But the idea that the boat might be cut loose, or might break loose, was not pleasant. Ugh! Then down he would drop, boat and all, into the wash of the steamer; the steamer would go on without him—and where would he go?
Even Mr. Grigsby and his father, who were brave men, approved of his sleeping on deck, now. As Mr. Grigsby said:
"We know you aren't afraid, but it's only a fool who takes chances when they aren't necessary. Out in the Indian country the greenhorns were the fellows who played smart by sitting in the campfire light where the Injuns could get a good shot at them. Nobody ever saw Kit1 Carson exposing himself that way."
The Georgia was ploughing across the Caribbean Sea. Islands were constantly in view, but now no one paid much attention to these. All the passengers were on the lookout2 for the Isthmus3 of Panama; they were tremendously eager to get ashore4 and start across the Isthmus for the Pacific Ocean.
On the morning of the eighth day out of New Orleans a bank of rain or fog closed down on the horizon ahead. Off yonder was the Isthmus, but who could see it? However, evidently it was near; for when Charley roved about, he discovered that sailors were busy, below, hoisting5 out baggage from the hold. They were getting ready to land.
The news spread through the ship, and passengers immediately engaged in a wild rush to put their things together and crowd for the steps. They acted as though they expected to make a flying leap ashore as the ship passed by. Charley was glad to help his father and Mr. Grigsby tie up their belongings6 also, so as to be ready.
Here on the rolling Caribbean the sun was shining brightly, tinting7 the choppy waves with a beautiful green. The storm ashore was moving on, evidently, for the streaks8 of rain were drifting around to the left and passing out to sea, leaving the mist thin and white. Suddenly voices forward cried, excitedly: "Land ho! Land ho! There she is! Isthmus in sight! Land ho!" The cries spread, with everybody on tiptoe, peering. At one end of the mist line had been uncurtained a background of rocky, surf-washed shore, with high green hills rising behind it. Next was uncovered a lower shore, indented9 by a large bay, and fringed with palm-trees. Next, as on sped the mist (like a swiftly rolling curtain, indeed) there came into view a lofty headland, with trees on its crest10 and the waves dashing against its base.
The Georgia was swinging about in her course, and pointing up the coast. This brought the lofty headland on her left. And now all the deck was rife11 with questions.
"Where do we land?"
"What's that big point? Porto Bello?"
"The pirates captured it, didn't they, couple of hundred years ago?"
"Can you see the old fort on it?"
"How far's the Pacific Ocean, now?"
"Do we land in that big bay?"
"Colon is where the railroad's going to begin. We land at Chagres."
"Where is Chagres?"
"How far across to the Pacific at Panama?"
"Anything to eat at Chagres? Any sleeping place?"
"Don't know."
"Oh, Tom! How'll we engage a canoe? Ought to make up a party and send a man ashore at once, oughtn't we?"
Accompanied by this babel of cries, the Georgia steamed up along the shore. She passed the lofty headland, which seemed to guard a fine harbor; and she passed the big bay which people said was Limon. The shore looked very tropical, with its beaches and palms and green hills and thatched huts and glimpses of bright tinted15 towns, while behind rose the mountain range. Charley gazed spellbound.
"Say, where is Chagres?" were asking the passengers crowding along the inshore rail.
Yes, indeed; where was Chagres? The Georgia was supposed to land at the town of Chagres, which was at the mouth of the Chagres River, and the way to California then lay up the Chagres River, by canoe, as far as possible; over the mountains by mule, down to the Pacific Ocean at Panama; and aboard the Pacific Mail Company steamship16 there, for San Francisco.
"According to the map," said Mr. Adams, "Chagres is about eight miles up the coast from Limon Bay. I shouldn't wonder if we were turning in for it now."
Sure enough, the Georgia was beginning to point for the shore, which rose high and steep, seamed with darker lines that proved to be ravines running down to the sea. A narrow inlet opened in the shore; no, this was the mouth of a river—the Chagres River, said several voices.
"I see a castle," cried Charley. "It looks like a castle, anyway. On top of the cliff, above the river. Or maybe it's a fort."
"San Lorenzo castle, they call it, I believe," announced Mr. Grigsby.
Closer to the river's mouth and the castle above swept the Georgia. Her whistle sounded hoarsely17. Still no town appeared; and to general disappointment, when about a quarter of a mile from shore, opposite the mouth of the river, she stopped her engines, there was a rattle18 of chains through the hawse holes, and she had dropped anchor! Almost immediately a boat pulled away from her, for the shore. It contained the captain and two or three other officials. They soon entered the mouth of the river and disappeared. The passengers, pressed against the rails on all the decks, their hand baggage ready, murmured irritably20, but no other boats were launched and evidently it was not yet time for them also to go ashore.
"If you two will look after the baggage, I'll try to get ashore among the first and hire a boat," offered Mr. Adams.
"That's the best idea," approved Mr. Grigsby. "There won't be boats enough to go 'round, and somebody'll get left."
Charley saw his father shouldering his way through the crowd, to the head of the stairs, into which he made further way. He descended21 from sight. Down below he would have a harder time, for the crowd at the rails of the lower decks was thicker, where people had clustered hanging close so as to be in the first of the boats. But Mr. Adams could take care of himself, all right, whether lame22 or not. He had been in many a battle.
For a time there was nothing to do but gaze at the shore—at the old, crumbling23 Castle of San Lorenzo, where through glasses a few cannon24 could be descried25; at the clumps26 of palms, standing27 like plumes28; at the rolling green hills, bordering the shore, and at the distant mountain range which was to be crossed after the river had been ascended29 as far as possible. Beyond the mountains lay the Pacific Ocean, where, at the city of Panama, the steamer for California would be boarded by those who got there in time. Except for the dots of soldiers, surveying the Georgia from the walls of the fort, the only signs of life ashore were the thatched roofs of some huts, back among the trees.
In the course of an hour another murmur19 arose from the impatient passengers, for the ship's boat reappeared, issuing from the narrow mouth of the river—and with it was a much larger boat that soon turned out to be a big canoe, manned by half a dozen natives. Both boats headed for the ship. The canoe reached it first. It was a dug-out, fashioned from the single trunk of a tree; and its crew, wielding30 their paddles, were black as coals, their naked bodies streaming with perspiration31. On their legs they wore white cotton trousers, loose and comfortable.
They halted amidships, under the steamer's rail, where while the thousand faces stared down at them they gestured and called up. All that Charley could understand were the words: "Go ahead!" They held up their fingers, opening them and closing them to indicate twenty, evidently. But the passengers could do nothing, although some of them almost jumped overboard in their excitement.
Now the ship's boat with the second mate in it hove alongside. The mate clambered up, by the rope ladder which was lowered for him and closely guarded. He made himself heard the best he could and the word speedily traveled fore32 and aft, on all the decks, that the canoe would take ashore twenty people, at once.
"And he says we've just time, if we start to-day, to catch the California at Panama," was reported.
What a hubbub33 resulted! Of course, every party aboard ship tried to place in the canoe their man who would engage a canoe, ashore, for the river trip. The tussle34 looked and sounded like a free-for-all fist-fight. Down the rope-ladder swarmed35 the picked men, each trying to out-elbow the others, and dropped recklessly into the dug-out. Two men jumped for the dug-out from the lower deck, and fell sprawling36. Another sprang overboard, and climbed in, dripping. But Charley was relieved to see, among the lucky ones worming down the rope-ladder, his father. Hurrah37 for dad!
Mr. Adams was none too early. The boatmen were jabbering38 and dodging39 and shouting. Already the dugout was loaded with its twenty, but the rope-ladder was as full as ever. Out from the ship's side shoved the big canoe, its captain shaking his head vigorously at the passengers above and yelling: "No! No!" while his men began to ply40 their paddles.
Now there was a splash in the water, and a chorus of cries and laughter. A passenger who was bound not to be left had dived overboard, after the canoe. Up he rose, to the surface, and struck out. He was the long-nosed man, Mr. Jacobs!
"Wait! Wait! Man overboard!" rang the excited shouts to the dug-out; and Mr. Jacobs himself, swimming as high as he could, waved an arm and shouted.
But the crew of the dug-out only looked back and laughed; their captain, steering41, shook his head and motioned no; and faster and faster traveled the canoe. The long-nosed man swam hard for a little way, when, giving up, he turned and came back to the ship.
The passengers gave him a round of applause mixed with laughter, as he clambered aboard; but leaning over to watch, Charley saw him pause at the rail and shake his fist after the retreating dug-out. He was not a good loser.
"Well, he's left, anyhow," greeted Mr. Grigsby, when Charley hastened back to find him and tell him. Mr. Grigsby was so tall, that he had seen as well as Charley, who was little and could squeeze about under people's arms. "It's a wonder. That kind of person usually swipes the best seat."
"I'm glad, aren't you?" answered Charley. "Maybe we won't have any more trouble with him."
"Humph! Can't count on that yet," asserted Mr. Grigsby.
"My father didn't get left. He's in the boat, all right," said Charley, proudly.
"Yes. I knew he'd make it. Now as soon as we can get ashore we'll start up-river."
But nothing was done aboard the Georgia, toward landing the passengers, until another hour. Then suddenly the word spread: "Get your baggage. Everybody ashore," and the sailors began to lower the boats.
By the fight for place, that again occurred, anybody would have thought that the ship was sinking and that only those people who got into the boats at once would be saved! The parties who had no men ashore were the most determined42 to be first.
"Pshaw! Let 'em go," spoke43 Mr. Grigsby, as the shoving crowd jostled him and Charley hither and thither44. "We can wait. I'm not specially45 anxious to be capsized and lose all our stuff."
Boat after boat, loaded to the water's edge, pulled away from the ship for the shore, canoes hastened to help, and still the passengers clamored and fought. In the confusion Charley lost all track of the long-nosed man and his partners. The main thought now was, when could he and Mr. Grigsby get ashore and find his father?
When the boats returned for their second loads there was another hurly-burly, but the decks were thinning out, and pushing to the nearest ladder Charley and the Frémonter managed to climb down, lowering their baggage, into the boat there. The boat was loaded full almost instantly, and away it pulled, for the shore again.
Standing up, because there wasn't space to sit down, Charley eagerly gazed ahead. Slowly the shore enlarged; and turning the high point on which was the Castle of San Lorenzo the boat entered the mouth of the river. A little bay unfolded, its shore high on the left, low and marshy46 on the right. On the left, at the foot of the thickly wooded bluffs47, among bananas and plantains, appeared a little group of peak-roofed huts, all the muddy bank in front of them alive with the Georgia's passengers. Was that the town of Chagres? Well, who would want to live here!
The passengers already landed were running about like ants, every one acting48 as if his life again depended upon his getting away immediately. The landing place was covered with baggage which had been dumped ashore. A number of canoes were lying in the shoal water, and a number of others had been hauled out while their owners repaired them. Amidst the baggage, and over the canoes, swarmed the Georgia's passengers, in their flannel49 shirts or broadcloth or muddy white, shouting and pleading and threatening, trying to hire the boatmen.
"There's your father," spoke Mr. Grigsby, suddenly, to Charley, as their boat neared the busy landing.
Charley had been anxiously searching the shore, looking for his father; and now he saw him, standing in a canoe drawn50 up out of the water, and beckoning51.
This looked promising52; maybe that was their canoe! The moment that the ship's boat grounded, its passengers tumbled out, helter-skelter, into the mud, and raced for land, lugging53 their bed-rolls, to swell54 the bevy55 already landed. Mr. Grigsby shouldered his own bedroll, gave Charley a hand with the other, and together they joined in the scramble56.
"Hello!" greeted Mr. Adams. He was as breathless as they, for every minute he was shoving away persons who tried to seize the canoe, and was explaining that it was taken. A black boatman was busy thatching the canopy57 top with dried palm leaves—and he, too, was obliged to keep shaking his head and saying: "No. No. Go 'way."
"Well, here's our boat," continued Mr. Adams, briskly. "Here's one boatman; his name's Maria. Francisco, the other, is up town buying provisions. No," called Mr. Adams, to a Georgia passenger who was thrusting money fairly into the face of Maria, "you can't hire this boat. It's taken."
"I've paid fifteen dollars apiece, for the three of us and our baggage up to Cruces, forty miles. That's as high as boats go; there we'll have to take mules58 across to Panama," continued Mr. Adams—the outsider having gone off disappointed. "I think we've got a good boat; but I've had a fight to keep it. If Maria hadn't have stayed, I'd have been thrown out, long ago."
"When do we start?" asked Charley.
"Whenever Francisco comes back."
"Yes. And that might be a good plan, too."
"You and Charley go up and see what you can find, and I'll hold the boat," directed Mr. Grigsby, climbing in.
"All right. Come along, Charley," and Mr. Adams alertly limped on up the gentle slope, to the village.
The huts were square, made of cane60 and roofed with palm-leaf thatch14, to a peak. There were no window-panes or doors. The Chagres men and women stood in the doorways61, and gazed curiously62 out while they puffed63 big black cigars and talked about the crazy Americanos.
This, then, was Chagres at the mouth of the Chagres River, the beginning of the Isthmus trip to the Pacific. (But when the great Panama Canal was built, it left the Chagres River, above the town, and cutting across a neck of land struck the ocean at Limon Bay, eight miles down the coast. The first Panama railroad also chose Limon Bay as one terminus; so that the town of Chagres soon lost its business.)
Mr. Adams spoke Spanish, because he had been a soldier in Mexico; and right speedily he bought bread and bananas and eggs and some dried meat. There was a hut bearing a sign in English: "Crescent Hotel"; but one look into it and at its mob of panting customers decided64 Charley and his father to eat in their canoe.
"Good! There's Francisco!" exclaimed Mr. Adams, as they returned.
"Yes; and there's that Jacobs again!" cried Charley. "He's after our canoe!"
"He won't get it," said his father. "We've paid for it, and we keep it."
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1
kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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isthmus
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| n.地峡 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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hoisting
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| 起重，提升 | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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7
tinting
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| 着色，染色（的阶段或过程） | |
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8
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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9
indented
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| adj.锯齿状的，高低不平的；缩进排版 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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11
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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colon
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| n.冒号，结肠，直肠 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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14
thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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15
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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16
steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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18
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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27
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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plumes
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| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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29
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
wielding
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的现在分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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32
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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tussle
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| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
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35
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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37
hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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jabbering
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的现在分词 )；急促兴奋地说话；结结巴巴 | |
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dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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40
ply
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| v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲 | |
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steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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42
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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43
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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44
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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45
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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46
marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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47
bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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48
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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49
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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50
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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51
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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52
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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53
lugging
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| 超载运转能力 | |
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54
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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55
bevy
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| n.一群 | |
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56
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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57
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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58
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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59
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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60
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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61
doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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62
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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63
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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64
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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