"Well, Kerr and I were in there the other day, for we heard that the sophs were off on a little racket, and we didn't think we'd be disturbed. We had a couple of girls there and were having a little confab when along came Gladdus and Battersby, grabbed us before we knew it and chucked us into the H{2}O, whence we floundered like drowned rats." "Yes, I heard about it." "So did the whole college, I guess. Now Kerr and I feel that not only have we been insulted, but that the whole freshman class has." "I agree to that." "And will you help us to get even?" "Sure. What you going to do?" "You'll see later. What I need now is a coil of wire. I want to know if you'll get it for me." "Certainly, but why can't you get it for yourself?" "Well, to tell you the truth, I've got about all the marks I can stand this term, and merely because I happened to play an innocent trick in class to-day I'm forbidden to leave the college grounds for a week. Just when I want to go to town, too. So I've got to get some one else to get the wire for me, and I thought you would. I'll pay for it, of course." "Sure I'll get it," agreed Tom, not stopping to think that Kerr, the special chum of Langridge, might have acted for his friend. "What kind do you want?" "I'll tell you. Here's the money," and Langridge handed over a bill, also giving Tom a memorandum of the kind of wire wanted and where to get it in Haddonfield. "And one more thing," the other youth added as he prepared to take his leave. "What's that?" "Don't, for the life of you, tell a soul that you got the wire for me. I want it kept a dead secret. The trick will be all the better then. Will you promise?" "I will." "On your honor as a freshman of Randall College?" Tom wondered at the other's insistence. "Of course I will. Shall I swear?" and Tom laughed. "No, your word is enough," spoke Langridge significantly. "Have the wire by to-night, and we'll teach the sophs a lesson they won't soon forget." CHAPTER XI AN ELECTRIC SHOCK Late that same afternoon Tom, having gone to town alone, that he might accomplish his mission unobserved, came back with a coil of telegraph wire concealed under his sweater at his waist. He smuggled it to Langridge's room without being seen. "That's the stuff, old man," cried Langridge heartily, but there was an air of patronizing superiority in his manner that Tom did not like. Still, he reasoned, the other could not rid himself of an inborn habit so easily, and it really seemed, in spite of the fact that Tom might be regarded as a rival of Langridge, that the latter was doing his best to be friendly. "I s'pose it wouldn't do to ask what's up, would it?" inquired Tom as he was about to leave.