They found the way blocked by jammed and distorted rock. For two days they labored4 to tear a way through to their imprisoned5 friends; but when, after Herculean efforts, they had unearthed6 but a few yards of the choked passage, and discovered the mangled7 remains8 of one of their fellows they were forced to the conclusion that Tarzan and the second Waziri also lay dead beneath the rock mass farther in, beyond human aid, and no longer susceptible9 of it.
Again and again as they labored they called aloud the names of their master and their comrade; but no answering call rewarded their listening ears. At last they gave up the search. Tearfully they cast a last look at the shattered tomb of their master, shouldered the heavy burden of gold that would at least furnish comfort, if not happiness, to their bereaved10 and beloved mistress, and made their mournful way back across the desolate11 valley of Opar, and downward through the forests beyond toward the distant bungalow12.
And as they marched what sorry fate was already drawing down upon that peaceful, happy home!
From the north came Achmet Zek, riding to the summons of his lieutenant's letter. With him came his horde13 of renegade Arabs, outlawed14 marauders, these, and equally degraded blacks, garnered15 from the more debased and ignorant tribes of savage16 cannibals through whose countries the raider passed to and fro with perfect impunity17.
Mugambi, the ebon Hercules, who had shared the dangers and vicissitudes18 of his beloved Bwana, from Jungle Island, almost to the headwaters of the Ugambi, was the first to note the bold approach of the sinister19 caravan20.
He it was whom Tarzan had left in charge of the warriors who remained to guard Lady Greystoke, nor could a braver or more loyal guardian21 have been found in any clime or upon any soil. A giant in stature22, a savage, fearless warrior3, the huge black possessed23 also soul and judgment24 in proportion to his bulk and his ferocity.
Not once since his master had departed had he been beyond sight or sound of the bungalow, except when Lady Greystoke chose to canter across the broad plain, or relieve the monotony of her loneliness by a brief hunting excursion. On such occasions Mugambi, mounted upon a wiry Arab, had ridden close at her horse's heels.
The raiders were still a long way off when the warrior's keen eyes discovered them. For a time he stood scrutinizing25 the advancing party in silence, then he turned and ran rapidly in the direction of the native huts which lay a few hundred yards below the bungalow.
Here he called out to the lolling warriors. He issued orders rapidly. In compliance26 with them the men seized upon their weapons and their shields. Some ran to call in the workers from the fields and to warn the tenders of the flocks and herds27. The majority followed Mugambi back toward the bungalow.
The dust of the raiders was still a long distance away. Mugambi could not know positively28 that it hid an enemy; but he had spent a lifetime of savage life in savage Africa, and he had seen parties before come thus unheralded. Sometimes they had come in peace and sometimes they had come in war—one could never tell. It was well to be prepared. Mugambi did not like the haste with which the strangers advanced.
The Greystoke bungalow was not well adapted for defense29. No palisade surrounded it, for, situated30 as it was, in the heart of loyal Waziri, its master had anticipated no possibility of an attack in force by any enemy. Heavy, wooden shutters31 there were to close the window apertures32 against hostile arrows, and these Mugambi was engaged in lowering when Lady Greystoke appeared upon the veranda33.
"Why, Mugambi!" she exclaimed. "What has happened? Why are you lowering the shutters?"
Mugambi pointed34 out across the plain to where a white-robed force of mounted men was now distinctly visible.
"Arabs," he explained. "They come for no good purpose in the absence of the Great Bwana."
Beyond the neat lawn and the flowering shrubs35, Jane Clayton saw the glistening36 bodies of her Waziri. The sun glanced from the tips of their metal-shod spears, picked out the gorgeous colors in the feathers of their war bonnets37, and reflected the high-lights from the glossy38 skins of their broad shoulders and high cheek bones.
Jane Clayton surveyed them with unmixed feelings of pride and affection. What harm could befall her with such as these to protect her?
The raiders had halted now, a hundred yards out upon the plain. Mugambi had hastened down to join his warriors. He advanced a few yards before them and raising his voice hailed the strangers. Achmet Zek sat straight in his saddle before his henchmen.
"Arab!" cried Mugambi. "What do you here?"
"We come in peace," Achmet Zek called back.
"Then turn and go in peace," replied Mugambi. "We do not want you here. There can be no peace between Arab and Waziri."
Mugambi, although not born in Waziri, had been adopted into the tribe, which now contained no member more jealous of its traditions and its prowess than he.
Achmet Zek drew to one side of his horde, speaking to his men in a low voice. A moment later, without warning, a ragged39 volley was poured into the ranks of the Waziri. A couple of warriors fell, the others were for charging the attackers; but Mugambi was a cautious as well as a brave leader. He knew the futility40 of charging mounted men armed with muskets41. He withdrew his force behind the shrubbery of the garden. Some he dispatched to various other parts of the grounds surrounding the bungalow. Half a dozen he sent to the bungalow itself with instructions to keep their mistress within doors, and to protect her with their lives.
Adopting the tactics of the desert fighters from which he had sprung, Achmet Zek led his followers43 at a gallop44 in a long, thin line, describing a great circle which drew closer and closer in toward the defenders45.
At that part of the circle closest to the Waziri, a constant fusillade of shots was poured into the bushes behind which the black warriors had concealed46 themselves. The latter, on their part, loosed their slim shafts48 at the nearest of the enemy.
The Waziri, justly famed for their archery, found no cause to blush for their performance that day. Time and again some swarthy horseman threw hands above his head and toppled from his saddle, pierced by a deadly arrow; but the contest was uneven49. The Arabs outnumbered the Waziri; their bullets penetrated50 the shrubbery and found marks that the Arab riflemen had not even seen; and then Achmet Zek circled inward a half mile above the bungalow, tore down a section of the fence, and led his marauders within the grounds.
Across the fields they charged at a mad run. Not again did they pause to lower fences, instead, they drove their wild mounts straight for them, clearing the obstacles as lightly as winged gulls51.
Mugambi saw them coming, and, calling those of his warriors who remained, ran for the bungalow and the last stand. Upon the veranda Lady Greystoke stood, rifle in hand. More than a single raider had accounted to her steady nerves and cool aim for his outlawry52; more than a single pony53 raced, riderless, in the wake of the charging horde.
Mugambi pushed his mistress back into the greater security of the interior, and with his depleted54 force prepared to make a last stand against the foe55.
On came the Arabs, shouting and waving their long guns above their heads. Past the veranda they raced, pouring a deadly fire into the kneeling Waziri who discharged their volley of arrows from behind their long, oval shields—shields well adapted, perhaps, to stop a hostile arrow, or deflect56 a spear; but futile57, quite, before the leaden missiles of the riflemen.
From beneath the half-raised shutters of the bungalow other bowmen did effective service in greater security, and after the first assault, Mugambi withdrew his entire force within the building.
Again and again the Arabs charged, at last forming a stationary58 circle about the little fortress59, and outside the effective range of the defenders' arrows. From their new position they fired at will at the windows. One by one the Waziri fell. Fewer and fewer were the arrows that replied to the guns of the raiders, and at last Achmet Zek felt safe in ordering an assault.
Firing as they ran, the bloodthirsty horde raced for the veranda. A dozen of them fell to the arrows of the defenders; but the majority reached the door. Heavy gun butts60 fell upon it. The crash of splintered wood mingled61 with the report of a rifle as Jane Clayton fired through the panels upon the relentless62 foe.
Upon both sides of the door men fell; but at last the frail63 barrier gave to the vicious assaults of the maddened attackers; it crumpled64 inward and a dozen swarthy murderers leaped into the living-room. At the far end stood Jane Clayton surrounded by the remnant of her devoted65 guardians66. The floor was covered by the bodies of those who already had given up their lives in her defense. In the forefront of her protectors stood the giant Mugambi. The Arabs raised their rifles to pour in the last volley that would effectually end all resistance; but Achmet Zek roared out a warning order that stayed their trigger fingers.
"Fire not upon the woman!" he cried. "Who harms her, dies. Take the woman alive!"
The Arabs rushed across the room; the Waziri met them with their heavy spears. Swords flashed, long-barreled pistols roared out their sullen67 death dooms68. Mugambi launched his spear at the nearest of the enemy with a force that drove the heavy shaft47 completely through the Arab's body, then he seized a pistol from another, and grasping it by the barrel brained all who forced their way too near his mistress.
Emulating69 his example the few warriors who remained to him fought like demons70; but one by one they fell, until only Mugambi remained to defend the life and honor of the ape-man's mate.
From across the room Achmet Zek watched the unequal struggle and urged on his minions71. In his hands was a jeweled musket42. Slowly he raised it to his shoulder, waiting until another move should place Mugambi at his mercy without endangering the lives of the woman or any of his own followers.
At last the moment came, and Achmet Zek pulled the trigger. Without a sound the brave Mugambi sank to the floor at the feet of Jane Clayton.
An instant later she was surrounded and disarmed72. Without a word they dragged her from the bungalow. A giant Negro lifted her to the pommel of his saddle, and while the raiders searched the bungalow and outhouses for plunder73 he rode with her beyond the gates and waited the coming of his master.
Jane Clayton saw the raiders lead the horses from the corral, and drive the herds in from the fields. She saw her home plundered74 of all that represented intrinsic worth in the eyes of the Arabs, and then she saw the torch applied75, and the flames lick up what remained.
And at last, when the raiders assembled after glutting76 their fury and their avarice77, and rode away with her toward the north, she saw the smoke and the flames rising far into the heavens until the winding78 of the trail into the thick forests hid the sad view from her eyes.
As the flames ate their way into the living-room, reaching out forked tongues to lick up the bodies of the dead, one of that gruesome company whose bloody79 welterings had long since been stilled, moved again. It was a huge black who rolled over upon his side and opened blood-shot, suffering eyes. Mugambi, whom the Arabs had left for dead, still lived. The hot flames were almost upon him as he raised himself painfully upon his hands and knees and crawled slowly toward the doorway80.
Again and again he sank weakly to the floor; but each time he rose again and continued his pitiful way toward safety. After what seemed to him an interminable time, during which the flames had become a veritable fiery81 furnace at the far side of the room, the great black managed to reach the veranda, roll down the steps, and crawl off into the cool safety of some nearby shrubbery.
All night he lay there, alternately unconscious and painfully sentient82; and in the latter state watching with savage hatred83 the lurid84 flames which still rose from burning crib and hay cock. A prowling lion roared close at hand; but the giant black was unafraid. There was place for but a single thought in his savage mind—revenge! revenge! revenge!
点击收听单词发音
1 subsided | |
v.(土地)下陷(因在地下采矿)( subside的过去式和过去分词 );减弱;下降至较低或正常水平;一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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2 warriors | |
武士,勇士,战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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3 warrior | |
n.勇士,武士,斗士 | |
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4 labored | |
adj.吃力的,谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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5 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 unearthed | |
出土的(考古) | |
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7 mangled | |
vt.乱砍(mangle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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8 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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9 susceptible | |
adj.过敏的,敏感的;易动感情的,易受感动的 | |
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10 bereaved | |
adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去(希望、生命等)( bereave的过去式和过去分词);(尤指死亡)使丧失(亲人、朋友等);使孤寂;抢走(财物) | |
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11 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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12 bungalow | |
n.平房,周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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13 horde | |
n.群众,一大群 | |
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14 outlawed | |
宣布…为不合法(outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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15 garnered | |
v.收集并(通常)贮藏(某物),取得,获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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17 impunity | |
n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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18 vicissitudes | |
n.变迁,世事变化;变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 );盛衰兴废 | |
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19 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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20 caravan | |
n.大蓬车;活动房屋 | |
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21 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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22 stature | |
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
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23 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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24 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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25 scrutinizing | |
v.仔细检查,详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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26 compliance | |
n.顺从;服从;附和;屈从 | |
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27 herds | |
兽群( herd的名词复数 ); 牧群; 人群; 群众 | |
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28 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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29 defense | |
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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30 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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31 shutters | |
百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 ); (照相机的)快门 | |
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32 apertures | |
n.孔( aperture的名词复数 );隙缝;(照相机的)光圈;孔径 | |
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33 veranda | |
n.走廊;阳台 | |
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34 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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35 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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36 glistening | |
adj.闪耀的,反光的v.湿物闪耀,闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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37 bonnets | |
n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 );(烟囱等的)覆盖物;(苏格兰男子的)无边呢帽;(女子戴的)任何一种帽子 | |
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38 glossy | |
adj.平滑的;有光泽的 | |
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39 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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40 futility | |
n.无用 | |
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41 muskets | |
n.火枪,(尤指)滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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42 musket | |
n.滑膛枪 | |
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43 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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44 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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45 defenders | |
n.防御者( defender的名词复数 );守卫者;保护者;辩护者 | |
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46 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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47 shaft | |
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物 | |
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48 shafts | |
n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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49 uneven | |
adj.不平坦的,不规则的,不均匀的 | |
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50 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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51 gulls | |
n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52 outlawry | |
宣布非法,非法化,放逐 | |
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53 pony | |
adj.小型的;n.小马 | |
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54 depleted | |
adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
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55 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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56 deflect | |
v.(使)偏斜,(使)偏离,(使)转向 | |
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57 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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58 stationary | |
adj.固定的,静止不动的 | |
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59 fortress | |
n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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60 butts | |
笑柄( butt的名词复数 ); (武器或工具的)粗大的一端; 屁股; 烟蒂 | |
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61 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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62 relentless | |
adj.残酷的,不留情的,无怜悯心的 | |
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63 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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64 crumpled | |
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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65 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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66 guardians | |
监护人( guardian的名词复数 ); 保护者,维护者 | |
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67 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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68 dooms | |
v.注定( doom的第三人称单数 );判定;使…的失败(或灭亡、毁灭、坏结局)成为必然;宣判 | |
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69 emulating | |
v.与…竞争( emulate的现在分词 );努力赶上;计算机程序等仿真;模仿 | |
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70 demons | |
n.恶人( demon的名词复数 );恶魔;精力过人的人;邪念 | |
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71 minions | |
n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 );走狗;宠儿;受人崇拜者 | |
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72 disarmed | |
v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 );使息怒 | |
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73 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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74 plundered | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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76 glutting | |
v.吃得过多( glut的现在分词 );(对胃口、欲望等)纵情满足;使厌腻;塞满 | |
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77 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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78 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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79 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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80 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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81 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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82 sentient | |
adj.有知觉的,知悉的;adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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83 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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84 lurid | |
adj.可怕的;血红的;苍白的 | |
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