What perspective is "A Retrieved Reformation" written in?

"A Retrieved Reformation" is written from the perspective of a third-person omniscient narrator who is telling about an event that occurred in the past and who confines himself almost entirely to a single character's point of view (POV), the point of view of Jimmy Valentine. Nearly everything that happens is observed by Jimmy, or else he is present on the scene and could be assumed to observe it. There is only one brief deviation from Jimmy's point of view. This can be seen when Ben Price gets involved in the investigation of the three bank jobs Jimmy pulled almost immediately after he got released from prison for the "Springfield job."

Ben Price investigated the scenes of the robberies, and was heard to remark: “That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business. Look at that combination knob—jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in wet weather. He's got the only clamps that can do it. And look how clean those tumblers were punched out! Jimmy never has to drill but one hole. Yes, I guess I want Mr. Valentine. He'll do his bit next time without any short-time or clemency foolishness.”

The omniscient narrator is still present, but Jimmy Valentine is far away. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Ben Price's point of view is everything about Jimmy Valentine. Jimmy's presence is still felt.

A fiction writer establishes reader identification with a leading character by telling everything from that character's point of view. Point of view and motivation are essential to maintaining reader interest. The reader begins by identifying with Jimmy because he is good-looking, smart, successful, and likeable. Everybody likes Jimmy. Then when Jimmy falls in love and decides to go straight, the reader identifies with him more strongly because of his motivation. We want to see him get married and succeed in building a completely new life in this new town. It is not easy to identify with a criminal. That is the unusual aspect of O. Henry's story--making a hero of a criminal. It is much easier to identify with Jimmy after to falls in love and tries to reform. 

O. Henry tells many of his stories as the omniscient third-person narrator with the focus on one specific character's point of view. This is the technique he uses, for example, in "The Last Leaf," in "The Cop and the Anthem," and in "The Gift of the Magi." In these three stories we are in the points of view of Sue, Soapy, and Della, respectively. O. Henry apparently liked this approach to storytelling because it left him free, as the omniscient narrator, to make any observations or comments he wanted. He can be a very objective narrator or a very intrusive narrator. When a story is told in the past tense by an omniscient narrator, the reader can and will assume that there is a "point" to the story, that the narrator knows what that point is, and that he will reveal the point of the story when he gets to the end.