Reap the Wild Wind Page #4

- You left your spyglass at our house.

- Loxi.

[Slow instrumental music]

I was coming over to

thank your mother for...

Mother's making a heap

of to-do about you and me.

They're planning to ship me

off to visit Aunt Henrietta.

I got my orders, too. I

sail tonight on the Arcturus.

A month at sea and then Charleston.

- Charleston?

- For a showdown with Steve Tolliver.

You'll be in Charleston? Why,

that's where Aunt Henrietta...

LOXI:
Oh...

LOXI:
Who's Steve Tolliver?

He drips lace, and leads

the Charleston quadrilles.

[Chuckling] What?

He's sea lawyer for

Devereaux and Company.

He loves me about as much as

the devil loves holy water.

- But he doesn't sound very dangerous.

- He wouldn't be...

except he holds the power of

influence with old Commodore Devereaux.

But Commodore Devereaux's

fair and square.

He's fair and square, but old.

If you keep doing that, I'm

going to fall right into them.

Trying to frighten me?

You know, Loxi, there's only

three things I want out of life.

One is to command the

Southern Cross, a steam.

- Steam.

- Don't turn up your pretty nose at steam.

It's the future of the seas...

when calms and gales and

fog won't mean a thing.

And with the Southern Cross under

me, I'd get my second wish...

because the man who commands in steam...

will be the head of

Devereaux and Company someday.

Will you have to wear

a stovepipe hat, Jack?

Steve Tolliver looks all right in one.

He means to be head

of the company himself.

I was the one man in his way.

Now that I've lost the Jubilee...

he'll crack down with

everything he's got to break me.

Break you? That's a man-size job.

I promise you, he won't do it.

I've found something in

these Keys worth fighting for.

Nights on watch, I'll

see you like this, Loxi...

with your hair catching

fire in the sunset...

and that look in your

eyes 10 fathoms deep.

What was the third

thing you wanted, Jack?

Think I'm going to say "you," don't you?

- Aren't you?

- Yes.

You're in my blood, Loxi, same as

the sea. I'm coming back for you.

You won't have to come back. I'll

be waiting for you in Charleston.

They're not going to break you...

and you're gonna have

the Southern Cross.

- You're starting to tell my future?

- It's our future, Jack.

[Peppy instrumental music]

Of course, Commodore Devereaux, you

need a mighty experienced captain...

to navigate a fine ship like the

Southern Cross, steam and all that.

That ain't got no elegance.

You are in Charleston.

Ladies don't tell

gentlemen. They ask them.

It was really you I came up

to see, Commodore Devereaux.

All the way from Key West.

There's Mrs. Mottram's house. Aunt

Henrietta's waiting on the porch.

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