Bastian gave a start. The clock in the belfry struck one. School was over for the day. He heard the shouts and screams of the children running into the corridors from the classrooms and the clatter of many feet on the stairs. For a while there were isolated shouts from the street. And then the schoolhouse was engulfed in silence. The silence descended on Bastian like a great heavy blanket and threatened to smother him. From then on he would be all alone in the big schoolhouse – all that day, all that night, there was no knowing how long. This adventure of his was getting serious. The other
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