China Seas Page #2

All right, all right. If you've

got your ticket and a job...

...I don't suppose I've got...

- Lambie!

Stop wrestling me around!

You're turning this skiff

into an excursion launch.

Come on, snap into it

with that fore-hold loading!

So you just came down to say goodbye...

...with enough cigarettes

for a New York voyage.

I'll smoke a lot more cigarettes

than that, toots...

...before we ever really say goodbye.

Listen, I told you to...

Good morning, sir.

Davids, isn't it? Tom Davids?

Yes, sir.

Your port captain told me

to report for duty as third officer.

- Duty as what?

- Third officer.

These rocking-chair sailors ashore.

Here I am in the middle of typhoon season,

a tough voyage ahead.

I ask for a fighter.

They send a punching bag.

Give me a chance. It's the first

one I've had for over a year.

I know these waters better than most.

I've sailed them for over 10 years.

No one had a better record

on this coast than I had.

Then, just because of an accident...

I'm not a coward.

Stow it. You let pirates scuttle your ship.

You lost every white man except yourself.

- Board of Trade lifted your ticket. I didn't.

- Give me a chance. Please.

You got a uniform?

Nothing clean, sir.

I'll have the steward

give you one of mine.

- Yes, sir.

- Report to Mr. Dawson.

I'll have the uniform laundered

and returned.

No, that's all right, keep it.

You'll probably need it.

Thank you, sir.

Well, if it ain't old rough-on-rats himself.

How are you, Jamesy?

Dolly, you're looking just as pretty as ever.

Bidding the big boy goodbye?

- Goodbye nothing. I'm making this voyage.

- No, you're not.

Why, I'm just as happy as if I'd won

the Calcutta sweepstakes.

You ought to have the shekels piled up

to the roof by now.

I haven't done so bad, you know.

Dolly, I'm still willing

to share it all with you.

Say, there ain't enough dough in all

Asia to make me change...

...the way I feel about one guy.

Still crazy about that Gaskell, huh?

Whenever you get tired

of running around with an Airedale...

...and you want to run around with

a Saint Bernard, why, you let me know.

Sure. When I get lost in the Alps,

I'll whistle for you.

All right, I'll come running.

Goodbye, Dolly.

See you later.

You be easy with them there pigs.

Well, Kingston, you're a wonder.

How you've been able to sail

with sour-belly Gaskell...

...as long as you have, I don't know.

- Jamesy.

- Well, Captain Gaskell.

I was just telling Kingston

how happy I was to be sailing with you.

Hey, stow that on the port side!

You still carry that cargo

of soft soap, eh, Jamesy?

I mean it.

You don't know what a safe feeling it is...

...to be sailing with a captain

that's never been raided by the pirates.

There's not much profit for pirates

in this zoo of yours.

Who are you swindling

with this scrubby lot?

That's the finest lot of animals

I've ever shipped.

Well, they're not as noisy as that last batch

of sopranos you had.

Just between you and me,

what do you give them to keep them quiet?

I give them one of these little pills.

They sleep and dream

all the way across, never lose a pound.

I don't suppose you thought of

giving them gravel to add a pound?

Why, captain, that would be dishonest.

They got big feet for

singsong girls, haven't they?

They don't bandage their feet nowadays.

These are enlightened days.

Those feet are big

even for enlightened days.

- Captain Gaskell...

- Mr. Rockwell, what does a woman do...

...when you throw something at her?

She dodges it. A man catches it.

Here, catch!

Sergeant of the Guard!

Charge them with attempted piracy.

Ask the police to wireless me

anything they sweat out of them.

Go ashore. Tell Moray

to bail them out before they start to talk.

Tell Ngah I'll go through with the job

as agreed, but he'll need more men. Go on.

Hey, captain, that's good work.

You're the finest skipper on this coast.

Thanks.

- Goodbye.

- See you on the next trip.

- Goodbye and thank you.

- Take care of yourself.

- I will.

- So long, Sybil. Good luck.

- Thank you so much.

- B-29.

- Don't forget to write, Sybil.

- I won't.

- Sybil.

- Alan.

It is Alan.

So this is your ship.

My, I am lucky.

Yes. Yes, I'm captain of this tub.

Are you visiting out here?

- Just traveling. You might start to unpack.

- Yes, miss.

I've been just traveling for some time.

I heard about Bart.

I meant to write,

but it was so long after he died.

News is slow out here.

We spoke of you so often,

wondering what you were doing.

Getting into trouble,

then trying to get out.

Well, you're in for more trouble now,

looking after me for a whole voyage.

I'm in your hands again, Alan.

Look here, Alan, can't you get this boat...?

What's wrong?

You look as if you'd seen a ghost.

I have.

Gangplank secure, sir.

All clear forward, sir.

Cast off your bow lines.

Aye, aye, sir.

Good morning, captain.

Hi, neighbor.

The name is Timmons.

I can take it or leave it alone.

No, no. The name: Timmons.

T- I-M-M-O-N-S.

And I'm the guy that can do it too.

Who is it?

- Who is it?

- It's just me, toots.

I told you to stay out of here.

I wasn't shadow-boxing. I meant it.

- I just came in to borrow a book.

- I don't keep them in my bathtub.

I decided to improve my mind.

You'd better take two books.

Give yourself an even break.

Now, do about three turns

around the deck before dinner...

...just to work up an appetite.

Okay. Okay, toots.

I know you ain't got much time

to fool around with passengers.

- It's your own fault. You wanted to be one.

- Except maybe that English dame.

- You're becoming very observant.

- I saw her when she came aboard.

She looked like she was smelling

a dead fish or something.

Considering her surroundings,

that's highly possible.

I also got a load of you

when you moved her into the royal suite.

Why didn't you lay out

a red plush carpet for her?

That's just a throwback

to my old manners.

The lady knew me when I acted that way

for the sheer joy of it.

Oh, I get it, a hometown honey.

I knew her years ago...

...and her husband.

- Married?

Being married don't seem

to tie her down none.

- He's dead.

- So she's back in circulation again.

Well, maybe it's a good thing you didn't

get hooked up with nobody out here.

Thanks.

If I'd had a more definite tie,

I might have behaved a bit more decently.

If you ain't decent, you'll do

until something decent comes along.

Out here, maybe.

But anywhere else in the world,

we'd both be a little bit soiled.

Did you ever see an English river?

No, I'm dumb at geography,

just like I am at everything else.

Well, it's cool, clear and clean.

Put a stream like that alongside

any river out here...

...dirty, yellow, muddy...

...you'll see the difference.

That was only a few years ago.

The pirates killed

every white person aboard...

...except the captain,

and then scuttled the ship.

Better take care of these pearls

in case of a piracy.

Why? They're artificial.

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