"You knew Jackson and Pollard, Captain?" he asked quietly.
The Captain nodded and licked his lower lip.
"I knew them both well," he said in a low voice. "Pollard was my dearest friend. We came from the same town. Played football together at Dartmouth before he changed over to the Naval Academy. They don't make them better than Jake Pollard was."
"If it helps any," Dave said quietly, "I'll be thinking of you, Captain, if and when Farmer and I catch up with that dirty rat aboard the Indian."
"Thanks," the redhead mumbled, and lapsed into brooding silence.
Dave started to say something else to him, changed his mind, and turned back to Colonel Welsh.
"I suppose you've got a plan of operation you want Farmer and me to follow, sir?" he asked.
"I have the start of a plan of operation," the senior officer replied gravely. Then with a helpless shrug: "But from there on you two will be on your own."