When the boys had satisfied themselves that he was out of hearing, their tongues began to wag. Griffin was still whimpering. "It's all through you, Bailey, I got into this row." Something suspiciously like a chuckle was the only answer which came from Bailey's bed. "I say, did you really tumble into Palmer's pond?" inquired Wheeler. "Of course I did! How could I help it when you couldn't see your hand before your face?" Wheeler buried himself in the bedclothes and roared with laughter. "You wouldn't have laughed if it had been you," continued the outraged Griffin. "I was as nearly drowned as anything. I should have been if it hadn't been for a fellow with a lantern." "Go away! drowned!" scoffed Bailey, unconsciously repeating the carter's words; "why, there isn't enough water to drown a cat!" "What did you go and leave us for like that?" asked Ellis. "Do you think I was going to mess about in the rain all night while you two were squabbling on top of each other in the mud?" "I call it a mean thing to do!" "Who cares what you call it?" "And if it weren't so jolly late, I'd give you something for yourself." "Oh, would you? You'd give me something for myself! I like that! You wait till the morning, and then perhaps I'll give you something for yourself instead!" Unconscious of the compliments which his affectionate pupils were bandying from one to the other, Mr. Fletcher returned to his wife, seated in the parlour. His whole air was one of depression, as of one who had no longer spirit enough to fight with fortune. "Well, it will be over to-morrow!" he said. "I don't think I'm much good at school-keeping; I'm not strong enough; I'm not sufficiently able to impress my influence on others." Going to the mantelshelf he leaned his head upon his hand. "I suspect I've failed as a schoolmaster because I deserved to fail." Then, forgetting the heroes of the night, his wife began to comfort him. Chapter VIII PREPARING FOR FLIGHT That night Bertie Bailey dreamed a dream. In fact, he dreamed several dreams; his slumber-time was passed in dreamland, journeying from dream to dream. He dreamed of the Land of Golden Dreams; of Mr. Bankes and Washington Villa; of a boy traversing a road which ran right around the world; of tumbling into ponds and scrambling out of them; of some mysterious country, peopled by a race of giants, to which there came a boy, who, single-handed, brought them low, and claimed the country for his own, and the soil of that land consisted of gold and silver, with judicious variations of precious stones. In his dreams he saw weapons flashing in the air, and he heard the sound of strange instruments of music.