The next morning Roger relented. He didn’t feel at all sure that Wilmot was to be trusted with tools of such potential power for disturbance; but like all right-minded boys, he hated to be considered stingy. He hunted up Wilmot as soon as he reached school the next morning and reopened the case. “Do you still want those things, Steve?” he asked. “Sure I do,” answered Wilmot, promptly. “I think you might at least tell me where you got ’em.” “Well, you can have my box. Only you must be careful with them.” Wilmot pocketed the box with alacrity. “I’ll be careful, all right. You don’t suppose I’d set the building on fire, do you?” “No, not that! You don’t have to do that to get into trouble.” “You needn’t worry. I’m not looking for trouble.” Wilmot never was looking for trouble; he had no need to do so, as it had a habit of coming to him unsought. The caution, too, which he had promised to exercise, was rather of a wily than a practical character, as was demonstrated by his conduct when he reached the laboratory that morning. Six or eight fellows were already there waiting for the new experiment to be announced; Mr. Cary was still on the stairs; and Redfield and a few others had gone down for books. “I’ve got Hardie’s matches!” Wilmot called eagerly to the waiting audience, “and I’m going to put ’em in the back part of my drawer. If any fellow should happen to take one out, break off the end, and put it into Reddy’s sand bath, why, I shouldn’t know anything about it. See?” “None of it for me,” remarked Trask. “I’m not going to run my head into any noose.” “You haven’t the nerve,” said Wilmot. “Neither have you, or you’d do it yourself!” Mr. Cary now appeared with the laggards, and the class was soon set to work. On one boy Wilmot’s short address made a deeper impression than the directions of the teacher. Dunn had long been casting about for some easy means of raising himself in the popular esteem. While he felt no doubt that his true worth must appear as soon as the baseball season began, he was unwilling that this recognition should be postponed to so late a day if he could achieve it earlier. Here was an opportunity to take a long step forward by accepting the general challenge which Wilmot had issued, and proving himself a bold fellow when Trask had acknowledged that he did not dare and Wilmot himself hung back.