Let's be more specific. Porter didn't merely have a shady past. He was wanted by federal authorities in the United States for bank fraud. He had been an employee of a bank in Austin, Texas that came up many thousands of dollars short following an audit. The evidence, and fingers of fellow employees, pointed in the general direction of Porter. Rather than endure a trial that would have produced a certain verdict of guilt, Porter skipped the country and ended up in Roatan. Let us at least commend him on his choice of exile.

Little is known of Porter's activities during his stay in Honduras. What we do know is that upon receiving word that his wife back in the States was stricken with a terminal illness, Porter returned home to be with her during her hour of need. He also returned home to a three year stretch in a U.S. Federal Penitentiary.

During his stay in prison, Porter perfected a natural flair he possessed for writing. He began producing short stories for magazines from his prison cell. In order to hide his status as a federal convict, Porter adopted the pen name "O. Henry." By the time he completed his prison sentence, O. Henry stories were appearing in the most popular magazines of the day. Collections of his stories have since been translated into dozens of languages. Although Porter, or O. Henry, died in 1910, he remains one of the most popular and beloved U.S. authors of all time.

O. Henry's trademark was the surprise ending that each of his stories contained. He would set a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader was convinced of the general direction of the narrative, the story would be completely reversed. He used this device to dramatic and humorous effect in such stories as The Ransom of Red Chief, The Gift of the Magi, and The Cop and the Anthem.

The real charm of O. Henry's tales lies not in his reversal of the narrative, but in the reversal of his characters' character. In O. Henry's world, establishment figures become boobs and rich men become dunces, while rogues become heroes and down-and-outers become gentlemen.

While little is known about O. Henry's actual activities in Roatan and Trujillo, his impressions survive in several of his stories. A number of south-of-the-border tales in his Cabbages and Kings collection take place in the mythical town of "Coralio" in the imaginary Central American republic of "Anchuria." Spanish speakers know that Honduras comes from the Spanish word hondo implying depth. O. Henry's Anchuria comes from the Spanish term ancho which means width -- perhaps a reference to the width of O. Henry's imagination.

Coralio could very easily be turn-of-the-century Coxen Hole where a motley collection of gringos hang about the town's sole billiard parlor while small boats filled with fruit and coconuts are rowed out to ships moored near the reef. In one tale, a local consular agent, frustrated by the mid-summer heat, retires drunk to his hammock everyday by noon. In another, a couple of would be empresarios open an ice plant, only to learn that the locals dislike putting ice in their drinks because it makes the drinks cold. In a third, a not-so-shrewd businessman schemes to convince the locals to buy and use something they neither want nor need, but that he wishes to sell them -- shoes. One wonders how that trick was eventually pulled off in this barefoot-is-best environment.

If you are a resident of the Bay Islands, find yourself a copy of O. Henry, retire to your hammock, and enjoy. If you're a tourist, and you find yourself back home and missing the islands, grab a volume of O. Henry, lay back on the sofa, and return temporarily to that land of palm trees, endless beaches, and soft ocean breezes.

Ray Lowry, originally from Minnesota, taught for two years in a bilingual school in Puerto Cortes before joining the teaching staff at the Roatan Bilingual School.