certain active principles

[…] when he won he did not go off with a walletful of his friends’ money.

“It means that I'm a king without a country,” Lowell answered. “I'm King Shit of Fuck Mountain, except there is no Fuck Mountain.

No. But one, or both of those men, may prove to be worse. That second man was Addison Berg, and he's agent for a firm of submarine boat builders who are rivals of dad's. Berg has been trying to find out why we abandoned our intention of competing for the Government prize.