the Adventures are one hundred percent helpful
Speaker 5: to me. I try to read the Bible every night,
Speaker 5: and sometimes I don't understand it. The Adventures explained the
Speaker 5: Bible so good that you're bound to understand it.
Speaker 4: Thanks so much, and thank you for writing. We're glad
Speaker 4: the Adventures are a help. Now here's another letter.
Speaker 5: Dear Uncle Dan and Aunt Carrol, thank you for sending
Speaker 5: me the first two lessons. I had them finished in
Speaker 5: one hour. I'd love to work on them so much
Speaker 5: that i couldn't put them down. My mother and I
Speaker 5: listened to your story are every chance we get. The
Speaker 5: stories are always interesting. I've wanted to receive the lessons
Speaker 5: and stories for a long time. I'm glad I finally
Speaker 5: contacted you on the web. We pray that God will
Speaker 5: continue to bless your ministry. I love your programs.
Speaker 4: It sounds like these two listeners have discovered just how
Speaker 4: much fun and how helpful the Adventures can be.
Speaker 5: True, Uncle Dan, You see, the Adventures contain stories, puzzles,
Speaker 5: and quizzes that everyone, it seems, really enjoys. Plus, as
Speaker 5: you complete the quizzes, you'll also receive all twenty six
Speaker 5: audio stories from our Life of Jesus album, and.
Speaker 4: The first two stories you'll receive are Mary of Nazareth
Speaker 4: and Born under a Star, two special favorites.
Speaker 5: Yes, and here's a very important point. The Adventures are
Speaker 5: absolutely free, stories, quizzes, audio recordings, everything.
Speaker 4: So what about you? Would you like help understanding the
Speaker 4: Bible and have a great time in the process.
Speaker 5: Perhaps you've been intending to sign up for the Adventures,
Speaker 5: but just haven't gotten around to it yet, and there's.
Speaker 4: No time like the present. Why not make a good choice.
Speaker 4: Get a pen, paper ready to take down our address
Speaker 4: and website. We'll give them to you right after our story.
Speaker 5: Speaking of which, let's find out what's happening to Jimmy
Speaker 5: in after twenty years.
Speaker 1: Hey you you what a funny face? Me?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No Ah? Here ain't you? What's your name?
Speaker 2: Her name is Jim jim Au.
Speaker 1: Well listen, Jim. You may be a little taller than me,
Speaker 1: but I'm the toughest boy in the sixth grade. How'd
Speaker 1: you like to fight?
Speaker 2: Fight?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Fight, you heard me? Maybe on the playground at recess.
Speaker 1: I'll whip you to you can't stand up? Funny face?
Speaker 2: I guess you're right.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: My face is sort of funny, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Huh huh.
Speaker 2: But if you whip me and rearrange my face, I
Speaker 2: look even worse. So you have to take the blame
Speaker 2: from my face then not me, right.
Speaker 1: Boy, you're a strange one. I like you. You got
Speaker 1: a sense of humor. Let's be POWs. My name is Bob,
Speaker 1: Shake Bob. Since you're new here, I'll school you on everything.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: If you need your arithmetic homework done. Mary Jenkins, that redhaired,
Speaker 1: skinny girl over there, she's the best in the whole school.
Speaker 1: Just say, you'll beat up her little brother and then
Speaker 1: she'll do your arithmetic every night. Honest, honest, how do
Speaker 1: you think I got my arithmetic work done? In fact,
Speaker 1: I get better homework greats than she does. But that's cheating, cheatin'.
Speaker 8: Say.
Speaker 1: Listen, my pop says that in this world everybody cheats,
Speaker 1: specially big shots. That's how they get to the top.
Speaker 2: My dad never told me that.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's cause your dad ain't smart. But my pop
Speaker 1: is our teacher. Miss Johnson, that old dragon. You know
Speaker 1: what she says, children do unto others as you would
Speaker 1: have others doin' to you.
Speaker 2: I know that that's the golden rule. I learned it
Speaker 2: in church back home in Allenville.
Speaker 1: Golden huh. Well, I told my pop what Miss Johnson said,
Speaker 1: and you know what he told me. No, what he said, boy,
Speaker 1: you doin to others before they do un to you.
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, it's almost time for class to start.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and here comes ugly old missus Johnson. I better
Speaker 1: lay loon until after class meets you at recess Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: where do you live.
Speaker 2: On East third Street?
Speaker 1: Swell, that's just around the corner from my house. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'll come by your house sometime.
Speaker 6: Okay, children, silence, We're about to begin on lessons now,
Speaker 6: silence please.
Speaker 9: And that's how I met Jimmy Wells. We became the
Speaker 9: best of buddies.
Speaker 7: The fact is, I'm sort of glad he didn't take
Speaker 7: me up on that fist fight. Jimmy was skinny and gawky,
Speaker 7: but I found out later it hit.
Speaker 9: Like a mule, is he? His father had been a high.
Speaker 7: School athletic coach before he got that rare blood as
Speaker 7: he's killed him. He knew a lot about boxing, and
Speaker 7: Jimmy absorbed a good deal of it from him. Why
Speaker 7: he coulda trampled me and when I challenged him to
Speaker 7: fight that first day at school, but instead he took
Speaker 7: low to peace love. And that's what Jimmy was, a
Speaker 7: good hearted, peace loving kid.
Speaker 8: Sounds as though you liked him, Oh I did.
Speaker 9: I did.
Speaker 7: It's a funny thing, though I always knew jim wasn't
Speaker 7: destined to get anywhere, particularly in life. He had too
Speaker 7: many well, he had too many scruples inherited from that
Speaker 7: male of his, and she died later, but Jim promised
Speaker 7: her that he'd work hard turn out to be something respectable. Yeah,
Speaker 7: I wonder how I did he?
Speaker 9: Oh that old phantom success. Yes, sir, we're both after it.
Speaker 7: That night we parted here twenty years ago, Jimmy Wells
Speaker 7: and I well.
Speaker 8: Oh, mister rain slacked a bit. I guess I'll be
Speaker 8: on my way. Sure, hope your friend comes around. All right,
Speaker 8: you are going to give up and leave? If he
Speaker 8: doesn't show up right on the dot.
Speaker 9: Why I should say not. I'll give him another half
Speaker 9: hour at least. If Jimmy Wells is alive on this earth,
Speaker 9: you'll be here by that time. Well, here, you've been
Speaker 9: good company. So long, officer.
Speaker 6: Good night, sir, And stepping out into the rain, the
Speaker 6: policeman passed along his beat, trying doors as he went.
Speaker 6: There was now a fine, cold drizzle falling, and the
Speaker 6: wind had risen from uncertain puffs into a steady blow.
Speaker 6: The few pedestrians astir in that quarter hurried dismally and silently,
Speaker 6: along with coat collars turned high, hands burrowed deep into
Speaker 6: their pockets, and in the doorway of the hardware store,
Speaker 6: the man who had come a thousand miles to keep
Speaker 6: an appointment, an appointment uncertain, almost absurd with the friend
Speaker 6: of his youth, stood and waited. About twenty minutes he waited,
Speaker 6: and then a tall man in a long overcoat with
Speaker 6: collar turned up to his ears, hurried across from the
Speaker 6: opposite side of the street. He went directly to the
Speaker 6: waiting figure. Approaching the dark doorway, he asked softly.
Speaker 9: Is that you, Bob, Yes? Is that you Jimmy wells? Oh, well, well, well,
Speaker 9: bless my heart. Oh, it's great to see you, buddy.
Speaker 9: Great here shake hands with your old pal.
Speaker 10: It's been a long time, Bob.
Speaker 9: You bet it has too long? Oh much, much, too long?
Speaker 9: Hey you married?
Speaker 10: Yes, Margie and I have three fine youngsters, two boys
Speaker 10: and a girl.
Speaker 9: How about you gone?
Speaker 7: Ye, never can find a girl for me, So I'm
Speaker 7: still single. Jimmy boy, still a lovable oven bachelor. Come on,
Speaker 7: come on, let's get out of this dark doorway and
Speaker 7: go somewhere where we can get something warm to drink,
Speaker 7: chat about old time, sure thing, Bob?
Speaker 10: What's so amusing, Bob?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 7: I was just wishing that big dumb cop was still here.
Speaker 9: Oh, he realized how wrong he was?
Speaker 8: Cop?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, policeman stopped and chatting with me a few
Speaker 7: minutes in the rain. While I waited for you, he
Speaker 7: dropped his club and I had to find it for him.
Speaker 9: Have you ever heard of a policeman dropping his billy
Speaker 9: club before? Oh, dumb cop. I told him about us.
Speaker 9: Do you know what he said? No, he said you
Speaker 9: wouldn't show up.
Speaker 7: He said nobody would keep a promise like that after
Speaker 7: twenty years.
Speaker 9: That shows how much he dow Afel. Cops are always.
Speaker 7: Wrong, big, slow, stupid and always wrong.
Speaker 10: The old restaurant, Big Jack Brady's, has gone.
Speaker 7: Bob, Jim, Jim, it was Joe Brady's. Oh how could
Speaker 7: you ever forget him? Why Big Joe would revolve in
Speaker 7: his grave?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 10: Yes, Joe Brady's. Anyway, I wish his old restaurant we're
Speaker 10: still standing, just so as we could have another celebration there.
Speaker 10: But tell me how is the West treated? Joel Man?
Speaker 9: Ah great, champ just great.
Speaker 11: Why it's given me everything I could ask for, everything
Speaker 11: I ever dreamed of, money, influence and friends. You know, Jim,
Speaker 11: you've changed a lot. I remember you as being not
Speaker 11: quite tall. In fact, you were three inches taller than me.
Speaker 11: But now you must be about six feet.
Speaker 10: Well, I grew a bit after I reached twenty.
Speaker 9: And so I see.
Speaker 7: Oh but listen, how about our old phantom suckcess.
Speaker 9: Huh do you find her?
Speaker 8: How well have you done back here in the old town?
Speaker 10: Only moderately, Bob, just moderately. I have a job in
Speaker 10: one of the city departments. Hey, come on, let's cross
Speaker 10: the street here. There's a place I know just around
Speaker 10: the corner. It'll be the perfect setting for our good
Speaker 10: long talk about old time.
Speaker 9: Okay, let's go.
Speaker 2: What's awful?
Speaker 4: Fuck?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I can't see a foot in front of your face.
Speaker 9: They watch out see people in this town? Awys did
Speaker 9: dry like fools?
Speaker 7: It's my pie used to say, you remember Pa, he's
Speaker 7: bless his aren't real?
Speaker 9: So he's deadn't gone though. Fifteen years now, Jimmie boy,
Speaker 9: I have done well, fabulously well. Money is no longer
Speaker 9: a problem.
Speaker 7: And say a friend of mine, I know you can't
Speaker 7: be too well off, not if you work for the city.
Speaker 7: You can't.
Speaker 9: So if you ever need a couple thousand bucks, really, Bob, what.
Speaker 10: Kind of business are you in?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 9: Well, investments? Yeah, yeah, that's it. Investments.
Speaker 6: The two men crossed the street together, turned the corner
Speaker 6: and walk down the block. The man from the West Coast,
Speaker 6: his ego inflated by the rapt attention of his friend,
Speaker 6: who was obviously impressed, outlined high points in his well
Speaker 6: traveled life. He talked with Gusto with enthusiasm, not noticing
Speaker 6: where he was going, and his companion, the taller man,
Speaker 6: submerged in his overcoat, just listened silently. After they had
Speaker 6: walked another two blocks, they passed a corner. There stood
Speaker 6: a drug store, brilliant with electric lights. When they came
Speaker 6: under it sudden glare. Each man wheeled sharply to gaze
Speaker 6: upon the other's face.
Speaker 9: Hey, wait a minute, Wait a minute, what is this.
Speaker 9: You're not Jimmy Wells.
Speaker 7: Twenty years a long time, but it isn't long enough
Speaker 7: to change a fellow's nose from a room into a pug.
Speaker 10: It's sometimes long enough to change a good man into
Speaker 10: a bad one. You're right, I'm not Jim Wells. I'm
Speaker 10: Detective Mark Jones. Don't move, Just put your hands out,
Speaker 10: silky Ah. You've been under arrest for the last ten minutes.
Speaker 8: Now that's right, Now, easy, I've.
Speaker 10: Got some hen because Taylor made for you, and now
Speaker 10: he's as good a time as any to fit him on.
Speaker 9: If you haven't got a thing on me, No, you haven't.
Speaker 10: Been home long enough to start any trouble here. But
Speaker 10: Chicago police remember you.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 10: We got a telegram at headquarters telling us she might
Speaker 10: be dropping over this way. The detectives in Chicago requested
Speaker 10: we haul you in and ask you a few polite
Speaker 10: questions about some second story jobs there.
Speaker 9: I haven't been in Chicago. If you hadn't been.
Speaker 10: So busy telling me what a big shot you are,
Speaker 10: you might have noticed that we were heading all the
Speaker 10: time for the police precinct.
Speaker 9: Oh now, officer, listen, this.
Speaker 8: Is a mistake.
Speaker 9: I just got him from San Francisco.
Speaker 7: I came all this way just for reunion with my
Speaker 7: boyhood chum.
Speaker 9: His name is Jimmy Well.
Speaker 10: Oh yes, yes, about jim Well.
Speaker 9: You know him.
Speaker 10: Everybody call him now before we get to the police, Priest, Saint,
Speaker 10: here's a little note for you. He can take a
Speaker 10: moment to read it here at this window, but be careful,
Speaker 10: no sudden moves. The note is from Commissioner Wells. Commission's right.
Speaker 10: He's been on the force nineteen years. His record was
Speaker 10: so brilliant that last year he was named the youngest
Speaker 10: police commissioner in the city's history. To night, he dug
Speaker 10: out his badge, down to his old uniform and walked
Speaker 10: his old beat. He said he was looking forward to
Speaker 10: meeting right on his old beat, the best friend he
Speaker 10: ever had in the world. Do you want the note, Silky?
Speaker 9: Give it here?
Speaker 6: The man from the West unfolded the little piece of paper.
Speaker 6: After slitting the envelope handed him. His hand was steady
Speaker 6: when he began to read, but it trembled a little
Speaker 6: by the time he had finished. The note was rather short.
Speaker 7: It said, Dear Bob, I was at the appointed place
Speaker 7: on time when you struck the match.
Speaker 8: I saw immediately that you were the man wanted in Chicago.
Speaker 8: It's a big world, Bob, with a lot of people
Speaker 8: in it. Obviously, you chose the wrong type of companions
Speaker 8: after we parted. If you hadn't, you wouldn't be in
Speaker 8: trouble now. My mom has been dead a long time,
Speaker 8: but I'm glad now that I followed her advice about
Speaker 8: living a clean, honest life. It was my duty to
Speaker 8: bring you in. Somehow I couldn't do it myself.
Speaker 7: So I went around around the precinct station and got
Speaker 7: a plain clothesman to do the job.
Speaker 9: Signed Jimmy, wells, okay.
Speaker 10: Come along, silky. I've got a feeling you're going to
Speaker 10: be out of circulation for a long long time.
Speaker 4: Well, both Jimmy and Bob were sadly surprised, weren't they.
Speaker 5: Yes, they were, But I certainly would rather be in
Speaker 5: Jimmy's shoes than in Bob's.
Speaker 4: That's for sure. Whether they're good or bad, our choices
Speaker 4: all have consequences, and we have to live with them.
Speaker 1: Now.
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Speaker 5: the Holy Bible.
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Speaker 4: That's box eight Niles, Michigan, four nine one two zero.
Speaker 7: This has been your story hour, building for a better tomorrow.
Speaker 5: This is Ann Carroll and Uncle Ann saying goodbye everyone.
Speaker 9: See you again next time.