“Chin up, white tie, and all that sort of thing, as Freddy would say, sir,” he said. “This will probably turn out to be nothing more than a swell joy ride. Who knows? Maybe my ideas on the wire tapping were as wet as the Bay over there. Please don’t feel so tough about it, Colonel.”
The senior officer forced a smile to his lips, made a little gesture with his hands, and sighed.
“I know, I know,” he said. “I always act like an undertaker whenever I see any of my agents off on a mission. Can’t seem to change, or get used to it. I guess it’s because it gets me inside that I’m not going along, that I’ve got to stick here and take care of all the confounded paper work. Makes me feel useless, like a doddering old man too old to take part in the tough jobs.”
“Oh, I say, hardly, sir!” Freddy Farmer said with a laugh. “If there weren’t the brains for the paper work, as you call it, there wouldn’t be any jobs for the agents to tackle. And I fancy, sir, there was a time not so long ago when you were the one who was being seen off by some other senior officer.”
“Yes, you’re right, Farmer,” Colonel Welsh nodded sadly. “There was a day like that. But it seems centuries ago. I swear, if I had it all to live over again I’d never let them push me up to a post of important command. When you’re on the way up you never stop to think how lucky you are you haven’t reached the top yet. But I suppose that comes under the heading of ambition, or something.”
“That makes two,” Dave chuckled. “Only yesterday the Base Commandant at L.A. was telling Freddy and me the same thing. And by the way, sir, is that why you made us a couple of captains in the Air Corps, instead of colonels or generals?”
Colonel Welsh laughed out loud and shook his head.
“No, not for that reason,” he said. “True, despite your youthful looks, you might get by as colonels. But not generals. We don’t make them that young, yet. No. As captains you can mingle with the higher ranks if you have to, and not appear as though you were reaching for the moon. And as captains you can mingle with the lower ranks, and enlisted men, and not appear as though you were out sticking your noses into things. Matter of fact, I’ve always regarded a captaincy as the halfway mark in a man’s military career. As a captain he still has close contact with those on the bottom of the ladder, and new contacts with those on the top. But—here I stand gabbing, and you two are just busting to get away. Right?”
“Well, it has to happen sometime, sir,” Dave said kindly. “And—well, count on us to stay in there pitching to the very end, regardless of what the end may be.”
“Here, drop that sort of talk!” Freddy Farmer cried scornfully. “You’ll have me flooding that rear cockpit with tears. One thing, sir. You’ll be sure to make it all right with the Base Commandant at Los Angeles? I mean, about our taking his plane? After that bit of luck yesterday—well, the ship is sort of a good fortune charm, if you understand what I mean.”