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 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.