here? What are you doing here,
Freddy? Sasebo's task force! Holy smokes, Freddy! Didn't you--?"

Dawson would have said more, but Colonel Welsh gently put a hand over
his mouth, and shook his head from side to side.

"Now, now, son," he said with quiet firmness. "Try and realize what I'm
telling you. _Everything_ is all right, see? That Jap task force is
spread all over the ocean, and a good many of its ships sunk, too. Now,
try hard, Dawson, and really get hold of yourself. You've been raving
out the complete story of what happened to you and Farmer for two days
now. I'm trying to tell you that everything has been taken care of.
Everything is fine!"

Dawson blinked again and tried hard to absorb the full meaning of the
colonel's words. But there was one part that just didn't seem possible.

"Two days, Colonel?" he echoed. "You mean that I've been like this, out
cold for two days? Jeepers!"

"That's right," the senior officer said, and smiled. "Now, just relax
and I'll bring you up to date, briefly. You went cold right after you
landed that Jap plane on the Carson. So it was up to Farmer, here, to
explain everything. When he had told the story we got busy at once. We
figured out the course that Sasebo must have followed after you and
Farmer took off. Well, our scout-bombers found him. We caught him with
his planes on the flight deck. Thanks to you and Farmer, we were able to
do a good job on him. One of his carriers sunk, and the other two badly
damaged. The last seen of one of them it was on fire. Two troop ships
were sunk, and the rest of the force sent flying for bases where they
would be safe. In short, we certainly ruined him for a while. By the
time his force can put to sea again there won't be a Jap left on
Guadalcanal for him to reenforce. And by the way, _that_ attack went off
according to schedule. The Marines landed, and as usual they have the
situation in hand. And now you're aboard a cruiser bound for Australia
and a good spell in a hospital. Frankly, you haven't any right to be
alive, Dawson. Did you know that?"

"And that's definitely true, old thing!" Freddy Farmer spoke up. "Good
grief, Dave, why didn't you tell me you had been hit? And to think that
all during that terrible night flight I didn't know a thing about it.
You must have suffered something awful!"

"Well, it wasn't very pleasant," Dawson replied in a voice so weak that
it surprised him. "I knew that I had caught a good one, but it wo