Smoke laughed cheerfully, and ran his eye up the glistening4 face of the tiny glacier that filled the head of the valley. “Here it is August already, and the days have been getting shorter for two months,” he epitomized the situation. “You know quartz5, and I don't. But I can bring up the grub, while you keep after that mother lode6. So-long. I'll be back by to-morrow evening.”
He turned and started.
But Smoke's reply was a bantering8 laugh. He held on down the little valley, occasionally wiping the sweat from his forehead, the while his feet crushed through ripe mountain raspberries and delicate ferns that grew beside patches of sun-sheltered ice.
In the early spring he and Shorty had come up the Stewart River and launched out into the amazing chaos9 of the region where Surprise Lake lay. And all of the spring and half of the summer had been consumed in futile10 wanderings, when, on the verge11 of turning back, they caught their first glimpse of the baffling, gold-bottomed sheet of water which had lured12 and fooled a generation of miners. Making their camp in the old cabin which Smoke had discovered on his previous visit, they had learned three things: first, heavy nugget gold was carpeted thickly on the lake bottom; next, the gold could be dived for in the shallower portions, but the temperature of the water was man-killing; and, finally, the draining of the lake was too stupendous a task for two men in the shorter half of a short summer. Undeterred, reasoning from the coarseness of the gold that it had not traveled far, they had set out in search of the mother lode. They had crossed the big glacier that frowned on the southern rim13 and devoted14 themselves to the puzzling maze15 of small valleys and canyons16 beyond, which, by most unmountainlike methods, drained, or had at one time drained, into the lake.
The valley Smoke was descending17 gradually widened after the fashion of any normal valley; but, at the lower end, it pinched narrowly between high precipitous walls and abruptly19 stopped in a cross wall. At the base of this, in a welter of broken rock, the streamlet disappeared, evidently finding its way out underground. Climbing the cross wall, from the top Smoke saw the lake beneath him. Unlike any mountain lake he had ever seen, it was not blue. Instead, its intense peacock-green tokened its shallowness. It was this shallowness that made its draining feasible. All about arose jumbled20 mountains, with ice-scarred peaks and crags, grotesquely21 shaped and grouped. All was topsyturvy and unsystematic—a Dore nightmare. So fantastic and impossible was it that it affected22 Smoke as more like a cosmic landscape-joke than a rational portion of earth's surface. There were many glaciers23 in the canyons, most of them tiny, and, as he looked, one of the larger ones, on the north shore, calved amid thunders and splashings. Across the lake, seemingly not more than half a mile, but, as he well knew, five miles away, he could see the bunch of spruce-trees and the cabin. He looked again to make sure, and saw smoke clearly rising from the chimney. Somebody else had surprised themselves into finding Surprise Lake, was his conclusion, as he turned to climb the southern wall.
From the top of this he came down into a little valley, flower-floored and lazy with the hum of bees, that behaved quite as a reasonable valley should, in so far as it made legitimate24 entry on the lake. What was wrong with it was its length—scarcely a hundred yards; its head a straight up-and-down cliff of a thousand feet, over which a stream pitched itself in descending veils of mist.
And here he encountered more smoke, floating lazily upward in the warm sunshine beyond an outjut of rock. As he came around the corner he heard a light, metallic25 tap-tapping and a merry whistling that kept the beat. Then he saw the man, an upturned shoe between his knees, into the sole of which he was driving hob-spikes.
“Hello!” was the stranger's greeting, and Smoke's heart went out to the man in ready liking26. “Just in time for a snack. There's coffee in the pot, a couple of cold flapjacks, and some jerky.”
“I'll go you if I lose,” was Smoke's acceptance, as he sat down. “I've been rather skimped27 on the last several meals, but there's oodles of grub over in the cabin.”
“Across the lake? That's what I was heading for.”
“Seems Surprise Lake is becoming populous,” Smoke complained, emptying the coffee-pot.
“Go on, you're joking, aren't you?” the man said, astonishment28 painted on his face.
Smoke laughed. “That's the way it takes everybody. You see those high ledges29 across there to the northwest? There's where I first saw it. No warning. Just suddenly caught the view of the whole lake from there. I'd given up looking for it, too.
“Same here,” the other agreed. “I'd headed back and was expecting to fetch the Stewart last night, when out I popped in sight of the lake. If that's it, where's the Stewart? And where have I been all the time? And how did you come here? And what's your name?”
“Oh! I know you.” The man's eyes and face were bright with a joyous32 smile, and his hand flashed eagerly out to Smoke's. “I've heard all about you.”
“Been reading police-court news, I see,” Smoke sparred modestly.
“Nope.” The man laughed and shook his head. “Merely recent Klondike history. I might have recognized you if you'd been shaved. I watched you putting it all over the gambling33 crowd when you were bucking34 roulette in the Elkhorn. My name's Carson—Andy Carson; and I can't begin to tell you how glad I am to meet up with you.”
“And this is Surprise Lake?” he murmured incredulously.
“It certainly is.”
“And its bottom's buttered with gold?”
“Sure. There's some of the churning.” Smoke dipped in his overalls38 pocket and brought forth39 half a dozen nuggets. “That's the stuff. All you have to do is go down to bottom, blind if you want to, and pick up a handful. Then you've got to run half a mile to get up your circulation.”
“Well, gosh-dash my dingbats, if you haven't beaten me to it,” Carson swore whimsically, but his disappointment was patent. “An' I thought I'd scooped40 the whole caboodle. Anyway, I've had the fun of getting here.”
“Fun!” Smoke cried. “Why, if we can ever get our hands on all that bottom, we'll make Rockefeller look like thirty cents.”
“But it's yours,” was Carson's objection.
“Nothing to it, my friend. You've got to realize that no gold deposit like it has been discovered in all the history of mining. It will take you and me and my partner and all the friends we've got to lay our hands on it. All Bonanza41 and Eldorado, dumped together, wouldn't be richer than half an acre down here. The problem is to drain the lake. It will take millions. And there's only one thing I'm afraid of. There's so much of it that if we fail to control the output it will bring about the demonetization of gold.”
“And you tell me—” Carson broke off, speechless and amazed.
“And glad to have you. It will take a year or two, with all the money we can raise, to drain the lake. It can be done. I've looked over the ground. But it will take every man in the country that's willing to work for wages. We'll need an army, and we need right now decent men in on the ground floor. Are you in?”
“Am I in? Don't I look it? I feel so much like a millionaire that I'm real timid about crossing that big glacier. Couldn't afford to break my neck now. Wish I had some more of those hob-spikes. I was just hammering the last in when you came along. How's yours? Let's see.”
Smoke held up his foot.
“Worn smooth as a skating-rink!” Carson cried. “You've certainly been hiking some. Wait a minute, and I'll pull some of mine out for you.”
But Smoke refused to listen. “Besides,” he said, “I've got about forty feet of rope cached where we take the ice. My partner and I used it coming over. It will be a cinch.”
It was a hard, hot climb. The sun blazed dazzlingly on the ice-surface, and with streaming pores they panted from the exertion42. There were places, criss-crossed by countless43 fissures44 and crevasses45, where an hour of dangerous toil47 advanced them no more than a hundred yards. At two in the afternoon, beside a pool of water bedded in the ice, Smoke called a halt.
“Let's tackle some of that jerky,” he said. “I've been on short allowance, and my knees are shaking. Besides, we're across the worst. Three hundred yards will fetch us to the rocks, and it's easy going, except for a couple of nasty fissures and one bad one that heads us down toward the bulge48. There's a weak ice-bridge there, but Shorty and I managed it.”
Over the jerky, the two men got acquainted, and Andy Carson unbosomed himself of the story of his life. “I just knew I'd find Surprise Lake,” he mumbled49 in the midst of mouthfuls. “I had to. I missed the French Hill Benches, the Big Skookum, and Monte Cristo, and then it was Surprise Lake or bust50. And here I am. My wife knew I'd strike it. I've got faith enough, but hers knocks mine galleywest. She's a corker, a crackerjack—dead game, grit51 to her finger-ends, never-say-die, a fighter from the drop of the hat, the one woman for me, true blue and all the rest. Take a look at that.”
He sprung open his watch, and on the inside cover Smoke saw the small, pasted photograph of a bright-haired woman, framed on either side by the laughing face of a child.
“Boy and girl,” Carson answered proudly. “He's a year and a half older.” He sighed. “They might have been some grown, but we had to wait. You see, she was sick. Lungs. But she put up a fight. What'd we know about such stuff? I was clerking, railroad clerk, Chicago, when we got married. Her folks were tuberculous. Doctors didn't know much in those days. They said it was hereditary53. All her family had it. Caught it from each other, only they never guessed it. Thought they were born with it. Fate. She and I lived with them the first couple of years. I wasn't afraid. No tuberculosis54 in my family. And I got it. That set me thinking. It was contagious55. I caught it from breathing their air.
“We talked it over, she and I. Then I jumped the family doctor and consulted an up-to-date expert. He told me what I'd figured out for myself, and said Arizona was the place for us. We pulled up stakes and went down—no money, nothing. I got a job sheep-herding, and left her in town—a lung town. It was filled to spilling with lungers.
“Of course, living and sleeping in the clean open, I started right in to mend. I was away months at a time. Every time I came back, she was worse. She just couldn't pick up. But we were learning. I jerked her out of that town, and she went to sheep-herding with me. In four years, winter and summer, cold and heat, rain, snow, and frost, and all the rest, we never slept under a roof, and we were moving camp all the time. You ought to have seen the change—brown as berries, lean as Indians, tough as rawhide56. When we figured we were cured, we pulled out for San Francisco. But we were too previous. By the second month we both had slight hemorrhages. We flew the coop back to Arizona and the sheep. Two years more of it. That fixed57 us. Perfect cure. All her family's dead. Wouldn't listen to us.
“Then we jumped cities for keeps. Knocked around on the Pacific coast and southern Oregon looked good to us. We settled in the Rogue58 River Valley—apples. There's a big future there, only nobody knows it. I got my land—on time, of course—for forty an acre. Ten years from now it'll be worth five hundred.
“We've done some almighty59 hustling61. Takes money, and we hadn't a cent to start with, you know—had to build a house and barn, get horses and plows62, and all the rest. She taught school two years. Then the boy came. But we've got it. You ought to see those trees we planted—a hundred acres of them, almost mature now. But it's all been outgo, and the mortgage working overtime63. That's why I'm here. She'd 'a' come along only for the kids and the trees. She's handlin' that end, and here I am, a gosh-danged expensive millionaire—in prospect64.”
He looked happily across the sun-dazzle on the ice to the green water of the lake along the farther shore, took a final look at the photograph, and murmured:
“She's some woman, that. She's hung on. She just wouldn't die, though she was pretty close to skin and bone all wrapped around a bit of fire when she went out with the sheep. Oh, she's thin now. Never will be fat. But it's the prettiest thinness I ever saw, and when I get back, and the trees begin to bear, and the kids get going to school, she and I are going to do Paris. I don't think much of that burg, but she's just hankered for it all her life.”
“Well, here's the gold that will take you to Paris,” Smoke assured him. “All we've got to do is to get our hands on it.”
Carson nodded with glistening eyes. “Say—that farm of ours is the prettiest piece of orchard65 land on all the Pacific coast. Good climate, too. Our lungs will never get touched again there. Ex-lungers have to be almighty careful, you know. If you're thinking of settling, well, just take a peep in at our valley before you settle, that's all. And fishing! Say!—did you ever get a thirty-five-pound salmon66 on a six-ounce rod? Some fight, bo', some fight!”
They stood on the edge of the crevasse46. It was enormous and ancient, fully3 a hundred feet across, with sloping, age-eaten sides instead of sharp-angled rims68. At this one place it was bridged by a huge mass of pressure-hardened snow that was itself half ice. Even the bottom of this mass they could not see, much less the bottom of the crevasse. Crumbling69 and melting, the bridge threatened imminent70 collapse71. There were signs where recent portions had broken away, and even as they studied it a mass of half a ton dislodged and fell.
“Looks pretty bad,” Carson admitted with an ominous72 head-shake. “And it looks much worse than if I wasn't a millionaire.”
“But we've got to tackle it,” Smoke said. “We're almost across. We can't go back. We can't camp here on the ice all night. And there's no other way. Shorty and I explored for a mile up. It was in better shape, though, when we crossed.”
“It's one at a time, and me first.” Carson took the part coil of rope from Smoke's hand. “You'll have to cast off. I'll take the rope and the pick. Gimme your hand so I can slip down easy.”
Slowly and carefully he lowered himself the several feet to the bridge, where he stood, making final adjustments for the perilous73 traverse. On his back was his pack outfit74. Around his neck, resting on his shoulders, he coiled the rope, one end of which was still fast to his waist.
“I'd give a mighty60 good part of my millions right now for a bridge-construction gang,” he said, but his cheery, whimsical smile belied75 the words. Also, he added, “It's all right; I'm a cat.”
The pick, and the long stick he used as an alpenstock, he balanced horizontally after the manner of a rope-walker. He thrust one foot forward tentatively, drew it back, and steeled himself with a visible, physical effort.
“I wish I was flat broke,” he smiled up. “If ever I get out of being a millionaire this time, I'll never be one again. It's too uncomfortable.”
“It's all right,” Smoke encouraged. “I've been over it before. Better let me try it first.”
“And you forty pounds to the worse,” the little man flashed back. “I'll be all right in a minute. I'm all right now.” And this time the nerving-up process was instantaneous. “Well, here goes for Rogue River and the apples,” he said, as his foot went out, this time to rest carefully and lightly while the other foot was brought up and past. Very gently and circumspectly76 he continued on his way until two-thirds of the distance was covered. Here he stopped to examine a depression he must cross, at the bottom of which was a fresh crack. Smoke, watching, saw him glance to the side and down into the crevasse itself, and then begin a slight swaying.
“Keep your eyes up!” Smoke commanded sharply. “Now! Go on!”
The little man obeyed, nor faltered77 on the rest of the journey. The sun-eroded78 slope of the farther edge of the crevasse was slippery, but not steep, and he worked his way up to a narrow ledge30, faced about, and sat down.
“Your turn,” he called across. “But just keep a-coming and don't look down. That's what got my goat. Just keep a-coming, that's all. And get a move on. It's almighty rotten.”
Balancing his own stick horizontally, Smoke essayed the passage. That the bridge was on its last legs was patent. He felt a jar under foot, a slight movement of the mass, and a heavier jar. This was followed by a single sharp crackle. Behind him he knew something was happening. If for no other reason, he knew it by the strained, tense face of Carson. From beneath, thin and faint, came the murmur37 of running water, and Smoke's eyes involuntarily wavered to a glimpse of the shimmering79 depths. He jerked them back to the way before him. Two-thirds over, he came to the depression. The sharp edges of the crack, but slightly touched by the sun, showed how recent it was. His foot was lifted to make the step across, when the crack began slowly widening, at the same time emitting numerous sharp snaps. He made the step quickly, increasing the stride of it, but the worn nails of his shoe skated on the farther slope of the depression. He fell on his face, and without pause slipped down and into the crack, his legs hanging clear, his chest supported by the stick which he had managed to twist crosswise as he fell.
His first sensation was the nausea80 caused by the sickening up-leap of his pulse; his first idea was of surprise that he had fallen no farther. Behind him was crackling and jar and movement to which the stick vibrated. From beneath, in the heart of the glacier, came the soft and hollow thunder of the dislodged masses striking bottom. And still the bridge, broken from its farthest support and ruptured81 in the middle, held, though the portion he had crossed tilted82 downward at a pitch of twenty degrees. He could see Carson, perched on his ledge, his feet braced84 against the melting surface, swiftly recoiling85 the rope from his shoulders to his hand.
“Wait!” he cried. “Don't move, or the whole shooting-match will come down.”
He calculated the distance with a quick glance, took the bandana from his neck and tied it to the rope, and increased the length by a second bandana from his pocket. The rope, manufactured from sled-lashings and short lengths of plaited rawhide knotted together, was both light and strong. The first cast was lucky as well as deft86, and Smoke's fingers clutched it. He evidenced a hand-over-hand intention of crawling out of the crack. But Carson, who had refastened the rope around his own waist, stopped him.
“Make it fast around yourself as well,” he ordered.
“If I go I'll take you with me,” Smoke objected.
The little man became very peremptory87.
“You shut up,” he ordered. “The sound of your voice is enough to start the whole thing going.”
“If I ever start going—” Smoke began.
“Shut up! You ain't going to ever start going. Now do what I say. That's right—under the shoulders. Make it fast. Now! Start! Get a move on, but easy as you go. I'll take in the slack. You just keep a-coming. That's it. Easy. Easy.”
Smoke was still a dozen feet away when the final collapse of the bridge began. Without noise, but in a jerky way, it crumbled88 to an increasing tilt83.
“Quick!” Carson called, coiling in hand-over-hand on the slack of the rope which Smoke's rush gave him.
When the crash came, Smoke's fingers were clawing into the hard face of the wall of the crevasse, while his body dragged back with the falling bridge. Carson, sitting up, feet wide apart and braced, was heaving on the rope. This effort swung Smoke in to the side wall, but it jerked Carson out of his niche89. Like a cat, he faced about, clawing wildly for a hold on the ice and slipping down. Beneath him, with forty feet of taut90 rope between them, Smoke was clawing just as wildly; and ere the thunder from below announced the arrival of the bridge, both men had come to rest. Carson had achieved this first, and the several pounds of pull he was able to put on the rope had helped bring Smoke to a stop.
Each lay in a shallow niche, but Smoke's was so shallow that, tense with the strain of flattening91 and sticking, nevertheless he would have slid on had it not been for the slight assistance he took from the rope. He was on the verge of a bulge and could not see beneath him. Several minutes passed, in which they took stock of the situation and made rapid strides in learning the art of sticking to wet and slippery ice. The little man was the first to speak.
“Gee!” he said; and, a minute later, “If you can dig in for a moment and slack on the rope, I can turn over. Try it.”
Smoke made the effort, then rested on the rope again. “I can do it,” he said. “Tell me when you're ready. And be quick.”
“About three feet down is holding for my heels,” Carson said. “It won't take a moment. Are you ready?”
“Go on.”
It was hard work to slide down a yard, turn over and sit up; but it was even harder for Smoke to remain flattened92 and maintain a position that from instant to instant made a greater call upon his muscles. As it was, he could feel the almost perceptible beginning of the slip when the rope tightened93 and he looked up into his companion's face. Smoke noted95 the yellow pallor of sun-tan forsaken96 by the blood, and wondered what his own complexion97 was like. But when he saw Carson, with shaking fingers, fumble98 for his sheath-knife, he decided99 the end had come. The man was in a funk and was going to cut the rope.
“Don't m-mind m-m-me,” the little man chattered100. “I ain't scared. It's only my nerves, gosh-dang them. I'll b-b-be all right in a minute.”
And Smoke watched him, doubled over, his shoulders between his knees, shivering and awkward, holding a slight tension on the rope with one hand while with the other he hacked101 and gouged103 holes for his heels in the ice.
“Carson,” he breathed up to him, “you're some bear, some bear.”
The answering grin was ghastly and pathetic. “I never could stand height,” Carson confessed. “It always did get me. Do you mind if I stop a minute and clear my head? Then I'll make those heel-holds deeper so I can heave you up.”
Smoke's heart warmed. “Look here, Carson. The thing for you to do is to cut the rope. You can never get me up, and there's no use both of us being lost. You can make it out with your knife.”
“You shut up!” was the hurt retort. “Who's running this?”
And Smoke could not help but see that anger was a good restorative for the other's nerves. As for himself, it was the more nerve-racking strain, lying plastered against the ice with nothing to do but strive to stick on.
A groan104 and a quick cry of “Hold on!” warned him. With face pressed against the ice, he made a supreme105 sticking effort, felt the rope slacken, and knew Carson was slipping toward him. He did not dare look up until he felt the rope tighten94 and knew the other had again come to rest.
“Gee, that was a near go,” Carson chattered. “I came down over a yard. Now you wait. I've got to dig new holds. If this danged ice wasn't so melty we'd be hunky-dory.”
Holding the few pounds of strain necessary for Smoke with his left hand, the little man jabbed and chopped at the ice with his right. Ten minutes of this passed.
“Now, I'll tell you what I've done,” Carson called down. “I've made heel-holds and hand-holes for you alongside of me. I'm going to heave the rope in slow and easy, and you just come along sticking an' not too fast. I'll tell you what, first of all. I'll take you on the rope and you worry out of that pack. Get me?”
Smoke nodded, and with infinite care unbuckled his pack-straps. With a wriggle106 of the shoulders he dislodged the pack, and Carson saw it slide over the bulge and out of sight.
“Now, I'm going to ditch mine,” he called down. “You just take it easy and wait.”
Five minutes later the upward struggle began. Smoke, after drying his hands on the insides of his arm-sleeves, clawed into the climb—bellied, and clung, and stuck, and plastered—sustained and helped by the pull of the rope. Alone, he could not have advanced. Despite his muscles, because of his forty pounds' handicap, he could not cling as did Carson. A third of the way up, where the pitch was steeper and the ice less eroded, he felt the strain on the rope decreasing. He moved slower and slower. Here was no place to stop and remain. His most desperate effort could not prevent the stop, and he could feel the down-slip beginning.
“I'm going,” he called up.
“Then cast loose.”
Smoke felt the rope tauten108 in a futile effort, then the pace quickened, and as he went past his previous lodgment and over the bulge the last glimpse he caught of Carson he was turned over, with madly moving hands and feet striving to overcome the downward draw. To Smoke's surprise, as he went over the bulge, there was no sheer fall. The rope restrained him as he slid down a steeper pitch, which quickly eased until he came to a halt in another niche on the verge of another bulge. Carson was now out of sight, ensconced in the place previously109 occupied by Smoke.
“Gee!” he could hear Carson shiver. “Gee!”
“What are you doing?” he called up.
“Making more hand- and foot-holds,” came the trembling answer. “You just wait. I'll have you up here in a jiffy. Don't mind the way I talk. I'm just excited. But I'm all right. You wait and see.”
“You're holding me by main strength,” Smoke argued. “Soon or late, with the ice melting, you'll slip down after me. The thing for you to do is to cut loose. Hear me! There's no use both of us going. Get that? You're the biggest little man in creation, but you've done your best. You cut loose.”
“You shut up. I'm going to make holes this time deep enough to haul up a span of horses.”
“You've held me up long enough,” Smoke urged. “Let me go.”
“Some several, and all of them too many. You've been coming down all the time.”
“And I've been learning the game all the time. I'm going on holding you up until we get out of here. Savvy114? When God made me a light-weight I guess he knew what he was about. Now, shut up. I'm busy.”
Several silent minutes passed. Smoke could hear the metallic strike and hack102 of the knife and occasional driblets of ice slid over the bulge and came down to him. Thirsty, clinging on hand and foot, he caught the fragments in his mouth and melted them to water, which he swallowed.
He heard a gasp115 that slid into a groan of despair, and felt a slackening of the rope that made him claw. Immediately the rope tightened again. Straining his eyes in an upward look along the steep slope, he stared a moment, then saw the knife, point first, slide over the verge of the bulge and down upon him. He tucked his cheek to it, shrank from the pang116 of cut flesh, tucked more tightly, and felt the knife come to rest.
“Cheer up, I've got it,” Smoke answered.
“Say! Wait! I've a lot of string in my pocket. I'll drop it down to you, and you send the knife up.”
Smoke made no reply. He was battling with a sudden rush of thought.
“Hey! You! Here comes the string. Tell me when you've got it.”
A small pocket-knife, weighted on the end of the string, slid down the ice. Smoke got it, opened the larger blade by a quick effort of his teeth and one hand, and made sure that the blade was sharp. Then he tied the sheath-knife to the end of the string.
“Haul away!” he called.
With strained eyes he saw the upward progress of the knife. But he saw more—a little man, afraid and indomitable, who shivered and chattered, whose head swam with giddiness, and who mastered his qualms118 and distresses119 and played a hero's part. Not since his meeting with Shorty had Smoke so quickly liked a man. Here was a proper meat-eater, eager with friendliness120, generous to destruction, with a grit that shaking fear could not shake. Then, too, he considered the situation cold-bloodedly. There was no chance for two. Steadily121, they were sliding into the heart of the glacier, and it was his greater weight that was dragging the little man down. The little man could stick like a fly. Alone, he could save himself.
“Bully for us!” came the voice from above, down and across the bulge of ice. “Now we'll get out of here in two shakes.”
The awful struggle for good cheer and hope in Carson's voice decided Smoke.
“Listen to me,” he said steadily, vainly striving to shake the vision of Joy Gastell's face from his brain. “I sent that knife up for you to get out with. Get that? I'm going to chop loose with the jack-knife. It's one or both of us. Get that?”
“Two or nothing,” came the grim but shaky response. “If you'll hold on a minute—”
“I've held on for too long now. I'm not married. I have no adorable thin woman nor kids nor apple-trees waiting for me. Get me? Now, you hike up and out of that!”
“Wait! For God's sake, wait!” Carson screamed down. “You can't do that! Give me a chance to get you out. Be calm, old horse. We'll make the turn. You'll see. I'm going to dig holds that'll lift a house and barn.”
Smoke made no reply. Slowly and gently, fascinated by the sight, he cut with the knife until one of the three strands122 popped and parted.
“What are you doing?” Carson cried desperately124. “If you cut, I'll never forgive you—never. I tell you it's two or nothing. We're going to get out. Wait! For God's sake!”
And Smoke, staring at the parted strand123, five inches before his eyes, knew fear in all its weakness. He did not want to die; he recoiled125 from the shimmering abyss beneath him, and his panic brain urged all the preposterous126 optimism of delay. It was fear that prompted him to compromise.
“All right,” he called up. “I'll wait. Do your best. But I tell you, Carson, if we both start slipping again I'm going to cut.”
“Huh! Forget it. When we start, old horse, we start up. I'm a porous127 plaster. I could stick here if it was twice as steep. I'm getting a sizable hole for one heel already. Now, you hush128, and let me work.”
The slow minutes passed. Smoke centered his soul on the dull hurt of a hang-nail on one of his fingers. He should have clipped it away that morning—it was hurting then—he decided; and he resolved, once clear of the crevasse, that it should immediately be clipped. Then, with short focus, he stared at the hang-nail and the finger with a new comprehension. In a minute, or a few minutes at best, that hang-nail, that finger, cunningly jointed129 and efficient, might be part of a mangled130 carcass at the bottom of the crevasse. Conscious of his fear, he hated himself. Bear-eaters were made of sterner stuff. In the anger of self-revolt he all but hacked at the rope with his knife. But fear made him draw back the hand and to stick himself again, trembling and sweating, to the slippery slope. To the fact that he was soaking wet by contact with the thawing131 ice he tried to attribute the cause of his shivering; but he knew, in the heart of him, that it was untrue.
A gasp and a groan and an abrupt18 slackening of the rope, warned him. He began to slip. The movement was very slow. The rope tightened loyally, but he continued to slip. Carson could not hold him, and was slipping with him. The digging toe of his farther-extended foot encountered vacancy132, and he knew that it was over the straight-away fall. And he knew, too, that in another moment his falling body would jerk Carson's after it.
Blindly, desperately, all the vitality133 and life-love of him beaten down in a flashing instant by a shuddering134 perception of right and wrong, he brought the knife-edge across the rope, saw the strands part, felt himself slide more rapidly, and then fall.
What happened then, he did not know. He was not unconscious, but it happened too quickly, and it was unexpected. Instead of falling to his death, his feet almost immediately struck in water, and he sat violently down in water that splashed coolingly on his face. His first impression was that the crevasse was shallower than he had imagined and that he had safely fetched bottom. But of this he was quickly disabused135. The opposite wall was a dozen feet away. He lay in a basin formed in an out-jut of the ice-wall by melting water that dribbled136 and trickled137 over the bulge above and fell sheer down a distance of a dozen feet. This had hollowed out the basin. Where he sat the water was two feet deep, and it was flush with the rim. He peered over the rim and looked down the narrow chasm138 hundreds of feet to the torrent139 that foamed140 along the bottom.
“Oh, why did you?” he heard a wail from above.
“Listen,” he called up. “I'm perfectly141 safe, sitting in a pool of water up to my neck. And here's both our packs. I'm going to sit on them. There's room for a half-dozen here. If you slip, stick close and you'll land. In the meantime you hike up and get out. Go to the cabin. Somebody's there. I saw the smoke. Get a rope, or anything that will make rope, and come back and fish for me.”
“Honest!” came Carson's incredulous voice.
Smoke kept himself warm by kicking a channel through the rim with the heel of his shoe. By the time he had drained off the last of the water, a faint call from Carson announced that he had reached the top.
After that Smoke occupied himself with drying his clothes. The late afternoon sun beat warmly in upon him, and he wrung143 out his garments and spread them about him. His match-case was water-proof, and he manipulated and dried sufficient tobacco and rice-paper to make cigarettes.
Two hours later, perched naked on the two packs and smoking, he heard a voice above that he could not fail to identify.
“Oh, Smoke! Smoke!”
“Hello, Joy Gastell!” he called back. “Where'd you drop from?”
“Are you hurt?”
“Not even any skin off!”
“Father's paying the rope down now. Do you see it?”
“Yes, and I've got it,” he answered. “Now, wait a couple of minutes, please.”
“What's the matter?” came her anxious query, after several minutes. “Oh, I know, you're hurt.”
“Dressing?”
He sent up the two packs on the first trip, was consequently rebuked146 by Joy Gastell, and on the second trip came up himself.
Joy Gastell looked at him with glowing eyes, while her father and Carson were busy coiling the rope. “How could you cut loose in that splendid way?” she cried. “It was—it was glorious, that's all.”
Smoke waved the compliment away with a deprecatory hand.
“I know all about it,” she persisted. “Carson told me. You sacrificed yourself to save him.”
“Nothing of the sort,” Smoke lied. “I could see that swimming-pool right under me all the time.”
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1
demurred
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| v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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lode
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| n.矿脉 | |
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hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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bantering
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| adj.嘲弄的v.开玩笑，说笑，逗乐( banter的现在分词 )；（善意地）取笑，逗弄 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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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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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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canyons
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| n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 ) | |
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17
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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19
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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20
jumbled
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| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
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21
grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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glaciers
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| 冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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24
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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skimped
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| v.少用( skimp的过去式和过去分词 )；少给；克扣；节省 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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29
ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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31
kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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34
bucking
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| v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的现在分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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35
magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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camaraderie
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| n.同志之爱，友情 | |
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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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38
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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40
scooped
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| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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41
bonanza
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| n.富矿带，幸运，带来好运的事 | |
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42
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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43
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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44
fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45
crevasses
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| n.破口，崩溃处，裂缝( crevasse的名词复数 ) | |
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46
crevasse
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| n. 裂缝，破口；v.使有裂缝 | |
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47
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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48
bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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49
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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51
grit
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| n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关 | |
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52
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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53
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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54
tuberculosis
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| n.结核病，肺结核 | |
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55
contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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56
rawhide
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| n.生牛皮 | |
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57
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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58
rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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59
almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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60
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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61
hustling
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| 催促（hustle的现在分词形式） | |
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62
plows
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| n.犁( plow的名词复数 )；犁型铲雪机v.耕( plow的第三人称单数 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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63
overtime
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| adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地 | |
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64
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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65
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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66
salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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67
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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68
rims
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| n.（圆形物体的）边( rim的名词复数 )；缘；轮辋；轮圈 | |
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69
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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70
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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71
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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72
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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73
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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74
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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75
belied
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| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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76
circumspectly
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| adv.慎重地，留心地 | |
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77
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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78
eroded
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| adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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79
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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80
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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81
ruptured
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| v.（使）破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交 | |
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82
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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83
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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84
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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85
recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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86
deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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87
peremptory
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| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
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88
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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89
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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90
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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91
flattening
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| n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词 | |
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92
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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93
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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94
tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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95
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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96
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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97
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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98
fumble
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| vi.笨拙地用手摸、弄、接等，摸索 | |
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99
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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100
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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101
hacked
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| 生气 | |
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102
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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103
gouged
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| v.凿( gouge的过去式和过去分词 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出… | |
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104
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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105
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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106
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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107
gritted
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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108
tauten
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| vt.& vi.（使某物）变紧；拉紧；绷紧；紧张 | |
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109
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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110
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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111
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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112
truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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113
query
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| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
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114
savvy
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| v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的 | |
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115
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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116
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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117
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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118
qualms
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| n.不安；内疚 | |
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119
distresses
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| n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 )；痛苦；贫困；危险 | |
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120
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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121
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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122
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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123
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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124
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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125
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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126
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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127
porous
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| adj.可渗透的，多孔的 | |
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128
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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129
jointed
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| 有接缝的 | |
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130
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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131
thawing
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| n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化 | |
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132
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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133
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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134
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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135
disabused
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| v.去除…的错误想法( disabuse的过去式和过去分词 )；使醒悟 | |
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136
dribbled
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| v.流口水( dribble的过去式和过去分词 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球 | |
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137
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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138
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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139
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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140
foamed
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| 泡沫的 | |
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141
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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142
hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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143
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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144
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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145
hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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146
rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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