They had stopped walking and stood facing one another, oblivious of everything but the intensity of these mutual confidences.
“It was years ago,” Lockwood went on. “I’ve been after him ever since. I’ve been through horrors in that time, but I didn’t mind them. I had only one idea. I was going to find Hanna and kill him.”
“Oh!” Louise murmured, but she did not flinch. The idea of such a vendetta was not unfamiliar to Miss Power’s Alabaman experience.
“I tracked him to New Orleans—that was when I met you. Then I traced him up the river. I nearly shot him the first day I was here, but I didn’t have my escape ready. Then, I saw you; I heard something of your family, of Hanna’s doings. I guessed something of his game, and I made up my mind to wreck it first. And then——”
“What then?”
“Then—what shall I say?” exclaimed Lockwood. “I got work here. I met you and your people. Something changed in me. I hadn’t valued my life a particle, but lately it’s come to seem that there might perhaps be something in living after all. I’m as determined as ever to break Hanna, but I don’t believe now that I’d be willing to ruin all the rest of my life for the sake of killing him. In fact, I think I’ve found something stronger in life than hate.”
She had been looking at him intently; now she dropped her eyes, coloring. Then she turned slowly and began to walk again.
“You mustn’t ruin your life,” she said gently. “It’s worth a great deal. Your coming here has meant a great deal to—to all of us. It has saved us, perhaps, from dreadful things. You have a great deal to live for, I know. As for Hanna—I don’t blame you for wanting to break him or even kill him; but if what you say is true, you should be able to put him in prison, and that ought to satisfy you.”
Prison! That word came like an icicle into Lockwood’s hot indiscretions. A terror seized him. He could not be thankful enough that he had not confessed further.
“I think, perhaps, we can do that,” he answered her. “But there’s just one thing to do now. I must go to Pascagoula and find out the truth of this oil company.”