Inevitably, it’s the third try that leads our friends to success. It’s always the first, third, or last possible try. And letting them succeed on the first try would have been to simple and implausible, while hiding Professor Timeon in the last of Dr. Dutchman Fu’s three or four dozen dungeons would have stretched the act out far too long. After all, this is only the first act – it’s the second one that has the mountain three times higher than the mountain three times higher than the mountain three times higher than Silhouette Mountain.
Oops, gave it away. >_>
The Professor is a bit behind the times as far as crisis counseling and dealing with PTSD is concerned – he’s still sticking with the “paper over it with a joke” routine he learned from his old friend Biggles. They always did that in WWI, when the Bloody Red Baron got another one of their squadmates. “Never thought anything could make Freddie crash harder than a crate of champagne. Turns out a pair of machine guns could.” Didn’t even work back then, actually.
More on Thursday.