The Boy Scout Treasure Hunters | Page 3

his teeth were sound as bullets.
He had not sunk to the place where lies were easy of expression.
"I don't know just what, sir," he stammered, wishing that he could think
of something. "The dentist will know what they need."
This was as good an answer as he could have made, although stumbled
on by chance.
"You want the dentist to go over them to find what is the matter, do
you?" said the soft-hearted superintendent.
"Yes, sir. I want the dentist to find what is the matter."
"It isn't a bad idea," said the superintendent. "It won't be necessary for
you to go to town, though, for the dentist is coming out here next
week."
"But I don't want to wait until next week," cried Glen. "I want to go
to-day. I want him to pull one out."
"Which one?" inquired the superintendent.
It made little difference to Glen which tooth he denoted for the sacrifice.
Now that he had told the lie he would stay by it. He pointed to a big
double tooth and resolved that he would remember it.
The superintendent looked at the tooth and at the boy.
"Perhaps you don't know how much that tooth is worth?"

"No, sir," agreed Glen.
"A very conservative price is a hundred dollars, at your age. You
wouldn't throw a hundred dollars away."
"No, sir; but I want it pulled."
It was all very well to talk of a hundred dollars, but when Glen had his
mind set on a matter he would make any sacrifice.
"Well, you must not have it pulled. But have the dentist look at it. I will
give you a pass for this afternoon. You will wear your uniform, walk to
the car line and take the street car to the dentist's office. Let me ask you
one thing, Glen. Don't forget to come back."
It was as if the superintendent read his thoughts. Glen changed color
and looked foolish. He could think of only one thing to say. "At what
time, sir?"
"You will be in by six o'clock. As you go to town and see the boys at
liberty on the streets remember that if you keep up your good behavior
you may soon be paroled and be as free as they. All you have to do,
Glen, is to keep it up."
As he went to put on his uniform, the hated uniform that made it so
hard for him to lose himself in the crowd, Glen realized better how it
was that Nixon and some of the others who had been given liberty in
town had never violated their trust. It seemed abominably mean and
small to go back on a man like this. He actually began to have his own
doubts. But it was very hard for Glen Mason to give up anything on
which he had set his heart.
There were several things went wrong which were quite disturbing. In
the first place he was obliged to change his clothing under the eye of
the physical director which utterly spoiled any scheme of hiding a suit
of overalls under his uniform. The walk to the street car and the ride to
the doctor's office would have been very enjoyable had not every one
stared at him and his uniform. More than once he heard some one say

"There goes a reform school boy." Then the dentist did all manner of
things in his efforts to find the nonexistent aching tooth. Finally he did
find an area of tenderness in an entirely different tooth to the one
specified.
"Does this tooth hurt you more than the others!" he asked.
"It does," Glen agreed, quite truthfully, an involuntary "Ouch"
following his words.
"I thought as much," the doctor observed. "It is often hard to locate the
pain definitely. The nerve reflexes are responsible for it. I will now drill
into this and see what we find."
"Do you have to drill?" asked Glen.
"Surely. Have to clean out all the old decayed tooth before I fill it. I
often give the boys from the school a little sermon by telling them the
bad has to be cleaned out before you get sound living."
"Make it as easy as you can," Glen requested.
"Yes, of course. But cleaning out decay often hurts."
It did hurt but Glen would have fainted rather than make an outcry.
The doctor stepped to the 'phone and called up the superintendent.
"It's all right with the Mason boy," he said. "I've done all I can to-day
for him. I'm leaving now. What shall he do until time for his car."
He turned to Glen as he received a reply.
"You are to wait until five o'clock in my reception room and then take
the inter-urban car,"