The policeman moved up the avenue impressively. It was barely 10 o’clock at night, but the chilly wind with rain had kept people out of the streets.

The policeman suddenly slowed his walk. In the doorway of a darkened 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, “I’m just waiting for a friend. It’s an appointment made twenty years ago. Well, 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 scarf pin was a large diamond.

“Twenty years ago tonight,” said the man. “I dined here at ‘Big Joe’ Brady’s with Jimmy Wells, my best friend, and the finest guy 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 make my fortune. You couldn’t have dragged Jimmy out of New York; he thought it was the only place on earth. Well, we agreed that night that we would meet here again exactly twenty years from that date and time, no matter what our conditions might be or from what distance we might have to come. We figured that in twenty years each of us ought to have our fortunes made, whatever they were going to be.”

“It sounds pretty interesting,” said the policeman. “Rather a long time between meets, though, it seems to me. Haven’t you heard from your friend since you left?”

“Well, yes, for a time we corresponded,” said the other. “But after a year or two we lost track of each other. Yet I know Jimmy will meet me here if he’s alive, for he always was the truest guy in the world. He’ll never forget. I came a thousand miles to stand in this door tonight, and it’s worth it if my old partner turns up.”

The policeman twirled his club(警棍) and took a step or two, saying: “I’ll be on my way. Hope your friend comes around all right.”

“I’ll give him half an hour at least. If Jimmy is alive he’ll be here by that time. So long, officer.”

“Good-night, sir,” the policeman went away.

The man who had come a thousand miles to fill an appointment 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 tuned 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 bands with his own. “It’s Bob, sure as fate. I was certain I’d find you here, Well, twenty years is a long time.”

“You’ve changed lots, Jimmy. I never thought you were so tall by two or three inches.”

“Oh, I grew a bit after I was twenty. Come on, Bob; we’ll go around to a place I know of, and have a good long talk about old times.”

The two men started up the street, arm in arm. The man from the West, his egotism(自负) enlarged by success, was beginning to outline the history of his career. The other, hidden in his overcoat, listened with interest.

At the corner stood a drug store, brilliant with electric lights. When they came in, each of them turned to gaze upon the other’s face.

The man from the West stopped suddenly and released his arm.

“You’re not Jimmy Wells,” he said sharply. “Twenty years is a long time, but not long enouth to change a man’s nose from straight to flat.”

The tall man said, “You’ve been under arrest for ten minutes, Bob. Chicago thinks you may have dropped over our way and asks us to have a chat with you. Going quietly, are you? That’s sensible. Now, before we go on to the station here’s a note to you. You may read it here at the window. It’s from Patrolman （巡警） Wells.”

The man from the West unfolded the little piece of paper. His hand was steady when he began to read, but it trembled a little when he had finished. The note was rather short.

“Bob: I was at the appointed place on time. When you struck the match to light your cigar I saw it was the face of the man wanted in Chicago. Somehow I couldn’t do it myself, so I went around and got a plain clothes man to do the job. JIMMY.”

55．The man leaning in the doorway was waiting to      .

       A．tell a policeman an extremely moving story                                B．keep an appointment made 20 years before

       C．help the police to catch a wanted criminal                                 D．show off his great success in his adventure

56．Twenty years before, Jimmy used to be        .

       A．a policeman                                              B．a boss of a restaurant

       C．Bob’ best friend                                       D．a keen-eyed guy

57．The underlined word “corresponded” here means “      ”.

       A．agreed with each other                           B．were equal or similar

       C．suffered from loneliness                           D．exchanged some letters

58．The policeman went away in order to          .

       A．get he man from the West caught           B．keep going on guard of the street

       C．find the man wanted by the police          D．get off duty and go home for good

59．Bob in the story is described as a man who     .

       A．was good at cheating                               B．was modest by nature

       C．stuck to his promise                                                                    D．betrayed his friend

60．The end of the story shows that      .

       A．time will wait for no man                        B．friendship is precious

       C．justice can hardly be done                       D．life is hard to predict