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and he kn [...] he should be doing. No fligh [...] Davis ever failed for want of a good plan. If any failed it was only because circumstances which developed prevented his very excellent plan from being carried out.

Those few occasions on which the "Skipper" relaxed his tension by joining a poker game also helped to reveal his methodical mind. At first his losses exceeded his winnings. One evening I even bluffed him out of a sizeable pot, and I began to say to myself that the colonel wasn't such a hot hand at the game. Thereafter he called my bets with reluctance. He explained his studied survey of the situation with: "I play the man as well as the cards."

It must be a good system because the "Skipper" is a considerable number of francs and lire ahead of me now. I'm still hoping to catch up with him in my travels in the futile hope of winning back some of my money.

At poker he is just as "scientific" as he is at flying. Col. Davis makes great bones of observing all the "laws" of the game. He doesn't bet when the "book" says he shouldn't.

His one great, burning interest, however, is horse racing. On leave he likes nothing more than spending every day at the race track. The "Skipper" says it is pleasant and refreshing to lose your money on the horses. I never tried it, so I cannot say he is wrong.