Mr. Bankes laughed. His constant tendency to laughter, with or without apparent reason, seemed to be his not least remarkable characteristic.
"Now you have thought of it, why don't you run away?"
Bailey turned the matter over in his mind.
"Why should I?"
His friends looked at each other, thinking the conversation just a trifle queer.
"Why ever should he run away?" asked Griffin.
"And wherever would he run to?" added Wheeler.
Dick Ellis said nothing, but possibly he thought the more. Mr. Bankes directed his reply directly at Bailey.
"I'll tell you why you ought to run away; because that's the shortest cut into a world into which you will never get by any other road. I'll tell you where you ought to run to, out of this little fleabite of an island, into the lands of golden dreams and golden possibilities, my lad; where men at night lay themselves down poor, and in the morning rise up rich."
Mr. Bankes, warming with his theme, began to gesticulate and stamp about the room, the boys following him with all their eyes.