Match the Synopsis: The Tales of O Henry (7) Quiz

Answer: 'The Sleuths'

Meeks, a middle-aged man, is looking for his sister, Mary Snyder, as he has come into money and wants to share it with her, but cannot find her address. Mullins, a detective, suggests advertising for chorus girls as a way of attracting Mary's interest, but Meeks is outraged at this.

He goes to another detective, Shamrock Jolnes (no prizes for guessing who he is parodying) and Jolnes goes to Mary's old address, where he finds a collection of odds and ends, including a card with 'left', 'C' and '12' on it (which is actually a theatre ticket). Jolnes makes various deductions and takes Meeks to an address he claims is Mary's, 12 Avenue C, only to be told that they have never heard of her. Jolnes tells Meeks to consult Juggins, a third detective, who gives Meeks an exact description of Mary and gives him her address. Meeks confirms that the address is correct and pays Juggins his fee. Juggins explains that every woman who matches Mary's description is paying instalments on a crayon portrait of herself, so he simply went to the country's largest crayon portrait factory and got her address from it.

Answer: 'Witches' Loaves'

Martha Meacham is a middle-aged woman who owns a small bakery. One of her customers is an old German man who regularly buys stale bread and nothing else. Martha assumes he is poor and hungry, and figures out that he is an artist when he comments on a picture in the bakery. One day, while the customers are distracted by a fire engine, she cuts a slash in each load of bread and fills it with butter as a surprise for the old German man.

However, she gets a shock when the man enters the bakery in a rage and calls her all sorts of names.

A younger man explains what is happening: the old German is Blumberger, an architectural draughtsman and a colleague of his. Blumberger has been working on a design for a new city hall for a competition, and he has been using the stale breadcrumbs as an eraser for the pencil work in his drawings.

Unfortunately, using the crumbs from the bread that had been filled with butter has ruined his plan and put him out of the competition.

Answer: 'Holding up a Train'

This is an unusual story as while it was published by Henry, it was actually written by Al Jennings, a train robber who Henry met while they were both on the run in Honduras. In the story, Jennings explains his modus operandi, recalls the behaviour of certain passengers - such as a woman who lied about someone else's property belonging to her - and train crew, and makes it very clear that train robbing is a dangerous profession.

Many of the people he encountered during his life of crime eventually ended up dead.

He also explains how train robbers must be on their guard all the time and be careful who they befriend, as their allies could potentially become informants and betray them to the police. Jennings himself gave up robbing trains to go into politics, running unsuccessfully for governor of Oklahoma in 1914, wrote a book about his friendship with O Henry, and later had a career as an actor and technical advisor in Western movies.

He died in 1961.

Answer: 'Ulysses and the Dogmen'

The premise of the story is similar to 'Memoirs of a Yellow Dog': a man is married to a woman with a pampered pet, whom she loves more than him. Sam Telfair, aka the 'dogman', is taking his wife's horrible little dog for a walk when he runs into Jim Berry, an old friend from Prairie View.

He and Jim go from bar to bar and Sam gets progressively drunk. He tells Jim about how much his wife Marcella spoils the dog, how the dog has taken his place in their bed, and how the dog bit him and Marcella was more concerned about the dog's teeth. Jim is concerned at how much Sam has changed.

He is now a successful rancher who has made a lot of money in cattle and wants someone to help manage his ranch. Jim is due to return home on the ferry that night, and as he and Sam walk to the ferry, Sam kicks the dog and sends it away. Jim orders a ticket to Denver and Sam decides to go with him.

Answer: 'At Arms with Morpheus'

Tom Hopkins, a rich medical graduate, has a cold coming on and takes quinine for it, or so he thinks. He has actually taken morphine instead and Billy, the narrator and Tom's friend, calls a doctor. Both Billy and the doctor endeavour to keep Tom awake for a couple of hours, and then the doctor leaves him in Billy's hands. Billy is having trouble keeping Tom awake, so he resorts to scolding Tom about a girl he abandoned after he came into money.

He accuses Tom of being a snob and threatens to throw him out. Tom threatens to beat him up, but is too stoned to do anything. Tom falls asleep and Billy checks his pulse, discovering that he is out of danger.

The next day, Billy thinks that Tom has forgotten what happened the night before - until Tom thanks him and says he will telegraph the girl he left behind.

Answer: 'A Ghost of a Chance'

Mrs Kinsolving, a rich woman, invites Mrs Fischer-Suympkins, an ageing socialite, to stay with her and Mrs Fischer-Suympkins claims that she saw the ghost of a builder in her room, carrying a hod. Mrs Kinsolving tells her friend, Mrs Bellamy Bellmore, about it and is horrified that something so common as the ghost of a builder might appear in her house. Mrs Bellmore takes an interest in Terence, Mrs Kinsolving's son, who asks Mrs Bellmore if she could pretend to see a ghost to restore some of his mother's pride.

They go over some old family albums together. Mrs Bellmore sleeps in the haunted room and announces the next day that she saw a ghost in Colonial dress, who Mrs Kinsolving believes to be an ancestor who was an army captain. Mrs Bellmore asks Terence why the ghost kissed her and if she resembles any of his ancestors.

As she leaves, she throws a handkerchief over a cliff. Back at the Kinsolvings' house, Terence asks his manservant to send his ghost costume back and to look for a handkerchief he lost.

A month later, Mrs Bellmore is planning a coach trip and crosses Terence's name off the guestlist for being 'too shy'.

Answer: 'Jimmy Hayes and Muriel'

Jimmy Hayes, a newcomer to the Texas Rangers, puzzles the other men when he repeatedly addresses someone called 'Muriel', but there is no-one there. 'Muriel' turns out to be a horned frog with a red ribbon around her neck, who Jimmy keeps as a pet. It starts off as a prank, but he comes to care for the little frog, and trains her and catches flies for her.

The other Rangers see him as a bit of a weirdo and wonder how he will cope with war. One night, a Mexican gang raid the camp and in the confusion, the other Rangers discover that Jimmy is missing.

They assume he has run away and taken him for a coward. A year later, Lieutenant Manning and his men return to an area near their camp and see the skeletons of three Mexicans, one of whom, Sebastiano Saldar, had led the raid.

His sombrero is riddled with bullet holes. They then come across another skeleton and realise that he must have fought and killed the three Mexicans - and then a horned frog with a faded ribbon round its neck appears, and the men realise that Jimmy Hayes was no deserter after all.

Answer: 'The Door of Unrest'

A newspaper editor receives a visitor, a little old man carrying a card with the name 'Michob Ader' on it. He then brings out an article claiming that a Michob Ader had come to Paris in 1643, claiming to be a shoemaker cursed by Jesus to live until Judgement Day.

The old man says he is not Jewish, and that he knew the Emperor Nero and that Nero was a cigar smoker who accidentally set Rome on fire. The narrator smells alcohol and suspects the old man is an alcoholic. The old man also claims that cherubs are actually goats, that he saw Joan of Arc being burned and knew Timur the Lame, and that he has to help Pontius Pilate wash his hands every Friday.

The narrator reads up on history and discovers that a man called Michob Ader had indeed been in Paris in 1643.

The next day, he asks Judge Hoover, a political candidate that his newspaper is supporting, if he knows Michob Ader. Hoover reveals that 'Michob Ader' is actually a cobbler called Mike O'Bader who has a serious drink problem. Uncle Abner, the town's oldest man, tells the narrator O'Bader's story: his daughter ran away with a circus and when she came home, O'Bader disowned her.

She fell foul of the townspeople, who chased her out of town, and when she begged her father for help, he beat her up and refused to let her in. She was found drowned in a mill pond the next day. Whenever O'Bader goes on a drinking bender, he believes himself to be the Wandering Jew. The narrator thinks that O'Bader and the Wandering Jew are not so different.

Answer: 'The Duplicity of Hargraves'

Major Pendleton Talbot and his daughter Lydia live in a boarding-house, and Major Talbot attracts attention with his old-fashioned manners and clothing, especially his distinctive frock coat. Henry Hopkins Hargraves, an up-and-coming vaudeville performer, takes an interest in the Major and the book of Southern anecdotes and reminiscences he is writing.

The Major tells Hargraves about his life and makes him mint juleps. The Talbots are having money worries as publishers keep rejecting the Major's book.

They go to see a play, 'A Magnolia Flower', starring Hargraves as a Southern colonel. The Major is horrified when he realises that the character is based on him, right down to how he makes a julep. Hargraves apologises and offers the Major money, knowing that he is poor, but the Major turns it down out of pride.

The next day, an old black man arrives, claiming to be Mose Mitchell, a former slave of the Talbots. He says that he sold some mule colts and built up a business, and wants to pay his former master the money he owes him.

The Major and Lydia gladly accept the money. A publisher also offers to publish the book if the Major edits it a little. A week later, Lydia receives a letter from Hargraves, telling her that his play is doing well and that 'Uncle Mose' was him in disguise; he had wanted to make amends for upsetting the Major, but knew the Major would never have accepted the money from him. Lydia hides the letter from her father.

Answer: 'Let Me Feel Your Pulse'

The narrator, an alcoholic, goes to see a doctor, who takes him to an asylum for the insane in the Catskills. The patients are encouraged to learn handicrafts and the narrator is encouraged to throw rocks over the mountainside and pick them up as a form of relaxation, but the narrator refuses and goes home.

The doctor then takes him to an expensive seaside hotel and makes him do various tests, and recommends fresh air and exercise. The narrator goes to stay with John, a distant relative who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

He realises that he is starting to enjoy life and immediately goes to a doctor, recites a list of complaints and walks back out. John puts him in touch with Dr Tatum, an old country doctor he knows, and Dr Tatum tells the narrator he knows of a plant which will cure him and they must search in the mountains for it.

The two men go walking in the mountains every day and the narrator grows fitter and stronger. Amaryllis, a friend of John's, comments that the narrator is looking well and the narrator tells her about Dr Tatum and the magic plant. Amaryllis goes to talk to the doctor and then tells the narrator that the doctor has discharged him as a patient, but wants to stay friends with him, and he has asked her to look up her name in the encyclopaedia.

The narrator realises that she is the magic plant.