Twenty miles out from the island they rose to the surface and made out the aerial fleet some five miles to the southward, hovering12 at an elevation13 of about a thousand feet, and evidently on the look-out for them. Michael Lossenski, who had escaped the ram14 of the Narwhal, ran up his flagstaff, and flew a signal which soon brought the air-ships bearing down upon them. The Revenge sank down to the surface of the water, and took Lossenski off his ship in order that he might report himself.
Olga and his father received the first news of the defeat of their naval15 forces with cold displeasure; but when Michael told them that more than half the fleet had been destroyed by the Narwhal, and that it was believed that Alan was in command of her, Olga’s anger blazed out into fury, and she cried passionately—
“You fools and cowards to have fled like that from one ship and one man! Could not seventeen of you have overcome[147] that one vessel? Had you no rams16, no torpedoes17, that you fled before this single foe18?”
He took the bitter rebuke19 in silence. He knew that he had failed both in duty and courage, and that a reply would only make matters worse. Olga looked at him for a moment, with eyes burning with scorn and anger. Then she rose from her seat, and, pointing to the door of the saloon, said—
“Go! You have disgraced yourself and us. Take your ships back to Mount Terror, and await our further commands.”
With bowed head and face flushed with shame, the disgraced man walked in silence out of the saloon and left Olga alone with his father. As soon as he had gone Olga began striding up and down the saloon, her hands clenched20 and her eyes, black with passion, glittering fiercely under her straight-drawn21 brows.
Orloff Lossenski knew her too well not to let her anger take its course uninterrupted, so he sat and watched her, and waited for her to speak first. At last she stopped in front of him, and said in a low fierce voice, that was almost hoarse22 with the strength of her passion—
“So! you were right, my friend. I was a fool, an idiot, to let those two escape. I ought to have killed them, as you advised. They were of no further use to us, and we could have done without them. Yes, truly I was a fool, such a fool as love makes of every woman!”
“Not of every woman, Majesty23,” replied Lossenski in a low soothing24 tone, that was not without a trace of irony25. “If I may say it without disrespect, your ancestress, the great Catherine, knew how to combine love and wisdom. When she wearied of a lover, or had no further use for a man, she never left him the power of revenging his dismissal.”
“Yes, yes,” she replied. “I know that; but I did not weary of this man, this king among men, for whose love I would have sold my soul. I only wearied of my own attempts to win it. You know what I mean, Lossenski, and you can understand me, for you have confessed that he was well worthy26 of the sacrifice.
“You know that when he seemed my lover he was only my[148] slave—that I could not compel the man to love me, but only the passive machine that I had made of him, and you know, too, that the moment I had let him regain27 his freedom of will he would have loathed28 and cursed me, as no doubt he is doing now.
“Why did I not kill him? How could I, when I loved him better than my own life, and all my dreams of empire? Why, I could not even kill the other one because he was Alan’s friend, and because he would have hated me still more for doing so.
“But, after all,” she continued, speaking somewhat more calmly, “it is not setting them free that has done the mischief29. It is the treason or the miracle that enabled them to capture the Narwhal. I would give a good deal to know how that was done. They cannot have done it themselves, for I had given them enough of the drug to deprive them of all will-power for at least twenty-four hours, and I told that traitor30, Turgenieff, who must have betrayed the attack on Kerguelen, to give them more when he landed them on the island.”
“But is your Majesty sure that they took the drug?” said Lossenski, interrupting her for the first time. “Did you give it with your own hand, or see them take it with your own eyes?”
“No!” said Olga, with a start. “I did not. I sent it to them by my maid, Anna, but she swore that she put it in their wine, and when they had finished their last meal the decanter was empty.”
“That was a grave mistake, Majesty,” said Lossenski, in a tone of respectful reproof31, “and one which may yet cost you the empire of the world. It is such trifles as that which destroy the grandest schemes.”
“I know! I know!” said Olga impatiently. “You may think me a fool and a weakling, but I could not bring myself to see or speak to Alan again after I had at last resolved to give up the hopeless task of winning him, and send him away.
“But for that mistake the Narwhal would still have been ours, and we should have taken Kerguelen unawares. He could have told his people nothing else that would have harmed us, for the more he tells them about Mount Terror the more impossible they will see any attack upon it to be. No, no, it was[149] all that one fatal mistake! But there, it tortures me to talk about it! Tell me, my old friend and counsellor, what we are to do to repair the damage?”
Exhausted32 by her fierce and sudden outburst of passion, and the bitterness of her regret, Olga threw herself into a chair and sat waiting for Lossenski to speak. He remained silent for several moments, buried in thought, and then he began speaking in the low, deliberate tone of a man who has weighty counsels to impart.
“We cannot deny, Majesty, that we have been worsted in our two first encounters with these Aerians, but we must learn wisdom and patience from defeat. It seems plain to me that the Aerians are too strong for us as we are.
“When we attacked them we forgot that, while we are children in warfare33, they are perfect masters of it. They have preserved the traditions of their fathers, and for four generations they have been trained in the use of the weapons which we have only just learnt to use. Therefore my advice is that we do not attack them again for the present.”
“But,” interrupted Olga, “in any case, they will attack us, and we shall still have to fight.”
“Not of necessity, your Highness,” replied Lossenski. “You see they have not pursued us, and the reason for this is that they know that both our air-ships and our submarine vessels are swifter and more powerful than theirs, with two or three exceptions.
“They will not attack us till they can do so on equal terms, and we must take care that they never do that. You have plenty of treasure and plenty of men at your command. Let us retire to our stronghold again and devote ourselves to increasing our strength both by sea and in the air, until we have made ourselves invulnerable.
“And remember, too, Majesty,” he continued with an added meaning in his tone, “Aeria is not the world. There are vast possibilities before you in other directions. I am convinced now that we have made a mistake in attacking the Aerians first. Russia is ripe for revolt, and great quantities of arms[150] have already been manufactured. The tribes of Western Asia need only a leader to take the field, and the Sultan Khalid could put an army millions strong into the field within a few months.
“On the other hand, Anglo-Saxondom is a babel of conflicting opinions, and the mob rules throughout its length and breadth. Where everyone is master there can be no leaders, and those who are without leaders are the natural prey34 of the strong hand.
“They are wealthy and weak, and divided among themselves. The Aerians have given them over to their own devices. Why should you not, when we have repaired the damage we have suffered, take your aerial squadron to Moscow, proclaim the new revolution, and crown yourself Tsarina in the Kremlin?”
In speaking thus Orloff Lossenski was really only putting into formal shape the project which it had all along been the aim of Olga and her adherents35 to carry out. There was nothing new in the suggestion save the proposition that the revolution should be proclaimed in Russia, and that Olga should crown herself Tsarina before, instead of after, the attempted subjugation36 of Aeria.
Up to the present it had been believed that nothing could possibly be done until the power of the Aerians was either crushed or crippled, but the battle of Kerguelen had clearly shown that this was a task far beyond their present resources. Even the mastery of the sea was now no longer theirs, thanks to the two fatal mistakes which Olga had made, first in setting Alan and Alexis free, and second in sending them away from Mount Terror in the swiftest and most powerful vessel in their sea-navy.
Why she had been guilty of this last imprudence she could not even explain to herself. It was one of those mistakes, made in pure thoughtlessness, which again and again have marred37 the greatest schemes of conquest. Another vessel would have done just as well, save that she would not have performed the errand quite so quickly; but the Narwhal happened to be in readiness at the moment, and as Peter Turgenieff, her commander,[151] was one of Olga’s most trusted sea-captains, she had given him the order to convey Alan and Alexis to the island, and so the fatal error had been committed.
It must, however, be remembered that when she made it, it was impossible for her to foresee its disastrous38 outcome. She implicitly39 believed that the two Aerians were completely under the influence of the will-poison, and so utterly40 unable to think or act independently, or to form and execute the daring design which they had so successfully accomplished41.
But now that the mistake had been made, Orloff Lossenski saw that the course he suggested to his mistress offered the only hope of counteracting42 it. His advice pointed43 out the shortest road to the attainment44 of the designs of Olga and her followers45; and he gave it in all sincerity46, for he was absolutely devoted47 to Olga’s person and fortune, and the realisation of her ambition was the dearest dream of his own life.
It meant, too, the restoration of his own order to all its ancient rights and privileges with the added wealth and dignity that would be won by conquest. It meant the establishment of a Russian empire far greater and more powerful than that of the last of the Tsars, for its power would extend from the Pacific coast of Asia to the Atlantic coast of Europe.
Olga heard him with flushed cheeks and shining eyes, and, when he had done speaking, she rose to her feet again and faced him, looking every inch a queen, in the ripe beauty of her perfect womanhood, and said, in tones from which every trace of her former anger and sorrow had vanished—
“Well spoken, Orloff Lossenski! That is worthy counsel for you to give and for me to hear. I will follow it, for it is wise as well as bold, and the day that I crown myself in the Kremlin you shall be the first noble in Russia. But, stop—what of the Sultan? Surely he and his armies will have to be reckoned with?”
“True,” said Lossenski. “But if he will not listen to reason, cannot your air-ships destroy his armies like swarms49 of locusts50, lay his cities in ruins, and sweep him and his dynasty from the face of the earth?”
[152]
“Yes, that is true again,” replied Olga. “Provided that the Aerians did not come to his aid.”
“They would not do that, I think,” he replied.
“But to make that impossible why should you not make an alliance with him and offer to help him with your air-ships and submarine navy to the conquest of the world, on the condition of the restoration of the Russian Empire and the division of the world between you? Remember that as long as you kept the command of your navies of the air and the sea you could always keep him to the terms when once made.”
As the old man ceased speaking Olga laid her hand upon his shoulder, and said in a low, clear, steady voice that spoke48 of a great resolution finally taken—
“My friend, you are the wisest of counsellors, and when I regain my throne you shall be the first Minister of the Empire. I will pardon your son for his failure to-day for the sake of his father’s wisdom, and we will say no more about disaster and defeat. We will look forward only to victory and the empire that it will bring us!”
But when the defeated squadrons arrived at Mount Terror Olga was rudely awakened51 from her dreams of empire by the tidings of the disaster that had occurred during her absence.
The damage inflicted52 by the Narwhal was speedily proved to be irreparable. For a distance of nearly a mile the roof of the tunnel had sunk bodily down, blocking it for ever. Millions of tons of rock and earth had fallen into the submarine channel, and all hope of clearing it again was out of the question.
The explosion of the twelve torpedoes had not only brought down all the rocks in their vicinity, but it had so shaken the earth in both directions that a general subsidence had taken place, forming a barrier which was so vast and massive that its removal, even if possible, would have taken many months of labour; and so there was no avoiding the dismal53 conclusion that their submarine dockyard was useless, and, for the present at least, their sea-power crippled.
The effects of the explosion in the interior of the mountain,[153] though bad enough, were much less serious. Nearly seventy men, or more than half the total garrison54 that had been left behind, had been either killed or maimed for life. The six submarine warships55 that had been lying in the lake were, of course, useless now that their way to the sea was barred, and five of the twelve air-ships which had been lying in the vast cavern56 whose floor formed the shores of the subterranean57 lake were so seriously injured that considerable repairs would be necessary for them.
The whole of the lower level of the vast system of chambers59 and galleries which pierced the interior of the mountain in all directions had been flooded by the volumes of water projected from the lake by the explosion. Workshops, laboratories, and building-slips had been wrecked60 or thrown into complete confusion, and the appearance of the whole of the level was that of a place which had been swept by a tornado61.
As soon as the amount of the damage done had been estimated, Olga called a council of war, composed of twelve of her most skilled and trusted adherents, in a chamber58 which was led up to by a path sloping steeply up from the shores of the lake. This chamber was an almost perfect oval, about sixty feet long by twenty wide, and about thirty high.
Neither its temperature nor its internal appointments would have given any idea of the fact that it was situated62 at the uttermost end of the earth, and buried under the eternal snows of Antarctica. The rough rock walls had been smoothed and hung with silken hangings, against which statues of the purest marble gleamed white, and pictures, some of vast size and exquisite63 execution, brought the scenes of sunnier lands to the eyes of the occupants.
Electric light-globes hung in festoons all around, shedding a mild diffused64 lustre65 over the luxurious66 furniture of the chamber. The floor of lava67, smoothed and polished, was covered with priceless carpets into whose thick pile the foot sank noiseless, as though into soft, shallow snow.
Treasures, both of art and luxury, which had been plundered68 from ocean transports that had fallen victims to the rams[154] of the submarine cruisers were scattered69 about in lavish70 profusion71 that was almost barbaric in its excess. Behind the hangings of the walls ran an elaborate system of pipes which circulated fresh air drawn from the exterior72 of the mountain, and, heated by passing through electric furnaces, at once warmed and ventilated this council-chamber of the extraordinary woman who, in virtue73 of her strange conquest of the air, had come to be known among her followers as the Syren of the Skies.
Human art and science had completely conquered both the ruggedness74 of Nature and the inclemency75 of the elements, and had transformed these gloomy caverns76, excavated77 by the volcanic78 fires of former ages out of the heart of Mount Terror, into warm, well-lighted, and airy abodes79, capable of sheltering several hundred human beings from the rigours even of the Antarctic winter.
This subterranean retreat and stronghold was roughly divided into two levels, on the lower of which were situated the chambers and galleries which served for the performance of all the work necessary for the building of the air-ships and submarine vessels, while the upper was devoted to store-rooms and dwelling-places for the followers and assistants of the Queen of this strange realm.
No other region could have presented such a marvellous contrast to the sunlit and flower-scented paradise which was the home of their mortal enemies, the race with which they had dared to dispute the empire of the world. The powers of darkness and of light could hardly have been better typified than were these two contending forces by the different characters of their respective strongholds.
When the Council of War, summoned at Olga’s bidding by Orloff Lossenski, had assembled in the Central Chamber, a pair of heavy purple velvet80 curtains parted, and the Syren entered from the gallery, which had been hewn through the solid rock and which communicated with her private suite81 of apartments. The members of the Council rose as she entered and greeted her as subjects were wont82 to greet their sovereigns in the days before the Terror.
[155]
She acknowledged their reverence83 with a royal condescension84, and took her seat on a raised divan85 at the inner end of the chamber. Beckoning86 Lossenski to her side, she exchanged a few words with him in an undertone, and then called upon Andrei Levin, the Secretary of the Council, to enumerate87 the nature and extent of the losses they had sustained in their brief but disastrous first attempt to cope with the mighty88 race which had dominated the world for nearly a century and a half.
When Levin had finished, it was found that, in addition to the irreparable damage done to the submarine dockyard, no less than thirty-five submarine cruisers had been destroyed or rendered useless, while twenty-three air-ships had been annihilated89 by the projectiles90 of the Aerians. This left an available fighting force of twenty-eight submarine and twenty-four aerial warships fit for service.
It had been calculated that it would take at least a month of hard work to get the subterranean arsenal91 into such working order as would enable them to repair their losses, and after this at least twelve months would have to elapse before they had brought their fighting force up to the strength it had possessed92 but five short days before.
In addition to their losses in ships and war materials, more than a hundred of Olga’s chosen and most devoted followers had lost their lives in the terrible warfare which knew no sparing of life, and it would be necessary to draft more men from Russia to replace them before the work could be carried on upon an adequate scale.
Olga listened to the catalogue of disasters with frowning brows and eyes gleaming with hardly-suppressed fury. When it was over, she rose and spoke in a voice whose wonderful music and witchery seemed to charm all sense of misfortune for the time being out of the hearts of her listeners. A born queen of men, she knew when to wither93 with her scorn or to charm with her sweetness, and she was well aware that this hour of defeat and disaster was no time for reproaches or rebuke.
[156]
So her voice was low and sweet, and almost pleading, as she reviewed the situation, which, for the moment, seemed so dark, and appealed to her followers, through those who commanded them, not to yield before a sudden and temporary misfortune, but to learn from defeat the lessons of victory. She reminded them of all that their ancestors and hers had lost at the hands of the Terrorists, the forefathers94 of the hated and arrogant95 Aerians, and she painted in glowing colours the glory and the boundless96 wealth that would be the reward of victory.
Heavy as their losses had been, there was no reason why they should not repair them. She reminded them how, five years before, they had possessed but a single air-ship, and were only a weak and scattered body of revolutionaries. Now they possessed, even after all they had lost, an aerial fleet superior to all the vessels of the Aerian navies save two, and submarine cruisers swifter and more powerful than any that floated, save only the stolen Narwhal. More than this, they were now supported by a vast organisation97 numbering thousands of devoted men and women, any one of whom would give his or her life for the cause for which they were fighting.
She only spoke for a quarter of an hour or so, but every word went home, and when she concluded with an appeal to their loyalty98 and devotion, the twelve members of the Council rose with one accord to their feet, and there and then spontaneously renewed the oaths of fealty99 to her person and dynasty which they had taken when they enlisted100 in her service. Every man of them was a scion101 of some once noble Russian house, and her cause was theirs in virtue of personal interest as well as that sentiment of blind, unreasoning loyalty which even four generations of freedom had failed to eradicate102 from the Russian blood.
Olga thanked them with a tremor103 in her voice which, whether it was real or not, spoke to them with far greater eloquence104 than words, and then she bade Lossenski lay before the Council the plans which she had already discussed with[157] him for the future conduct of the vast enterprise which had opened so inauspiciously.
Lossenski rose at once, and for over two hours unfolded a vast and subtly-conceived scheme, which has been very briefly105 outlined in a previous chapter, and the results of the working out of which will become apparent in due course.
At the end of the discussion which followed it was decided106 that a transport should be purchased as soon as possible in a Russian port and sent out to Antarctica with fresh supplies of men and materials.
A flotilla of twelve marine2 cruisers was told off to convoy107 her on her voyage, and protect her from possible attack in case the Aerians should suspect or discover the purpose to which she was devoted.
As no more submarine vessels could be built in Antarctica—for the fearful cold of the outside waters made such work totally impossible—all efforts were to be concentrated upon the increase of the aerial navy, and a hundred air-ships, in addition to those already in existence, was fixed108 upon as the minimum strength that it would be safe to depend upon, when the hour for the final struggle came.
No force was to be wasted, if possible, upon minor109 attacks or isolated110 engagements, for the Russians, like the Aerians, had learnt that, under the conditions of the new warfare, skirmishes only meant destruction in detail and loss of strength entirely111 disproportionate to the advantage gained.
Thus virtually the same decisions were arrived at in Aeria and Antarctica. Both sides resolved to husband their resources and increase their strength, and then to risk everything upon the issue of one mighty conflict, a veritable struggle of the gods, in which both equally recognised that the defeated would be annihilated and the victors would remain undisputed masters of the world.
Finally, it was decided that Orloff Lossenski should depart at once with a formal offer of alliance to the Sultan of the Moslem112 Empire, and that a day later Olga should follow with[158] a squadron of twenty air-ships and give him the alternative of alliance or immediate113 war.
If, as was confidently expected, he chose alliance, five submarine cruisers were to be given to him, so that he might use them as models for the construction of a fleet which should be powerful enough to sweep the Aerian warships from the seas, and which would be supplied with the secret motive114 power at a station to be established at Larnaka under Russian control.
Then, when all was in readiness for the world-war, Olga was to be proclaimed Tsarina in Moscow, and the standard of absolute monarchy115 once more reared over the re-erected throne of the House of Romanoff. Anglo-Saxondom was to be invaded and conquered, and Aeria itself attacked and either subdued116 or depopulated and laid waste.
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1
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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consorts
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| n.配偶( consort的名词复数 )；（演奏古典音乐的）一组乐师；一组古典乐器；一起v.结伴( consort的第三人称单数 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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dome
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steering
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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rams
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| n.公羊( ram的名词复数 )；(R-)白羊（星）座；夯；攻城槌v.夯实（土等）( ram的第三人称单数 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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torpedoes
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| 鱼雷( torpedo的名词复数 )； 油井爆破筒； 刺客； 掼炮 | |
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foe
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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drawn
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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loathed
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mischief
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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adherents
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subjugation
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| n.镇压，平息，征服 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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40
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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41
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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42
counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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43
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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44
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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45
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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46
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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48
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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49
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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50
locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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51
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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52
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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54
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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warships
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| 军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只 | |
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56
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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57
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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58
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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60
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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61
tornado
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| n.飓风，龙卷风 | |
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62
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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ruggedness
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| 险峻，粗野； 耐久性； 坚固性 | |
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inclemency
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| n.险恶，严酷 | |
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76
caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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excavated
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| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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82
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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83
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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85
divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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87
enumerate
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| v.列举，计算，枚举，数 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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90
projectiles
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| n.抛射体( projectile的名词复数 )；（炮弹、子弹等）射弹，（火箭等）自动推进的武器 | |
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91
arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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92
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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93
wither
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| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
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94
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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96
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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97
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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98
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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99
fealty
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| n.忠贞，忠节 | |
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100
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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101
scion
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| n.嫩芽，子孙 | |
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102
eradicate
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| v.根除，消灭，杜绝 | |
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103
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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104
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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105
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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106
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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107
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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108
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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109
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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110
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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111
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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112
Moslem
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| n.回教徒，穆罕默德信徒；adj.回教徒的，回教的 | |
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113
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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114
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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115
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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116
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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