“Don’t get too much excited,” he warned Johnny and Meg as they came rushing up to congratulate him. “This is not the end. It is only the beginning. We must win again and again. It’s going to take a real campaign to gain our end.”
“Don’t worry!” Johnny laughed. “The way Fred pitched those last innings, there’s not a team that can stop us.”
“There’s where you’re wrong.” It was Fred who spoke. He had just come up to them.
“What do you mean?” Johnny asked in surprise.
“Well—” Fred paused to ponder. “Well, you know there are times when you do things and you say to yourself, ‘I can do this as often as I choose.’ Then there are times when you feel all sort of lifted out of yourself and you do things well without seeming to try. But when it’s all over you say, ‘That was great! But I better never try that again. If I do, I’ll fail.’ This afternoon was just like that. Johnny, I wouldn’t like to face that situation again, ever!” Fred’s tone was so serious that for a full moment no one spoke.
It was Fred himself who at last broke that silence.
“But then, there’ll not be the need.” He smiled. “Our old friend, the ‘Prince’ will lead us to sure victory next time.”
“The ‘Prince’!” Doug turned to Meggy. “Where did your uncle find him, Meggy? Who is he? Where’s he been hiding?” Meggy was Colonel Chamberlain’s favorite niece.
“I don’t know,” Meggy admitted.
“But your uncle said he’d been working down at his laboratories for more than three months!” Johnny protested.