"Yes, I know it is two hundred miles or more, clear out through the Mississippi and Chandeleur Sound, but that won't take long if she can move at all," he replied without hesitation. "You see, it is practically inland water all the way," he added.
"Hiram, are you still keeping away from Anna Bell Morgan? Don't you hear from her at all?" I asked this question suddenly, as we approached the warehouse, and the change of subject appeared to have startled him.
"No—and, I never shall unless this matter is cleaned up completely. If I go to the bow-wows I won't take any one with me," he said, looking far away down the sidewalk.
"You haven't seen her for some time. Are you cooling off?"
"No, Ben, not one bit. That girl is the only one who has ever held me. I don't believe there is a half hour of the time that I am awake I do not think of her, and I believe it is the thought of her that makes me fight. I tell you it must be no halfway business. If they try to pin anything on me and have me arrested, which they may, some people will always believe me guilty even if I am acquitted. And if that comes to pass I don't believe I will ever see her again; in fact I told her so. It is a fearful thing to think of, and while we are making headway, the delay almost drives me wild when I stop to think about it," he said, still downcast.
"You'll forget—most men do."
"Yes—I may forget—I may not be different from other men, but I don't feel that way now, and I don't think I ever will," he replied with a certain convincing firmness. But when we got to the warehouse, the possibility of failure, suggested by the reference to Anna Bell Morgan, seemed to lend strength to his body. He lifted big cases with ease and smaller ones left his hands with a toss until we uncovered the big case that had attracted my attention.
A sledge broke the iron binding and I lifted one of the thick planks. When I told Hiram it was a steam engine, and worthless to us, it was the first time I ever heard him use voluble profanity, to which I listened, amused.
But in uncovering this case, bigger ones back of it were revealed. We went at them. The next one we opened contained an antiquated automobile, not worth the expense of packing for sea-shipment. Another case that had just been unloaded from a car that morning promised something and our hopes arose; it was much longer and larger than any of the others and readily answered to the blows of the sledge. It contained the body of an air-ship. Hiram was about to sulphurize the warehouse again but sat down instead, wet with perspiration.
"Ben, that infernal thing contains a gasoline motor—is it possible to use it?" He waited expectantly for a reply.