The Heart of a Police Officer

Summary

Snow-smudged dusk settles over a hamlet where Frank Canti, once peerless fowler, trudges home with an empty game-bag; frostbitten pride, pantry bare, a wheezing child behind every splintered door. The village innkeeper, silk-waistcoated and scented with cognac, dangles a king’s ransom for two fat mallards—birds that flutter beyond the wrought-iron palisade of Count Villoresi’s sanctuary. Conscience jabs, hunger twists deeper; Canti bows, pockets an advance, slips past moonlit reeds, fires once, and is snared by the gamekeeper who covets Canti’s wife. Dawn finds him before a magistrate: three hundred francs or thirty dim days behind stone. Enter Officer Moretti—three years of beat-pounding almost done, a modest envelope fat with nuptial dreams. One knock on Canti’s warped door, small arms flung round his knees, and the constable’s law-book resolve melts like late-winter ice. He palms his life-savings to the lieutenant, swallows the lie that the fine is paid, forfeits church bells and wedding lace. But his superior, decoding the pencilled “For My Wedding,” quietly replenishes the purse, re-labels it “The Hunter’s Fine,” and slips it back. Curtain falls on a tableau of communal absolution: bread bought, prison banished, innocence reborn—an Italian snow-globe of mercy shaken by Gemelli and Capozzi in 1911.

Synopsis

Frank Canti, a professional hunter, has had a very bad season. Winter is approaching, and with an old father and two sick children on his hands, he has no money to buy food or medicine. The proprietor of the only hotel in the village, meets him, and tells him that he must have a couple of wild ducks for a banquet, and offers him a large stipend for securing them for him. Canti realizes that the only place to get them is on the preserves, closed to the layman, and to get them he would have to trespass. He is sorely tempted, but refuses. He returns home and is confronted by the doctor, who insists that the child receive the medicine prescribed, so he returns to the proprietor of the hotel and accepts an advance from him, the balance to be paid on the delivery of the ducks. He goes to the Count's grounds, shoots a duck, and is immediately caught by the keeper of the grounds, who is in love with his wife. He is hailed to the police court, where the keeper swears to a charge of trespassing against him. The penalty for the offense is 300 francs, or one month in jail. Police Officer Moretti's term of three years is practically over. During this time he has saved 300 francs, which he has placed in an envelope, and intends using same as a wedding gift to his bride. The hunter's wife calls on him for advice, he having a reputation for big-heartedness, but he advises her that nothing can be done, and takes her to the lieutenant, thinking possibly that he might see a way out of the dilemma, but, instead, the lieutenant confirms what he has already said. He, too, is extremely warm-hearted and generous, and as soon as the hunter's wife departs, gives the policeman five francs to take to her. The hunter is allowed three days in which to decide whether he must serve his term in prison. The time having expired and the fine not paid, Moretti is given a warrant for the hunter's arrest. He goes to the house, and the children, on seeing him, embrace and kiss him. Touched by this show of affection, he hesitates about making the arrest. In the meantime, the lieutenant decides to go to the house himself to see if the policeman is carrying out his orders. As he approaches, Moretti realizes that he cannot carry out his duty, and pulling out his savings, hands it to the lieutenant in the envelope, and tells him that the hunter has decided to pay the fine. Moretti, having sent for his mother and fiancée, returns to the police headquarters and finds them awaiting his arrival. The hardest task of all is now in front of him, that of telling his beloved ones that he cannot go on with the marriage, as he has lost his savings. In the meantime, the lieutenant opens the envelope that has been given to him by Moretti and notices the inscription, "For My Wedding," written on it. The truth of the situation dawns upon him, and out of his own savings takes 300 francs, places it in another envelope, and writes the inscription, "The Hunter's Fine" on it. He goes into the room where Moretti, his fiancée and mother are, drops the original envelope on the floor and calls Moretti's attention to it. Moretti picks it up and at once realizes the generosity of his superior officer. The last scene shows everybody reunited.