Page 61 - English Expedition Class 6

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to compete with some of the sharpest wits going to get my pile . A man gets in a groove in New
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York. It takes the West to put a razor-edge on him.’
Th e policeman twirled his club and took a step or two.
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‘I’ll be on my way. Hope your friend comes around all right. Going to call time on him sharp ?’
‘I should say not!’ said the other. ‘I’ll give him half an hour at least. If Jimmy is alive on earth
he’ll be here by that time. So long, offi cer.’
‘Goodnight, sir,’ said the policeman, passing on along his beat, trying doors as he went.
Th ere was now a fi ne, cold drizzle falling, and the wind had risen from its uncertain puff s into
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a steady blow. Th e few foot passengers astir in that quarter hurried dismally and silently along
with coat collars turned high and pocketed hands. And in the door of the hardware store the man
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who had come a thousand miles to fi ll an appointment, uncertain almost to absurdity , with the
friend of his youth, smoked his cigar and waited.
About twenty minutes he waited, and then a tall man in a long overcoat, with collar turned up
to his ears, hurried across from the opposite side of the street. He went directly to the waiting man.
‘Is that you, Bob?’ he asked, doubtfully.
‘Is that you, Jimmy Wells?’ cried the man in the door.
‘Bless my heart!’ exclaimed the new arrival, grasping both the other’s hands with his own. ‘It’s
Bob, sure as fate. I was certain I’d fi nd you here if you were still in existence. Well, well, well! . . .
twenty years is a long time. Th e old restaurant’s gone, Bob; I wish it had lasted, so we could have
had another dinner there. How has the West treated you, old man?’
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‘Bully ; it has given me everything I asked it for. You’ve changed lots, Jimmy. I never thought
you were so tall by two or three inches.’
‘Oh, I grew a bit aft er I was twenty.’
‘Doing well in New York, Jimmy?’
‘Moderately. I have a position in one of the city departments. Come on, Bob; we’ll go around
to a place I know of, and have a good long talk about old times.’ Th e two men started up the street,
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arm in arm. Th e man from the West, his egotism enlarged by success, was beginning to outline
the history of his career. Th e other, submerged in his overcoat, listened with interest.
At the corner stood a drug store, brilliant with electric
lights. When they came into this glare each of them turned • Why did the man from
simultaneously to gaze upon the other’s face. Th e man from the West talk so much?
the West stopped suddenly and released his arm. • Why didn’t the silence of
‘You’re not Jimmy Wells,’ he snapped. ‘Twenty years is a the other man make Bob
long time, but not long enough to change a man’s nose from a suspicious of him?
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Roman to a pug .’
• Who is the better friend,
‘It sometimes changes a good man into a bad one,’ said the Bob or Jimmy? Why?
tall man. ‘You’ve been under arrest for ten minutes, “Silky”

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my pile: (here) my wealth dismally: in a gloomy manner
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gets in a groove: is stuck in a dull, repetitive way of life absurdity: ridiculousness
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razor-edge: (here) sharp cleverness bully: (here) excellent
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call time on him sharp: wait for him only till the specifi ed egotism: the sense of one’s own importance
time 27 Roman to a pug: a sharp nose to a snub one
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astir: moving around
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