“I must do it, even though it makes him despise me,” mentally decided the big Andover man. “It will be nothing more than an act of pure friendship.”
Jack Diamond’s story of his mistake had made not the slightest impression upon Starbright. Frank had hoped it would open the youth’s eyes to the folly of jumping at conclusions, but it had not, for Dick, like old Captain Starbright, his father, was hard-headed and set, once having formed an opinion.
A man of this character is almost always successful in life if he gets started on the right track, for he will stick and hang like a bulldog until he wins; but give him a wrong start, let him bend his energies in the wrong direction, and he will persist in a bull-headed way in carrying out plans that any one and every one else can see are certain to bring disaster upon him.
The bulldog determination and stick-to-it-iveness is all right if it is properly combined with reasoning ability. But the person who says he is right because he thinks so, and refuses to listen to reason or argument, is certain sooner or later to butt his head against a stone and knock out what few obstinate brains he possesses. There are men so constituted that they persist in declaring they are right, in the face of positive evidence to the contrary. Sometimes they shut their eyes so they may not see the evidence. This sort of bulldog persistency is simply “foolishness.”
Frank knew Dick was brooding over the affair, and he thought a walk in the open air might do the big freshman good. Thus, after they had eaten, during which Jack and Merry seemed in a very agreeable mood, not a little to Dick’s wonderment, Merriwell proposed a walk.
Diamond, however, stated that he had many letters to write and thought he had better be about them at once.
“I’ll have to run down home for a day or two before going across,” he said. “I shall leave you to-morrow, Merriwell. To-night I shall spend in getting things straightened out here.”
So Frank and Dick left the hotel together. They made a handsome “pair” as they strolled along the street—shoulder to shoulder. Starbright was larger, but he was not a whit more finely developed, and there was a certain air of confidence and assurance about Merriwell that was not possessed by the big fellow. At a glance a discerning person could see that Frank was the natural leader and a born commander of men.