| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the open door. It meant one of two things--a chance to
escape, or, death. Even the latter was to be preferred to life
imprisonment.
Billy did not hesitate an instant. Even before the deputy
sheriff realized that the door was open, his prisoner had
leaped from the moving train dragging his guard after him.
CHAPTER II
THE ESCAPE
BYRNE had no time to pick any particular spot to jump
for. When he did jump he might have been directly over a
picket fence, or a bottomless pit--he did not know. Nor did
 The Mucker |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: of them were we doomed to be dispatched?
Even at that very moment some venomous centipede might
be wriggling towards me over the slime of the stones,
some poisonous spider be preparing to drop from the roof!
Fu-Manchu might have released a serpent in the cellar,
or the air be alive with microbes of a loathsome disease!
"Smith," I said, scarcely recognizing my own voice, "I can't bear
this suspense. He intends to kill us, that is certain, but--"
"Don't worry," came the reply; "he intends to learn our plans first."
"You mean--?"
"You heard him speak of his files and of his wire jacket?"
 The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: laughed the Patchwork Girl, and the cat went
to the mirror to see.
"Tell me," pleaded Ojo, speaking to the
Crooked Magician, "what must we find to make
the compound that will save Unc Nunkie?"
"First," was the reply, "I must have a six-
leaved clover. That can only be found in the green
country around the Emerald City, and six-leaved
clovers are very scarce, even there."
"I'll find it for you," promised Ojo.
"The next thing," continued the Magician,
 The Patchwork Girl of Oz |