After Twenty Years 213
the policeman suddenly slowed his walk. In the doorway of a darkened hardware store a man leaned, with an unlighted cigar in his mouth. As the policeman walked up to him the man spoke up quickly:
" It's all right, officer/' he said reassuringly. "I'm just waiting for a friend. H It's an ap- pointment made twenty years ago. Sounds a little funny to you, doesn't it ? Well, I'll ex- plain if you'd like to make certain it's all straight. About that long ago there used to be a restaurant where this store stands 'Big Joe' Brady's restaurant."
"Until five years ago," said the policeman. "It was torn down then."
The man in the doorway struck a match and lit his cigar. The light showed a pale, square-jawed face with keen eyes, and a little white scar near his right eyebrow. His scarfpin was a large diamond, oddly set.
"Twenty years ago to-night," said the man, " I dined here at ' Big Joe' Brady's with Jimmy Wells, my best chum, and the finest chap in the world. He and I were raised here in New York, just like two brothers, together. I was eighteen and Jimmy was twenty. The next morning I was to start for the West to
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