“I won’t be watched and studied!” cried the lad. “I’ll keep away from you! Oh, how I hate you!”
Then he turned and fled from the spot.
Dick felt humiliated and ashamed, for it seemed that Frank had laughed at him before his friends. Ridicule to a boy of his passionate disposition was a dreadful thing, which cut deeper than the keenest blade.
Jack Ready regarded the whole affair as a joke, and he sought to banter Merry about his peppery young brother.
“A regular untamed young colt,” he observed. “Never saw anything just like him. He’s a bird, Merriwell. I’m afraid you’ll have hard work breaking him to the saddle.”
Hodge had brought some baseballs, two bats, and a catcher’s mitt from Denver, and the following day the three young men got out in a clear place in the valley and began to practise.
Felicia saw them first, and she ran to Dick with an account of what they were doing.
“Why, they throw the ball at each other just as hard as they can,” she said, “and they catch it in their hands, just as easy. It’s fun to watch them. Come and see them, Dick.”
“No,” said Dick.
“And they have got a stick that they hit it with,” she went on. “One of them takes the ball, gives it a little toss, then strikes it with the stick and knocks it so high in the air that you can hardly see it.”