THE GREAT STEAMBOAT RACE by John Brunner

Author:John Brunner [Brunner, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

At the hour-and-a-half mark they were abreast of Red Church, symbolic of Europe’s greatest impact on the New World. As yet it was too soon for the competing boats to feel the true force of the river. Moreover there were plantations and gardens on either bank, and the water was still aswarm with smaller craft, including some belated steamers working down, hours or days overdue because of grounding or mechanical trouble.

Later, in the huge broad reaches out of sight of habitation, where the water seemed sluggish until one tried to fight its flow and learned the hard way about its sheer mass, and where the only sign of life might be a beetle come to blunder against the pilothouse window, or a grasshopper welcoming the chance to see the world, then things would be very different from this interlude of merrymaking.

For the time being, the passengers on both boats were on deck, waving at spectators on shore, mocking the steamer behind or cursing the one ahead, applauding and gossiping and taking the occasional drink—alcoholic if their morality permitted. The stewards sold little solid food; no one seemed to have time to think about appetite.

But the bars did land-office business.

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