The merest flicker of a smile touched his lips. He got up, took my arm and together we helped each other down the street…. This was my first jaunt with William Sydney Porter. Together, we struck out on a long road that lost itself, for many years, in a dark tunnel. When the path broadened out again, it was the world’s highway. The man at my side was no longer Bill Porter, the fugitive, the ex-convict. He was O. Henry, the greatest of America’s short-story writers.

Al Jennings (1863-1961) had already been a runaway, a cowpuncher, and a train-robber before his adventures with O. Henry began. If we are to believe his incredible story, the outlaw was on the lam in Honduras when he first met William Sydney Porter, long before he became a famous writer. When they unwittingly intervene in a local coup attempt during a drunken spree, they again find themselves fugitives, fleeing to Mexico, where Jennings saves his friend from the murderous dagger of a vengeful Spaniard. But that is only the beginning of their adventures, and Jennings goes on to spin a masterful tale of interwoven destinies and unlikely friendship.