jury that had it in for you?"

When Jimmy goes back to his room to retrieve his suitcase full of specialized safe-cracking tools, he talks briefly to Mike Dolan, who owns the building and runs the restaurant on the ground floor.

“Sorry we couldn't make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy,” said Mike. “But we had that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the governor nearly balked. Feeling all right?”

The crime would have had to occur in the governor's state in order for him to grant a pardon. So the crime must have occurred in Springfield, Illinois, and Jimmy must have been doing time in the Illinois State Penitentiary.

When Jimmy goes up to his room

Everything was just as he had left it. 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.

After Jimmy commits three more safecracking jobs in the general vicinity of Illinois, his nemesis is introduced in person.

Ben Price investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard to remark:

“That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business.

Jimmy Valentine pulls three more bank jobs after being released from prison: one in Richmond, Indiana, one in Logansport, and one in Jefferson City. There is a Logansport in Indiana, and Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri. Indiana is just east of Illinois, and Missouri is just west of Illinois. This seems to be Jimmy's territory. Then Jimmy may have become aware that Ben Price was on his trail again. He moves to the little town of Elmore in Arkansas and tries to establish a new identity, although he doesn't plan to give up his life of crime. Using his ten months of experience in shoe repair at the prison, Jimmy establishes a shoe shop in Elmore as a "front" and changes his name to Ralph Spencer. He plans to commit his future bank jobs in a whole new area where he is not so notorious.

But fate steps in unexpectedly. Jimmy falls in love at first sight with Annabel Adams, who is the daughter of the president of the Elmore bank. According to O. Henry:

A young lady crossed the street, passed him at the corner and entered a door over which was the sign “The Elmore Bank.” Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgot what he was, and became another man. 

Jimmy's love for Annabel, his success in the shoe business, and his awareness that his fame as a safecracker is putting him in danger of getting caught more frequently and serving much longer sentences, all these factors motivate him to reform. He becomes engaged to Annabel and writes to an old friend:

Say, Billy, I've quit the old business—a year ago. I've got a nice store. I'm making an honest living, and I'm going to marry the finest girl on earth two weeks from now. It's the only life, Billy—the straight one. I wouldn't touch a dollar of another man's money now for a million. 

But Ben Price shows up in Elmore, ready to arrest him for the three jobs in Richmond, Logansport, and Jefferson City. Jimmy is caught red-handed, breaking into a bank vault and using all his incriminating safecracking tools. If Jimmy was sentenced to four years in prison for a single safecracking job in Springfield, Illinois, it seems likely that he could get twelve years for the three jobs he committed after his release. It is only by a seeming miracle that his reformation is "retrieved."

Jimmy Valentine only serves ten months of a four year sentence for safe-cracking, but then he had expected to serve only three months at the longest. We're told that Jimmy has quite a few friends on the outside, and the implication is that they must be socially prominent individuals. After all, Jimmy receives a pardon from the Governor himself, a rare honor indeed.

When the warden meets with Jimmy before his release, the convict amuses the warden with his continued protestations of innocence. If Jimmy really had been set up for the crime which landed him in prison, says the warden, then maybe it was because he wouldn't provide an alibi for fear of compromising a prominent member of society. This would appear to suggest that, when he was arrested for his crime, Jimmy kept his mouth shut to protect a very important person. If indeed that is the case, then Jimmy's early release could be seen as a reward for his silence.

In the opening part of the story, Jimmy Valentine receives a pardon from the governor and is released from state prison. He has now paid for the "Springfield job" which got him a four-sentence, and he is in the clear. But it is of great importance to the story that O. Henry describes how Jimmy immediately goes back to work with his suitcase full of custom-designed safecracking tools.

A week after the release of Valentine, 9762, there was a neat job of safe-burglary done in Richmond, Indiana, with no clue to the author. A scant eight hundred dollars was all that was secured. Two weeks after that a patented, improved, burglar-proof safe in Logansport was opened like a cheese to the tune of fifteen hundred dollars, currency; securities and silver untouched. That began to interest the rogue-catchers. Then an old-fashioned bank-safe in Jefferson City became active and threw out of its crater an eruption of bank-notes amounting to five thousand dollars. The losses were now high enough to bring the matter up into Ben Price's class of work. By comparing notes, a remarkable similarity in the methods of the burglaries was noticed. Ben Price investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard to remark:

“That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business. Look at that combination knob—jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in wet weather. He's got the only clamps that can do it. And look how clean those tumblers were punched out! Jimmy never has to drill but one hole. Yes, I guess I want Mr. Valentine. He'll do his bit next time without any short-time or clemency foolishness.”

Nothing further is said about these crimes, but this elaborate description is intended to explain, and perhaps foreshadow, how Ben Price happens to be in the bank in Elmore, Arkansas when Jimmy, who now calls himself Ralph Spencer, opens the supposedly burglar-proof vault and saves the life of the little girl trapped inside. The three bank jobs Jimmy pulled after his release from prison are going to come back to haunt him. He has fallen in love and become a respected citizen and prosperous honest businessman. He is planning to get married within a very short time. Then retribution in the form of Ben Price appears on the scene to destroy all of Jimmy's hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. The message of this story is that it is extremely hard to reform after a person has traveled too far down the wrong road. Jimmy is ready to accept this truth when he approaches Price expecting to be arrested and convicted for three safecracking jobs.

Three reasons that explain why Jimmy is on the brink of getting arrested might be just the three safecracking jobs he pulled after his release from prison. But yet another reason is that Jimmy has gotten too famous as the smartest and most talented safecracker in the business. Ben Price identifies the culprit in all three bank jobs just by their professionalism. Only Dandy Jimmy Valentine could have perpetrated them. Another reason is that Jimmy is building up a prison record. It is easier for him to get arrested and harder for him to get released. O. Henry specifies early in the story that Jimmy has been serving ten months in prison when he expected to get released after serving only four. One of his underworld connections tells him:

“Sorry we couldn't make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy,” said Mike. “But we had that protest from Springfield to buck against, and the governor nearly balked." 

Jimmy moves to Elmore, Arkansas because he is getting too notorious in his old area of operations, which is around the state of Indiana and general vicinity. Moving to that little town changes his whole life, because he falls in love at first sight with Annabel Adams and becomes "a new man." But it isn't the new man but the old man who is in danger of getting sent to prison for a long stretch. It is hard to change. Just changing your name doesn't change your identity, and it doesn't erase your past.