"I don't believe they are," said Will Palmer; "he is keen-sighted enough about everything else. Absent-mindedness is his great trouble; every once in a while he gets his eyes fixed on something as if he couldn't move them."
"He gets into a brown-study, you mean," suggested Forbes.
"That's it," assented Will.
"He's thinking about the splendors of the royal home that he is being kept away from," said Napoleon Nott. "You just ought to read what sort of place a royal home is," continued Notty. "I'll bring up the book some day and read it aloud to all of you fellows."
"No you won't, Notty," said Canning Forbes; "not if we have any legs left to run away with."
Some internal hints that supper-time was approaching broke up the game, and the boys moved off the ground, by twos and threes, until only Paul and Benny remained. Paul seemed in no particular hurry to start, and as Benny never seemed to imagine that Paul could see himself safely home from any place, he remained too.
"Benny," said Paul, suddenly, "did you ever see any one in jail?"
"No," said Benny, "I never did."
"Neither did I," said Paul, "but I'm curious to do so now. You needn't go with me; the sight might pain you too much."
"What? Just to go to the jail, and look up at the windows? Oh no; that won't hurt me. I've done that lots of times."