For a moment neither of them could move or utter a sound except Philpot, who danced round and round the room in the smoke howling and wringing his hand.
When at last they did recover presence of mind enough to inquire of their preceptor if he was injured, it was in tones of terrible alarm.
"Oh, Phil, old man, are you hurt?
What was it?
We're so awfully sorry.
Is your hand blown off ?" "No," said Philpot, continuing to wring his injured hand, but otherwise considerably recovered, "it was your fault jumping off the table.

The beastly stuff goes off almost if you look at it.

It's lucky it wasn't all dry, or I might have had my eyes out!" It was a great relief to find matters were no worse, and that in a very few minutes Philpot's hand had recovered from the smart of the explosion.

This accident, however, decided the young enthusiasts that for the present they had perhaps had enough chemistry for one lesson.
In a few days, however, they had all sufficiently got over the shock of the last afternoon's experiments to decide on a fresh venture, and these lessons continued, on and off, during the rest of the term.

It can hardly be said that by the end of the term Pilbury or Cusack knew any more about chemistry than they had known this first day.