The following version of this story was used to create this study guide: Henry, O. "After Twenty Years," The Four Million. McClure, Phillips & Co. 1906. pp. 214-220.

The story opens just before ten p.m. on a damp, chilly, gusty night. An unnamed policeman walks a beat in an unnamed neighborhood in a big city, and the narrator notes that the streets are mostly empty because of the weather and because of the neighborhood's typical early hours. As the policeman goes about his regular routine making sure the doors of local businesses are properly locked, the narrator expresses open admiration for the policeman's diligence and watchfulness. The narrator describes in telling detail the way the patrolman swings his nightstick, making it clear that this anonymous city servant represents an outstanding example of duty and integrity.

The streets are sufficiently empty and the local storefronts dark enough for a lone figure standing in front of a hardware store to catch the policeman's eye. Without saying a word, the policeman approaches the man in the doorway and sees that he is holding an unlit cigar. Without being prompted, the man suddenly launches into the story of the appointment he is there to keep, noting the strangeness of the tale. Twenty years earlier, the man had said goodbye to his best friend in the world, Jimmy Wells, with whom the man with the cigar had been raised as brothers. The man specifies the city setting as New York and says that while he left at age 18 to seek his fortune out West, 20 year-old Jimmy would never dream of leaving the city.

The hardware store where the man now stands used to be “Big Joe” Brady's restaurant up until five years earlier. This had been the two friends' favorite place to meet and the site of their last night together. The man pauses to light his cigar and in the match-light, the narrator, and through him the policeman, note significant details of the man's physical appearance. The narrator notes the man's sharp eyes and small scar, his square jaw and diamond scarf-pin that appears off-kilter, and the policeman comments on the man's obvious success in his years away. The man acknowledges his achievements and credits them to his superior wits and capabilities, while also expressing doubt about his friend Jimmy's own potential. While the man lavishes praise on his old friend's loyalty and honesty, he also dismisses Jimmy's intelligence and resourcefulness as beneath his own and worries that Jimmy ended up stuck in an aimless rut.

The man then checks the time on a diamond-set pocket watch and announces that in three minutes it will be exactly 20 years to the hour since the man last saw his friend. The policeman then asks if the man will wait for his friend if the friend is late to arrive and the man exclaims that he will wait at least half an hour for Jimmy, who would likewise not miss the reunion as long as he were alive. The policeman says a polite goodnight to the man, and continues along his beat, trying doors along the way to make sure they are locked.

Just then, the narrator describes a change in the weather as the rain and wind, promised earlier, begin in earnest. The streets briefly come to life as pedestrians hurry away with their coat collar upturned and their hands in their pockets. Out of this flurry of activity a tall man in a long overcoat emerges and crosses the street walking directly to the waiting man. The tall man calls out the name “Bob” as if he is uncertain that the waiting man is his old friend, and the waiting man responds in kind by asking if the tall man were Jimmy Wells. Without answering directly, the tall man and Bob embrace and the tall man suggests going somewhere to sit and catch up. Right away, Bob comments that the man is about three inches taller than Jimmy had been. The tall man answers that he had grown since they last met, and changes the subject to Bob's life out West.

They continue down the street as Bob boasts of his exploits, and the tall man stays sunken into his overcoat listening silently. When the two arrive at the corner, the glaring light of a drugstore reveals to Bob that the tall man has a pug nose, whereas Jimmy had had a Roman nose. Bob notes that while 20 years is a long time, it is not long enough to change a man's nose. The tall man quickly replies that it is long enough, however, to change a man from good to bad. The tall man then refers to the other as “Silky” Bob, telling him that he had been under arrest since the tall man had arrived. The tall man then tells Bob that a certain Patrolman Wells had asked the tall man to hand Bob the note after arresting him. Bob unfolds and begins reading the short note, and by the time he finishes his hands are shaking. The note is signed “Jimmy” and tells Bob that Jimmy had indeed kept their appointment- he was the policeman who listened to Bob's story. After positively identifying Bob as the suspect wanted in Chicago when Bob lit his cigar, Jimmy knew that he was emotionally unable to arrest his old friend himself and so asked the tall plainclothesman to do it.