"I didn't say he robbed me,--in fact, I am not positive he was the man I saw on the road."

"I don't think he was near Cedarville at the time. He spends most of his time around Boston. Is that all you want to know? If it is, I'm going to lie down and try to get some sleep," went on Reff Ritter, pa.s.sing his hand over his forehead.

"Yes, that's all," answered Andy, shortly. "Much obliged." And he left the dormitory.

He was not at all satisfied with the way Reff Ritter had acted.

Evidently the bully was much put out over the fact that his meeting with Cameron Smith was known.

"He didn't say much about what business he had with the man," mused Andy. "It all sounds rather fishy to me. Wish I had some way of finding out more about this Cameron Smith. Guess I'll write to some of my friends in Boston and see if they can find out anything about him." And Andy sent a letter the very next morning.

On this same day Pepper had a sharp wrangle with Josiah Crabtree. The dictatorial teacher accused Pepper of copying an example in algebra from another cadet, and a bitter altercation followed.

"I didn't do it, and I don't want you to say so!" flared up Pepper, his cheeks aflame.

"Ditmore, be silent!" roared Josiah Crabtree. "Not another word, or I'll send you to Captain Putnam!"

"I don't care--I didn't copy!" muttered Pepper. "It's a shame to say I did!"

"You'll stay in after school," commanded Crabtree, majestically.

The accusation, and the fact that he had to stay in when the others were allowed to go out and have their fun, did not suit The Imp at all. While he sat in the cla.s.sroom all alone, he thought again of something that had come into his mind before.

"I'll do it!" he said firmly. "I'll do it to-night! I'll show him that he can't accuse me for nothing."

Since the fall term at Putnam Hall had opened Josiah Crabtree had been making frequent trips to Ithaca, to a well-known dentist located in that city. Although many of the cadets did not know it, a few, and among them Pepper, were aware that the teacher was having a new set of false teeth made. Now the teeth were finished, and Josiah Crabtree was wearing them with great satisfaction and not a little pride. He fancied that the new teeth added not a little to his personal appearance.

It was Pepper's plan to get hold of these teeth and hide them. How the trick was to be accomplished he did not yet know, but he resolved to watch his chances.

That evening, as luck would have it, Josiah Crabtree retired early. As was his custom, he placed his false teeth in a gla.s.s of water on a stand in his room. Watching through a keyhole, Pepper saw him do this, and then calmly waited for the teacher to go bed and fall asleep.

The door was locked, but The Imp was equal to the emergency. The room next to that occupied by Crabtree was vacant, and he entered this and threw open the window. The window of the teacher's apartment was less than three feet away, and the sash was pulled down a few inches to let in fresh air.

Pepper was not such an acrobat as Andy, but he quickly raised the next window and moved into the teacher's apartment. In a trice he had secured the new set of teeth, and then he retired as quickly as he had come, leaving both windows as he had found them.

"Now what shall I do with the teeth?" the cadet asked himself. He was strongly tempted to tell Jack and Andy of the trick, but decided to keep the matter to himself.

At last another idea came into The Imp's head and after everybody had apparently gone to bed he stole downstairs and entered the a.s.sembly room of the school. He had previously tied the set of teeth to a bit of fishing line having a sinker at the other end. He now took aim at the central chandelier and by good luck sent the sinker and line whirling around one of the pendants, leaving the set of teeth dangling below a foot or more.

"Won't there be a surprise when they see 'em up there!" he muttered.

"And won't Crabtree have a job getting them down!"

"Oh, my, what a thing to do!" came a voice from out of the darkness.

Pepper whirled around quickly, but the speaker had vanished, banging a door after him.

"Who was that?" was the question Pepper asked himself. He could not place the voice, and was much disturbed. Would the intruder, who had seen his actions, expose him?

"I'll have to chance it," he told himself rather dubiously. "I can't get the teeth down anyway. Too bad! I thought I was alone!" And then he hurried off to bed in anything but a comfortable frame of mind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THIS WAS A SIGNAL FOR THE DISCHARGE OF ALL SORTS OF THINGS AT THE DANGLING OBJECT.

_The Mystery of Putnam Hall._ (Page 192)]

CHAPTER XX

PEPPER A PRISONER

At the usual hour the next morning Josiah Crabtree arose and dressed himself. He was in a far from happy frame of mind, for a tailor's bill he had to pay was higher than he thought it ought to be.

Having donned his garments, and washed himself and combed his hair, he turned to the stand to get his new set of teeth.

He took up the gla.s.s and peered into it.

"Hum!" he mused. "I thought I put them in there--in fact, I was sure of it!" he murmured.

He set the gla.s.s down and commenced to look around, on the bureau, on his bookcase, on the shelf, and even on the chairs. But, of course, nothing in the shape of the set of teeth came to light.

"This is queer, mighty queer," said the teacher to himself. "Now, let me think what I did with them. Yes, I put them in the gla.s.s, I am positive of it!"

He examined the gla.s.s once more, turning it around and around. Then he commenced a systematic search of the room. At the conclusion something like a groan escaped his lips.

"They are gone! gone!" he murmured hollowly. "And I left the old set at the dentist's to be made over! Oh, what shall I do? I cannot go to the cla.s.sroom without my teeth, the cadets would roar at me! It must be a trick, a wicked trick! Oh, if only I could find out who did this awful thing!"

He made another hunt, and then, not knowing what else to do, opened his door and hailed a pa.s.sing cadet.

"Kindly ask Captain Putnam to step here as soon as he can," he mumbled.

"Yes, sir," answered the cadet, and looked curiously at the teacher.

"Got a toothache, Mr. Crabtree?"

"No, I have no toothache," mumbled the teacher. "Send Captain Putnam as soon as you can," and then he dove back into his bedroom.

Several minutes pa.s.sed and George Strong put in an appearance.

"Dalling said you wanted to see Captain Putnam," he said. "The captain has left for Buffalo on business. Can I do anything for you?"

"Mr. Strong, a wicked trick has been played on me!" burst out Josiah Crabtree.

"A trick?"

"Yes. My teeth are gone, the new set I had made! Some cadet has taken them!"

"Can it be possible!" murmured George Strong. "Where did you leave them?"

"In that gla.s.s on the stand. Oh, what shall I do? My other set is at the dentist's, getting fixed."