"Ditmore," he said, slowly and mildly, "I—er—I feel that perhaps I have been a bit harsh with you. Your trick upset me very much; such a trick would upset anybody. If I—er—accused you falsely I am sorry for it. Supposing I let you go, and supposing we drop the whole matter?"
"I am willing to drop the matter, providing you will retract what you said about my being connected with these—er—these other things," answered Pepper, slowly.
"Well, I—I must have been mistaken. I didn't say you were guilty. I only said it looked suspicious—the way you prowled around, and the way you got into my room. But if you are willing we'll drop the entire matter, and you can go to your room and get ready for breakfast."
Pepper thought rapidly. He was angry over being accused of the crimes, yet he knew he had gone too far in his joke at Josiah Crabtree's expense.
"All right, sir; we'll drop the matter, Mr. Crabtree," he said. "Good-morning," and a moment later he quitted his prison and was on his way to his dormitory.
The cadets had much to talk about that day—the sudden liberation of Pepper, and the losses Bart Conners and Dan Baxter had suffered. At noon Captain Putnam came back, and he had the captain of Company B and Dan Baxter in his office for the best part of an hour. But nothing came of the conference, excepting that the owner of the Hall said he would pay all losses and gave Baxter his eleven dollars on the spot. Then he had a long conference with the new man of all work, who was really a detective in disguise. But that individual was as much in the dark as anybody. He had seen nobody prowling around during the night.
"We must get at the bottom of this affair," said Captain Putnam to George Strong. "If we do not, the school will surely be ruined." He was told about the affair of the teeth, but paid little attention, knowing that Josiah Crabtree could be left to manage his own differences with the students.
Pepper had dropped the matter so far as it concerned Josiah Crabtree, but he did not drop it so far as it concerned Mumps. He watched the sneak that day and the next, and managed at last to catch Mumps at the boathouse.
"Now, I am going to give you the thrashing you deserve!" cried The Imp, and caught the sneak by the collar.
"Lemme go!" shrieked Mumps. "Lemme go, or I'll tell Captain Putnam on you!"