“I don’t think so. You can’t seem to understand me, Hal. Frankly I confess to you that I admire Dick, but I like you none the less.” “Then why have you treated me in such a——” “Hal, haven’t you any pride of your own? Certainly you have! Do you fancy your father and my father patching up a match between us, just as if we were creatures of wood and stone, and had no minds of our own? That’s what I resented. If that had never happened——” “And just because of that you are going to treat me as if you detested me?” “That is something I have never done. Far from detesting you, Hal—far from disliking you in the least, I have never liked you better than now.” His face flushed and the eager light in his eyes grew. “Do you mean it, Doris?” he whispered, bending nearer. “I mean it, Hal.” “Then he lied—he lied!” cried Darrell. “You never said it!” “Never said what?” “You haven’t heard the gossip at the academy. I didn’t mean for you to hear it. They say this Merriwell boasted of cutting me out with you. They said he told his friends you were glad to be rid of me—you were tired of me. He told them you said so yourself. It was a lie, Doris?” Her face was a trifle pale now, but she restrained herself and demanded: “So that was the reason for your doing as you did to-day, Hal? Was that all the reason?” “No; he said more. He said that he was tired of you. That you couldn’t hold a candle to June Arlington, and he wished to be rid of you. When I heard it I would have fought him, but the one who told me pledged me to secrecy. I have betrayed the secret now to you. I was looking for some excuse to pick up trouble with Merriwell—something that would not involve you. I was ready to do anything to quarrel with him without bringing you into trouble. I fancied he would be furious with me to-day and would take me out of the game. I didn’t believe he would leave me in long enough, after seeing me play as I did, to let me lose the game. That would have given me the excuse I sought.” After a moment’s silence Doris said: “Hal, I believe you made a serious mistake. Who told you that?” “I can’t tell.” “Can’t you tell me?” “No, not even you, Doris, for I gave my promise I would never breathe the person’s name.” “Why should you believe such things of Dick Merriwell? You ought to see it is not like him.” “But you, Doris—don’t you fancy some of these things may be true?” She turned her head away in order that he might not read the truth in her face. She did not tell him that she had heard the same things, and had been placed in such an embarrassing position that it was impossible for her to learn the truth without sacrificing her pride. She did not confess that her own mind had been filled with doubts and misgivings. “We should not believe them, Hal, until we know beyond dispute that they are true.” “If they are—if they are, I will kill Dick Merriwell!” panted Darrell.