Sam came out of his hiding place in a hut and climbed the wall on the edge of the water. The boat had stopped and let down a long gangplank on cables to permit the traitors to come aboard. He heard a voice below him and looked down. There was Joe, his reddish hairs black with water except where the blood was starting to appear again.
“Lothar and Firebrath and Thyrano and Johnthton made it,” he said. “How you feel, Tham?”
Sam sat down on the hard-packed dirt and said, “If it would do any good, I’d kill myself. But this world is hell, Joe, genuine hell. You can’t even commit a decent suicide. You wake up the next day, and there you are with your problems stuck on you with glue or stuck . . . well, never mind.” “Vhat do ve do now, Tham?”
Sam did not reply for a long time. If he couldn’t have Livy, Cyrano could not have her, either. He could endure the thought of having lost her if she was not where he could see her.
Later, the shame at exulting in Cyrano’s loss would come.
Not now. He was too stunned. The loss of the boat had been even a greater shock than seeing Livy killed.
After all these years of hard work, of grief, of betrayal, of planning, of hurting, of … of … It was too much to bear.
Joe was grieved to see him cry, but he sat patiently by until Sam’s tears had quit flowing. Then he said, “Do ve thtart building another boat, Tham?”
Sam Clemens rose to his feet. The gangplank was being drawn up by the electromechanical machinery of his fabulous Riverboat. Whistles were shrilling exultantly, and bells were clanging, John would still be laughing. He might even be watching Sam through a telescope. Sam shook his fist, hoping that John was watching him.
“I’ll get you yet, traitor John!” he howled. “I’ll build another boat, and I’ll catch up with you! I don’t care what obstacles I encounter or who gets in my way! I’ll run you down, John, and I’ll blast your stolen boat out of The River with my boat! Nobody, absolutely nobody, the Stranger, the Devil, God, nobody, no matter what his powers, is going to stop me! “Some day, John! Some day!”
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