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 classroom 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 glass 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 assembly 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.
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