“Very well.” Lockwood went on in brief and businesslike phrases to tell her of his investigations in Mobile, of his discoveries, and of Hanna’s proposal.
She searched his face as he talked. Her brown eyes penetrated as if they would read his soul, but he could read nothing in those eyes, except that she was judging him and weighing every word.
“Hanna told us,” she said slowly at last, “that you had tried to blackmail him, and threatened to ruin him unless he paid you a large sum of money. He declared that he had forced you to leave the South, under a threat of arrest. I never expected to see you again. Still, I didn’t think you were that sort of man. I thought there must be some mistake. But the boys believed it. They were furious.”
Lockwood was irritated at her cool and almost indifferent tone. It was for this that he had risked his life, and built his castles in the air!
“Well, I came back three nights ago on the boat, with all this information,” he went on, in a recklessly casual tone himself. “Hanna had his friends to meet me—Blue Bob and his gang. They sandbagged me and took me down the river in their house boat. Hanna came down to see me, and made me some more proposals. My finish was fixed for yesterday, I think. But I made a get-away.”
Louise was looking at him now with a different expression.
“You mean they nearly killed you?” she exclaimed. “You went through all that to help—us?”
“I didn’t go through any more than I could help. It was my own feud, anyway. But now you’ve got Hanna where you want him. Tell your father what I’ve said; he’s full of good sense. Tell him to telephone the Mobile board of trade about Pascagoula Oil—or maybe the chief of police would be better. Or, if you don’t want to believe me so far,” he went on recklessly, “I’ll meet Hanna myself. We’ll settle it as I meant to at first—a bullet in him or one in me.”
Louise half turned away, putting one hand blindly to her throat.
“Oh, don’t torture me!” she murmured. “You make it so hard——”