Paul Prescott's Charge by Horatio Alger
page 112 of 286 (39%)
page 112 of 286 (39%)
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sleep from which he did not awake till the sun had fairly risen, and its
rays colored by the medium through which they were reflected, streamed in at the windows and rested in many fantastic lines on the richly carved pulpit and luxurious pews. Paul sprang to his feet and looked around him in bewilderment. "Where am I?" he exclaimed in astonishment. In the momentary confusion of ideas which is apt to follow a sudden awakening, he could not remember where he was, or how he chanced to be there. But in a moment memory came to his aid, and he recalled the events of the preceding day, and saw that he must have been locked up in the church. "How am I going to get out?" Paul asked himself in dismay. This was the important question just now. He remembered that the village meeting-house which he had been accustomed to attend was rarely opened except on Sundays. What if this should be the case here? It was Thursday morning, and three days must elapse before his release. This would never do. He must seek some earlier mode of deliverance. He went first to the windows, but found them so secured that it was impossible for him to get them open. He tried the doors, but found, as he had anticipated, that they were fast. His last resource failing, he was at liberty to follow the dictates of his curiosity. Finding a small door partly open, he peeped within, and found a flight of steep stairs rising before him. They wound round and round, and |
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