paddle wheel as well. It was still attached to the steamer, but it hung crookedly, and half of the wooden buckets were shattered or missing, The boat vented steam once again, groaned, and settled into the mud, listing a bit to starboard.
"I told you we couldn't run this cutoff," the pilot said. "I told you. This time of year it's nothin' but sand and snags. This ain't my doing and I won't have nobody sayin' it was!"
"Shut your fool mouth," said Abner Marsh. He was looking back aft, where the river itself was still barely visible through the trees. The river looked empty. Maybe the Fevre Dream had gone on. Maybe. "How long to round that bend?" Marsh asked the pilot.
"Damnation, why the hell do you care? We ain't goin' nowhere till spring. You're goin' to need a new rudder and a new wheel both, and a good rise to get her off this bar."
"The bend," Marsh insisted. "How long around the bend?"
The pilot sputtered. "Thirty minutes, maybe twenty if she's sparklin' like she was, but why's it matter? I tell you-"
Abner Marsh threw open the door of the pilot house and roared for Captain Yoerger. He had to roar three times, and it took a good five minutes before Yoerger put in an appearance. "Sorry, Cap'n," the old man said, "I was down on the main deck. Irish Tommy and Big Johanssen got scalded pretty bad." He saw the ruins of the paddle and stopped. "My poor ol' gal," he murmured in a crestfallen tone.
"Some pipe bust?" Marsh asked.
"A lot of pipes," Yoerger admitted, tearing his gaze away from the battered paddle wheel. "Steam all over the place, might have been worse if Doc hadn't opened the'scape-pipes quick and kept 'em open. That hit we took tore everything loose."
Marsh sagged. That was the final blow. Now even if they could winch themselves off the bar, rig up a new rudder, and somehow back clear of the cutoff on half a paddle, moving that damned tree somehow to get past it-none of which would be easy-they also had busted-up steampipes and maybe boiler damage to contend with, He cussed loud and long.
"Cap'n," said Yoerger, "We won't be able to hunt 'em down now, like you planned, but least we're safe. The Fevre Dream will steam round that bend and figure we're long gone and they'll go down river after us."
"No," said Marsh. "Cap'n, I want you to rig up stretchers for them that's burned, and start off through the woods." He pointed with his stick. The riverbank was ten feet away through shallow water. "Get to a town. Got to be one near."
"Two miles past the foot of this island," the pilot put in.
Marsh nodded at him. "Good. You take 'em there, then. I want all of you to go, and go quick." He remembered that glint of gold as Jeffers's spectacles tumbled off him, that terrible little flash. Not again, Abner Marsh thought, not again on account of him. "Find a doctor to patch them up. You'll be safe, I reckon. They want me, not you."
"You aren't comin'?" asked Yoerger.
"I got my gun," said Abner Marsh. "And I got myself a feeling. I'm waitin'.
"Come with us."
"If I run, they'll follow. If they get me, you're safe. That's how I figure it, anyway."
"If they don't come-"
"Then I come trudging after you at first light," Marsh said. He stamped his walking stick impatiently. "I'm still cap'n here, ain't I? Quit jawin' with me, and do like I say. I want all of you off my steamer, you hear?"
"Cap'n Marsh," Yoerger said, "at least let Cat and me he'p you."
"No. Git."
"Cap'n-"
"GO!" shouted Marsh, red-faced. "GO!"
Yoerger blanched and took the startled pilot by the arm and drew him out of the pilot house. When they had hurried down, Abner Marsh glanced back at the river once more-still nothing-and then went downstairs to his cabin. He took the rifle from the wall, checked it and loaded it, and slid the box of custom shells into the pocket of his white coat. Armed, Marsh returned to the hurricane deck, and fixed up his chair where he could keep an eye on the river. If they were smart, Abner Marsh figured, they'd know how low the river stage was. They'd know that maybe the Eli Reynolds could run this cutoff and maybe she couldn't, but even at best she'd have to steam through slowly, sounding all the way. They'd know, once they came round the bend,