Then Dick Merriwell had appeared on the scene, and it did not take Hal long to discover that Doris was smitten by more than a mere fancy for the dark-eyed youth whom she had first seen standing silent as a statue and looking straight at her in Farmer Snodd’s picnic grove. He could not forget that, on that very day, Doris had suspected him of treacherously striking Dick down in the grove, an act of which Lynch, not he, was guilty.
That had hurt him, and he often thought how her blue eyes had flashed as she pointed at him, crying: "You did it, Hal Darrell!" He could not forget that dramatic scene, and it made him hate Dick all the more.
For a time he had fancied that Dick was getting the best of him in relation to Doris; but of late something very strange had happened. Young Merriwell had seemed to shun the blue-eyed girl in a singular manner.
Doris had observed this, and she felt it keenly. She did not know the cause, for Zona Desmond had not revealed to her that she had made Dick acquainted with the fact that Hal had a claim on Doris, young though they both were.
So the fair-haired girl was forced to believe that Dick Merriwell was fickle and a flirt, for, truly, he had looked into her face in a manner that seemed to betray untold admiration, and he had hinted at great and sudden regard for her.
Hard as it was, she tried to seal her lips and not let even her best friend know how Dick’s conduct troubled her. But what girl of her age could keep such a secret? One day, in a confidential mood, she told Zona everything.
"I like him awfully much, Zona," she said. "And I thought at first that he liked me—a little. But now he takes pains to avoid me, and I never see anything of him any more. Why is it? What have I done?"
Zona caught her in her arms, crying:
"Doris, you’re just the sweetest girl in the whole world, and Dick Merriwell is a—a—a chump—there!—not to see it! I couldn’t help the slang."
"If he had cared more for you," said Doris, "I might understand it. I mean if he had tried to see you sometimes. For I know you are far handsomer and more fascinating than I. But it doesn’t seem to be that."