The cause of all these things,—the peaceableness, and the polygamy, and the tired neck of Aab-Waak,—goes back among the years to the time when the schooner4 Search dropped anchor in Mandell Bay, and when Tyee, chief man of the tribe, conceived a scheme of sudden wealth. To this day the story of things that happened is remembered and spoken of with bated breath by the people of Mandell, who are cousins to the Hungry Folk who live in the west. Children draw closer when the tale is told, and marvel6 sagely7 to themselves at the madness of those who might have been their forebears had they not provoked the Sunlanders and come to bitter ends.
It began to happen when six men came ashore8 from the Search, with heavy outfits9, as though they had come to stay, and quartered themselves in Neegah's igloo. Not but that they paid well in flour and sugar for the lodging10, but Neegah was aggrieved11 because Mesahchie, his daughter, elected to cast her fortunes and seek food and blanket with Bill-Man, who was leader of the party of white men.
"She is worth a price," Neegah complained to the gathering12 by the council-fire, when the six white men were asleep. "She is worth a price, for we have more men than women, and the men be bidding high. The hunter Ounenk offered me a kayak, new-made, and a gun which he got in trade from the Hungry Folk. This was I offered, and behold13, now she is gone and I have nothing!"
"I, too, did bid for Mesahchie," grumbled14 a voice, in tones not altogether joyless, and Peelo shoved his broad-cheeked, jovial15 face for a moment into the light.
"Thou, too," Neegah affirmed. "And there were others. Why is there such a restlessness upon the Sunlanders?" he demanded petulantly16. "Why do they not stay at home? The Snow People do not wander to the lands of the Sunlanders."
"Better were it to ask why they come," cried a voice from the darkness, and Aab-Waak pushed his way to the front.
"Ay! Why they come!" clamored many voices, and Aab-Waak waved his hand for silence.
"Men do not dig in the ground for nothing," he began. "And I have it in mind of the Whale People, who are likewise Sunlanders, and who lost their ship in the ice. You all remember the Whale People, who came to us in their broken boats, and who went away into the south with dogs and sleds when the frost arrived and snow covered the land. And you remember, while they waited for the frost, that one man of them dug in the ground, and then two men and three, and then all men of them, with great excitement and much disturbance17. What they dug out of the ground we do not know, for they drove us away so we could not see. But afterward18, when they were gone, we looked and found nothing. Yet there be much ground and they did not dig it all."
"Ay, Aab-Waak! Ay!" cried the people in admiration19.
"Wherefore I have it in mind," he concluded, "that one Sunlander tells another, and that these Sunlanders have been so told and are come to dig in the ground."
"But how can it be that Bill-Man speaks our tongue?" demanded a little weazened old hunter,—"Bill-Man, upon whom never before our eyes have rested?"
"Bill-Man has been other times in the Snow Lands," Aab-Waak answered, "else would he not speak the speech of the Bear People, which is like the speech of the Hungry Folk, which is very like the speech of the Mandells. For there have been many Sunlanders among the Bear People, few among the Hungry Folk, and none at all among the Mandells, save the Whale People and those who sleep now in the igloo of Neegah."
"Their sugar is very good," Neegah commented, "and their flour."
"They have great wealth," Ounenk added. "Yesterday I was to their ship, and beheld20 most cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns, and flour, and sugar, and strange foods without end."
"It is so, brothers!" Tyee stood up and exulted21 inwardly at the respect and silence his people accorded him. "They be very rich, these Sunlanders. Also, they be fools. For behold! They come among us boldly, blindly, and without thought for all of their great wealth. Even now they snore, and we are many and unafraid."
"Mayhap they, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," the weazened little old hunter objected.
But Tyee scowled22 upon him. "Nay23, it would not seem so. They live to the south, under the path of the sun, and are soft as their dogs are soft. You remember the dog of the Whale People? Our dogs ate him the second day, for he was soft and could not fight. The sun is warm and life easy in the Sun Lands, and the men are as women, and the women as children."
Heads nodded in approval, and the women craned their necks to listen.
"It is said they are good to their women, who do little work," tittered Likeeta, a broad-hipped, healthy young woman, daughter to Tyee himself.
"Thou wouldst follow the feet of Mesahchie, eh?" he cried angrily. Then he turned swiftly to the tribesmen. "Look you, brothers, this is the way of the Sunlanders! They have eyes for our women, and take them one by one. As Mesahchie has gone, cheating Neegah of her price, so will Likeeta go, so will they all go, and we be cheated. I have talked with a hunter from the Bear People, and I know. There be Hungry Folk among us; let them speak if my words be true."
The six hunters of the Hungry Folk attested24 the truth and fell each to telling his neighbor of the Sunlanders and their ways. There were mutterings from the younger men, who had wives to seek, and from the older men, who had daughters to fetch prices, and a low hum of rage rose higher and clearer.
"They are very rich, and have cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns without end," Tyee suggested craftily25, his dream of sudden wealth beginning to take shape.
"I shall take the gun of Bill-Man for myself," Aab-Waak suddenly proclaimed.
"Nay, it shall be mine!" shouted Neegah; "for there is the price of Mesahchie to be reckoned."
"Peace! O brothers!" Tyee swept the assembly with his hands. "Let the women and children go to their igloos. This is the talk of men; let it be for the ears of men."
"There be guns in plenty for all," he said when the women had unwillingly26 withdrawn27. "I doubt not there will be two guns for each man, without thought of the flour and sugar and other things. And it is easy. The six Sunlanders in Neegah's igloo will we kill to-night while they sleep. To-morrow will we go in peace to the ship to trade, and there, when the time favors, kill all their brothers. And to-morrow night there shall be feasting and merriment and division of wealth. And the least man shall possess more than did ever the greatest before. Is it wise, that which I have spoken, brothers?"
A low growl28 of approval answered him, and preparation for the attack was begun. The six Hungry Folk, as became members of a wealthier tribe, were armed with rifles and plenteously supplied with ammunition29. But it was only here and there that a Mandell possessed30 a gun, many of which were broken, and there was a general slackness of powder and shells. This poverty of war weapons, however, was relieved by myriads31 of bone-headed arrows and casting-spears for work at a distance, and for close quarters steel knives of Russian and Yankee make.
"Let there be no noise," Tyee finally instructed; "but be there many on every side of the igloo, and close, so that the Sunlanders may not break through. Then do you, Neegah, with six of the young men behind, crawl in to where they sleep. Take no guns, which be prone32 to go off at unexpected times, but put the strength of your arms into the knives."
"And be it understood that no harm befall Mesahchie, who is worth a price," Neegah whispered hoarsely33.
Flat upon the ground, the small army concentred on the igloo, and behind, deliciously expectant, crouched34 many women and children, come out to witness the murder. The brief August night was passing, and in the gray of dawn could be dimly discerned the creeping forms of Neegah and the young men. Without pause, on hands and knees, they entered the long passageway and disappeared. Tyee rose up and rubbed his hands. All was going well. Head after head in the big circle lifted and waited. Each man pictured the scene according to his nature—the sleeping men, the plunge35 of the knives, and the sudden death in the dark.
A loud hail, in the voice of a Sunlander, rent the silence, and a shot rang out. Then an uproar36 broke loose inside the igloo. Without premeditation, the circle swept forward into the passageway. On the inside, half a dozen repeating rifles began to chatter37, and the Mandells, jammed in the confined space, were powerless. Those at the front strove madly to retreat from the fire-spitting guns in their very faces, and those in the rear pressed as madly forward to the attack. The bullets from the big 45:90's drove through half a dozen men at a shot, and the passageway, gorged38 with surging, helpless men, became a shambles39. The rifles, pumped without aim into the mass, withered40 it away like a machine gun, and against that steady stream of death no man could advance.
"Never was there the like!" panted one of the Hungry Folk. "I did but look in, and the dead were piled like seals on the ice after a killing41!"
"Did I not say, mayhap, they were fighters?" cackled the weazened old hunter.
"O ye fools!" Tyee chided. "Ye sons of fools! It was not planned, this thing ye have done. To Neegah and the six young men only was it given to go inside. My cunning is superior to the cunning of the Sunlanders, but ye take away its edge, and rob me of its strength, and make it worse than no cunning at all!"
No one made reply, and all eyes centred on the igloo, which loomed43 vague and monstrous44 against the clear northeast sky. Through a hole in the roof the smoke from the rifles curled slowly upward in the pulseless air, and now and again a wounded man crawled painfully through the gray.
"Let each ask of his neighbor for Neegah and the six young men," Tyee commanded.
And after a time the answer came back, "Neegah and the six young men are not."
"The more wealth for those who are left," Tyee grimly consoled. Then, turning to Aab-Waak, he said: "Go thou, and gather together many sealskins filled with oil. Let the hunters empty them on the outside wood of the igloo and of the passage. And let them put fire to it ere the Sunlanders make holes in the igloo for their guns."
Even as he spoke5 a hole appeared in the dirt plastered between the logs, a rifle muzzle48 protruded49, and one of the Hungry Folk clapped hand to his side and leaped in the air. A second shot, through the lungs, brought him to the ground. Tyee and the rest scattered50 to either side, out of direct range, and Aab-Waak hastened the men forward with the skins of oil. Avoiding the loopholes, which were making on every side of the igloo, they emptied the skins on the dry drift-logs brought down by the Mandell River from the tree-lands to the south. Ounenk ran forward with a blazing brand, and the flames leaped upward. Many minutes passed, without sign, and they held their weapons ready as the fire gained headway.
Tyee rubbed his hands gleefully as the dry structure burned and crackled. "Now we have them, brothers! In the trap!"
Covered with a singed53 and blackened blanket, the big white man leaped out of the blazing entrance, and on his heels, likewise shielded, came Mesahchie, and the five other Sunlanders. The Hungry Folk tried to check the rush with an ill-directed volley, while the Mandells hurled55 in a cloud of spears and arrows. But the Sunlanders cast their flaming blankets from them as they ran, and it was seen that each bore on his shoulders a small pack of ammunition. Of all their possessions, they had chosen to save that. Running swiftly and with purpose, they broke the circle and headed directly for the great cliff, which towered blackly in the brightening day a half-mile to the rear of the village.
But Tyee knelt on one knee and lined the sights of his rifle on the rearmost Sunlander. A great shout went up when he pulled the trigger and the man fell forward, struggled partly up, and fell again. Without regard for the rain of arrows, another Sunlander ran back, bent56 over him, and lifted him across his shoulders. But the Mandell spearmen were crowding up into closer range, and a strong cast transfixed the wounded man. He cried out and became swiftly limp as his comrade lowered him to the ground. In the meanwhile, Bill-Man and the three others had made a stand and were driving a leaden hail into the advancing spearmen. The fifth Sunlander bent over his stricken fellow, felt the heart, and then coolly cut the straps57 of the pack and stood up with the ammunition and extra gun.
"Now is he a fool!" cried Tyee, leaping high, as he ran forward, to clear the squirming body of one of the Hungry Folk.
His own rifle was clogged58 so that he could not use it, and he called out for some one to spear the Sunlander, who had turned and was running for safety under the protecting fire. The little old hunter poised59 his spear on the throwing-stick, swept his arm back as he ran, and delivered the cast.
"By the body of the Wolf, say I, it was a good throw!" Tyee praised, as the fleeing man pitched forward, the spear standing60 upright between his shoulders and swaying slowly forward and back.
The little weazened old man coughed and sat down. A streak61 of red showed on his lips and welled into a thick stream. He coughed again, and a strange whistling came and went with his breath.
"They, too, are unafraid, being great fighters," he wheezed62, pawing aimlessly with his hands. "And behold! Bill-Man comes now!"
Tyee glanced up. Four Mandells and one of the Hungry Folk had rushed upon the fallen man and were spearing him from his knees back to the earth. In the twinkling of an eye, Tyee saw four of them cut down by the bullets of the Sunlanders. The fifth, as yet unhurt, seized the two rifles, but as he stood up to make off he was whirled almost completely around by the impact of a bullet in the arm, steadied by a second, and overthrown63 by the shock of a third. A moment later and Bill-Man was on the spot, cutting the pack-straps and picking up the guns.
This Tyee saw, and his own people falling as they straggled forward, and he was aware of a quick doubt, and resolved to lie where he was and see more. For some unaccountable reason, Mesahchie was running back to Bill-Man; but before she could reach him, Tyee saw Peelo run out and throw arms about her. He essayed to sling64 her across his shoulder, but she grappled with him, tearing and scratching at his face. Then she tripped him, and the pair fell heavily. When they regained65 their feet, Peelo had shifted his grip so that one arm was passed under her chin, the wrist pressing into her throat and strangling her. He buried his face in her breast, taking the blows of her hands on his thick mat of hair, and began slowly to force her off the field. Then it was, retreating with the weapons of his fallen comrades, that Bill-Man came upon them. As Mesahchie saw him, she twirled the victim around and held him steady. Bill-Man swung the rifle in his right hand, and hardly easing his stride, delivered the blow. Tyee saw Peelo drive to the earth as smote66 by a falling star, and the Sunlander and Neegah's daughter fleeing side by side.
A bunch of Mandells, led by one of the Hungry Folk, made a futile67 rush which melted away into the earth before the scorching68 fire.
Tyee caught his breath and murmured, "Like the young frost in the morning sun."
"As I say, they are great fighters," the old hunter whispered weakly, far gone in hemorrhage. "I know. I have heard. They be sea-robbers and hunters of seals; and they shoot quick and true, for it is their way of life and the work of their hands."
"Like the young frost in the morning sun," Tyee repeated, crouching69 for shelter behind the dying man and peering at intervals70 about him.
It was no longer a fight, for no Mandell man dared venture forward, and as it was, they were too close to the Sunlanders to go back. Three tried it, scattering72 and scurrying73 like rabbits; but one came down with a broken leg, another was shot through the body, and the third, twisting and dodging74, fell on the edge of the village. So the tribesmen crouched in the hollow places and burrowed75 into the dirt in the open, while the Sunlanders' bullets searched the plain.
"Move not," Tyee pleaded, as Aab-Waak came worming over the ground to him. "Move not, good Aab-Waak, else you bring death upon us."
"Death sits upon many," Aab-Waak laughed; "wherefore, as you say, there will be much wealth in division. My father breathes fast and short behind the big rock yon, and beyond, twisted like in a knot, lieth my brother. But their share shall be my share, and it is well."
"As you say, good Aab-Waak, and as I have said; but before division must come that which we may divide, and the Sunlanders be not yet dead."
A bullet glanced from a rock before them, and singing shrilly76, rose low over their heads on its second flight. Tyee ducked and shivered, but Aab-Waak grinned and sought vainly to follow it with his eyes.
"So swiftly they go, one may not see them," he observed.
"But many be dead of us," Tyee went on.
"And many be left," was the reply. "And they hug close to the earth, for they have become wise in the fashion of righting. Further, they are angered. Moreover, when we have killed the Sunlanders on the ship, there will remain but four on the land. These may take long to kill, but in the end it will happen."
"How may we go down to the ship when we cannot go this way or that?" Tyee questioned.
"It is a bad place where lie Bill-Man and his brothers," Aab-Waak explained. "We may come upon them from every side, which is not good. So they aim to get their backs against the cliff and wait until their brothers of the ship come to give them aid."
"Never shall they come from the ship, their brothers! I have said it."
Tyee was gathering courage again, and when the Sunlanders verified the prediction by retreating to the cliff, he was light-hearted as ever.
"There be only three of us!" complained one of the Hungry Folk as they came together for council.
"Therefore, instead of two, shall you have four guns each," was Tyee's rejoinder.
"We did good fighting."
"Ay; and if it should happen that two of you be left, then will you have six guns each. Therefore, fight well."
"And if there be none of them left?" Aab-Waak whispered slyly.
"Then will we have the guns, you and I," Tyee whispered back.
However, to propitiate78 the Hungry Folk, he made one of them leader of the ship expedition. This party comprised fully45 two-thirds of the tribesmen, and departed for the coast, a dozen miles away, laden79 with skins and things to trade. The remaining men were disposed in a large half-circle about the breastwork which Bill-Man and his Sunlanders had begun to throw up. Tyee was quick to note the virtues80 of things, and at once set his men to digging shallow trenches81.
"The time will go before they are aware," he explained to Aab-Waak; "and their minds being busy, they will not think overmuch of the dead that are, nor gather trouble to themselves. And in the dark of night they may creep closer, so that when the Sunlanders look forth83 in the morning light they will find us very near."
In the midday heat the men ceased from their work and made a meal of dried fish and seal oil which the women brought up. There was some clamor for the food of the Sunlanders in the igloo of Neegah, but Tyee refused to divide it until the return of the ship party. Speculations84 upon the outcome became rife85, but in the midst of it a dull boom drifted up over the land from the sea. The keen-eyed ones made out a dense86 cloud of smoke, which quickly disappeared, and which they averred87 was directly over the ship of the Sunlanders. Tyee was of the opinion that it was a big gun. Aab-Waak did not know, but thought it might be a signal of some sort. Anyway, he said, it was time something happened.
Five or six hours afterward a solitary88 man was descried89 coming across the wide flat from the sea, and the women and children poured out upon him in a body. It was Ounenk, naked, winded, and wounded. The blood still trickled90 down his face from a gash91 on the forehead. His left arm, frightfully mangled92, hung helpless at his side. But most significant of all, there was a wild gleam in his eyes which betokened93 the women knew not what.
"And Olitlie?" "And Polak?" "And Mah-Kook?" the voices took up the cry.
But he said nothing, brushing his way through the clamorous95 mass and directing his staggering steps toward Tyee. The old squaw raised the wail47, and one by one the women joined her as they swung in behind. The men crawled out of their trenches and ran back to gather about Tyee, and it was noticed that the Sunlanders climbed upon their barricade96 to see.
Ounenk halted, swept the blood from his eyes, and looked about. He strove to speak, but his dry lips were glued together. Likeeta fetched him water, and he grunted97 and drank again.
"Was it a fight?" Tyee demanded finally,—"a good fight?"
"Ho! ho! ho!" So suddenly and so fiercely did Ounenk laugh that every voice hushed. "Never was there such a fight! So I say, I, Ounenk, fighter beforetime of beasts and men. And ere I forget, let me speak fat words and wise. By fighting will the Sunlanders teach us Mandell Folk how to fight. And if we fight long enough, we shall be great fighters, even as the Sunlanders, or else we shall be—dead. Ho! ho! ho! It was a fight!"
Ounenk sobered. "My brothers? They are not."
"And Pome-Lee?" cried one of the two Hungry Folk; "Pome-Lee, the son of my mother?"
"Pome-Lee is not," Ounenk answered in a monotonous99 voice.
"And the Sunlanders?" from Aab-Waak.
"The Sunlanders are not."
"Then the ship of the Sunlanders, and the wealth and guns and things?" Tyee demanded.
"Neither the ship of the Sunlanders, nor the wealth and guns and things," was the unvarying response. "All are not. Nothing is. I only am."
"And thou art a fool."
"It may be so," Ounenk answered, unruffled.
"I have seen that which would well make me a fool."
Tyee held his tongue, and all waited till it should please Ounenk to tell the story in his own way.
"We took no guns, O Tyee," he at last began; "no guns, my brothers—only knives and hunting bows and spears. And in twos and threes, in our kayaks, we came to the ship. They were glad to see us, the Sunlanders, and we spread our skins and they brought out their articles of trade, and everything was well. And Pome-Lee waited—waited till the sun was well overhead and they sat at meat, when he gave the cry and we fell upon them. Never was there such a fight, and never such fighters. Half did we kill in the quickness of surprise, but the half that was left became as devils, and they multiplied themselves, and everywhere they fought like devils. Three put their backs against the mast of the ship, and we ringed them with our dead before they died. And some got guns and shot with both eyes wide open, and very quick and sure. And one got a big gun, from which at one time he shot many small bullets. And so, behold!"
"But I, Ounenk, drove my spear through his back from behind. And in such fashion, one way and another, did we kill them all—all save the head man. And him we were about, many of us, and he was alone, when he made a great cry and broke through us, five or six dragging upon him, and ran down inside the ship. And then, when the wealth of the ship was ours, and only the head man down below whom we would kill presently, why then there was a sound as of all the guns in the world—a mighty103 sound! And like a bird I rose up in the air, and the living Mandell Folk, and the dead Sunlanders, the little kayaks, the big ship, the guns, the wealth—everything rose up in the air. So I say, I, Ounenk, who tell the tale, am the only one left."
A great silence fell upon the assemblage. Tyee looked at Aab-Waak with awe-struck eyes, but forbore to speak. Even the women were too stunned104 to wail the dead.
Ounenk looked about him with pride. "I, only, am left," he repeated.
But at that instant a rifle cracked from Bill-Man's barricade, and there was a sharp spat105 and thud on the chest of Ounenk. He swayed backward and came forward again, a look of startled surprise on his face. He gasped106, and his lips writhed107 in a grim smile. There was a shrinking together of the shoulders and a bending of the knees. He shook himself, as might a drowsing man, and straightened up. But the shrinking and bending began again, and he sank down slowly, quite slowly, to the ground.
It was a clean mile from the pit of the Sunlanders, and death had spanned it. A great cry of rage went up, and in it there was much of blood-vengeance, much of the unreasoned ferocity of the brute108. Tyee and Aab-Waak tried to hold the Mandell Folk back, were thrust aside, and could only turn and watch the mad charge. But no shots came from the Sunlanders, and ere half the distance was covered, many, affrighted by the mysterious silence of the pit, halted and waited. The wilder spirits bore on, and when they had cut the remaining distance in half, the pit still showed no sign of life. At two hundred yards they slowed down and bunched; at one hundred, they stopped, a score of them, suspicious, and conferred together.
Then a wreath of smoke crowned the barricade, and they scattered like a handful of pebbles109 thrown at random110. Four went down, and four more, and they continued swiftly to fall, one and two at a time, till but one remained, and he in full flight with death singing about his ears. It was Nok, a young hunter, long-legged and tall, and he ran as never before. He skimmed across the naked open like a bird, and soared and sailed and curved from side to side. The rifles in the pit rang out in solid volley; they flut-flut-flut-flutted in ragged111 sequence; and still Nok rose and dipped and rose again unharmed. There was a lull112 in the firing, as though the Sunlanders had given over, and Nok curved less and less in his flight till he darted113 straight forward at every leap. And then, as he leaped cleanly and well, one lone102 rifle barked from the pit, and he doubled up in mid-air, struck the ground in a ball, and like a ball bounced from the impact, and came down in a broken heap.
"Who so swift as the swift-winged lead?" Aab-Waak pondered.
Tyee grunted and turned away. The incident was closed and there was more pressing matter at hand. One Hungry Man and forty fighters, some of them hurt, remained; and there were four Sunlanders yet to reckon with.
"We will keep them in their hole by the cliff," he said, "and when famine has gripped them hard we will slay114 them like children."
"But of what matter to fight?" queried Oloof, one of the younger men. "The wealth of the Sunlanders is not; only remains115 that in the igloo of Neegah, a paltry116 quantity—"
He broke off hastily as the air by his ear split sharply to the passage of a bullet.
Tyee laughed scornfully. "Let that be thy answer. What else may we do with this mad breed of Sunlanders which will not die?"
"What a thing is foolishness!" Oloof protested, his ears furtively117 alert for the coming of other bullets. "It is not right that they should fight so, these Sunlanders. Why will they not die easily? They are fools not to know that they are dead men, and they give us much trouble."
"We fought before for great wealth; we fight now that we may live," Aab-Waak summed up succinctly118.
That night there was a clash in the trenches, and shots exchanged. And in the morning the igloo of Neegah was found empty of the Sunlanders' possessions. These they themselves had taken, for the signs of their trail were visible to the sun. Oloof climbed to the brow of the cliff to hurl54 great stones down into the pit, but the cliff overhung, and he hurled down abuse and insult instead, and promised bitter torture to them in the end. Bill-Man mocked him back in the tongue of the Bear Folk, and Tyee, lifting his head from a trench82 to see, had his shoulder scratched deeply by a bullet.
And in the dreary119 days that followed, and in the wild nights when they pushed the trenches closer, there was much discussion as to the wisdom of letting the Sunlanders go. But of this they were afraid, and the women raised a cry always at the thought This much they had seen of the Sunlanders; they cared to see no more. All the time the whistle and blub-blub of bullets filled the air, and all the time the death-list grew. In the golden sunrise came the faint, far crack of a rifle, and a stricken woman would throw up her hands on the distant edge of the village; in the noonday heat, men in the trenches heard the shrill77 sing-song and knew their deaths; or in the gray afterglow of evening, the dirt kicked up in puffs120 by the winking121 fires. And through the nights the long "Wah-hoo-ha-a wah-hoo-ha-a!" of mourning women held dolorous122 sway.
As Tyee had promised, in the end famine gripped the Sunlanders. And once, when an early fall gale123 blew, one of them crawled through the darkness past the trenches and stole many dried fish.
But he could not get back with them, and the sun found him vainly hiding in the village. So he fought the great fight by himself, and in a narrow ring of Mandell Folk shot four with his revolver, and ere they could lay hands on him for the torture, turned it on himself and died.
This threw a gloom upon the people. Oloof put the question, "If one man die so hard, how hard will die the three who yet are left?"
Then Mesahchie stood up on the barricade and called in by name three dogs which had wandered close,—meat and life,—which set back the day of reckoning and put despair in the hearts of the Mandell Folk. And on the head of Mesahchie were showered the curses of a generation.
The days dragged by. The sun hurried south, the nights grew long and longer, and there was a touch of frost in the air. And still the Sunlanders held the pit. Hearts were breaking under the unending strain, and Tyee thought hard and deep. Then he sent forth word that all the skins and hides of all the tribe be collected. These he had made into huge cylindrical124 bales, and behind each bale he placed a man.
When the word was given the brief day was almost spent, and it was slow work and tedious, rolling the big bales forward foot by foot The bullets of the Sunlanders blub-blubbed and thudded against them, but could not go through, and the men howled their delight But the dark was at hand, and Tyee, secure of success, called the bales back to the trenches.
In the morning, in the face of an unearthly silence from the pit, the real advance began. At first with large intervals between, the bales slowly converged125 as the circle drew in. At a hundred yards they were quite close together, so that Tyee's order to halt was passed along in whispers. The pit showed no sign of life. They watched long and sharply, but nothing stirred. The advance was taken up and the manoeuvre126 repeated at fifty yards. Still no sign nor sound. Tyee shook his head, and even Aab-Waak was dubious127. But the order was given to go on, and go on they did, till bale touched bale and a solid rampart of skin and hide bowed out from the cliff about the pit and back to the cliff again.
Tyee looked back and saw the women and children clustering blackly in the deserted128 trenches. He looked ahead at the silent pit. The men were wriggling129 nervously130, and he ordered every second bale forward. This double line advanced till bale touched bale as before. Then Aab-Waak, of his own will, pushed one bale forward alone. When it touched the barricade, he waited a long while. After that he tossed unresponsive rocks over into the pit, and finally, with great care, stood up and peered in. A carpet of empty cartridges131, a few white-picked dog bones, and a soggy place where water dripped from a crevice132, met his eyes. That was all. The Sunlanders were gone.
There were murmurings of witchcraft133, vague complaints, dark looks which foreshadowed to Tyee dread134 things which yet might come to pass, and he breathed easier when Aab-Waak took up the trail along the base of the cliff.
"The cave!" Tyee cried. "They foresaw my wisdom of the skin-bales and fled away into the cave!"
The cliff was honey-combed with a labyrinth135 of subterranean136 passages which found vent71 in an opening midway between the pit and where the trench tapped the wall. Thither137, and with many exclamations138, the tribesmen followed Aab-Waak, and, arrived, they saw plainly where the Sunlanders had climbed to the mouth, twenty and odd feet above.
"Now the thing is done," Tyee said, rubbing his hands. "Let word go forth that rejoicing be made, for they are in the trap now, these Sunlanders, in the trap. The young men shall climb up, and the mouth of the cave be filled with stones, so that Bill-Man and his brothers and Mesahchie shall by famine be pinched to shadows and die cursing in the silence and dark."
Cries of delight and relief greeted this, and Howgah, the last of the Hungry Folk, swarmed139 up the steep slant140 and drew himself, crouching, upon the lip of the opening. But as he crouched, a muffled141 report rushed forth, and as he clung desperately142 to the slippery edge, a second. His grip loosed with reluctant weakness, and he pitched down at the feet of Tyee, quivered for a moment like some monstrous jelly, and was still.
"How should I know they were great fighters and unafraid?" Tyee demanded, spurred to defence by recollection of the dark looks and vague complaints.
"We were many and happy," one of the men stated baldly. Another fingered his spear with a prurient143 hand.
But Oloof cried them cease. "Give ear, my brothers! There be another way! As a boy I chanced upon it playing along the steep. It is hidden by the rocks, and there is no reason that a man should go there; wherefore it is secret, and no man knows. It is very small, and you crawl on your belly144 a long way, and then you are in the cave. To-night we will so crawl, without noise, on our bellies145, and come upon the Sunlanders from behind. And to-morrow we will be at peace, and never again will we quarrel with the Sunlanders in the years to come."
"Never again!" chorussed the weary men. "Never again!" And Tyee joined with them.
That night, with the memory of their dead in their hearts, and in their hands stones and spears and knives, the horde146 of women and children collected about the known mouth of the cave. Down the twenty and odd precarious147 feet to the ground no Sunlander could hope to pass and live. In the village remained only the wounded men, while every able man—and there were thirty of them—followed Oloof to the secret opening. A hundred feet of broken ledges148 and insecurely heaped rocks were between it and the earth, and because of the rocks, which might be displaced by the touch of hand or foot, but one man climbed at a time. Oloof went up first, called softly for the next to come on, and disappeared inside. A man followed, a second, and a third, and so on, till only Tyee remained. He received the call of the last man, but a quick doubt assailed150 him and he stayed to ponder. Half an hour later he swung up to the opening and peered in. He could feel the narrowness of the passage, and the darkness before him took on solidity. The fear of the walled-in earth chilled him and he could not venture. All the men who had died, from Neegah the first of the Mandells, to Howgah the last of the Hungry Folk, came and sat with him, but he chose the terror of their company rather than face the horror which he felt to lurk151 in the thick blackness. He had been sitting long when something soft and cold fluttered lightly on his cheek, and he knew the first winter's snow was falling. The dim dawn came, and after that the bright day, when he heard a low guttural sobbing152, which came and went at intervals along the passage and which drew closer each time and more distinct He slipped over the edge, dropped his feet to the first ledge149, and waited.
That which sobbed153 made slow progress, but at last, after many halts, it reached him, and he was sure no Sunlander made the noise. So he reached a hand inside, and where there should have been a head felt the shoulders of a man uplifted on bent arms. The head he found later, not erect154, but hanging straight down so that the crown rested on the floor of the passage.
"Is it you, Tyee?" the head said. "For it is I, Aab-Waak, who am helpless and broken as a rough-flung spear. My head is in the dirt, and I may not climb down unaided."
Tyee clambered in, dragged him up with his back against the wall, but the head hung down on the chest and sobbed and wailed.
"Ai-oo-o, ai-oo-o!" it went "Oloof forgot, for Mesahchie likewise knew the secret and showed the Sunlanders, else they would not have waited at the end of the narrow way. Wherefore, I am a broken man, and helpless—ai-oo-o, ai-oo-o!"
"And did they die, the cursed Sunlanders, at the end of the narrow way?" Tyee demanded.
"How should I know they waited?" Aab-Waak gurgled. "For my brothers had gone before, many of them, and there was no sound of struggle. How should I know why there should be no sound of struggle? And ere I knew, two hands were about my neck so that I could not cry out and warn my brothers yet to come. And then there were two hands more on my head, and two more on my feet. In this fashion the three Sunlanders had me. And while the hands held my head in the one place, the hands on my feet swung my body around, and as we wring155 the neck of a duck in the marsh156, so my week was wrung157.
"But it was not given that I should die," he went on, a remnant of pride yet glimmering158. "I, only, am left. Oloof and the rest lie on their backs in a row, and their faces turn this way and that, and the faces of some be underneath159 where the backs of their heads should be. It is not good to look upon; for when life returned to me I saw them all by the light of a torch which the Sunlanders left, and I had been laid with them in the row."
He started suddenly, and shivered, for the voice of Bill-Man shot out at him from the passage.
"It is well," it said. "I look for the man who crawls with the broken neck, and lo, do I find Tyee. Throw down thy gun, Tyee, so that I may hear it strike among the rocks."
Tyee obeyed passively, and Bill-Man crawled forward into the light. Tyee looked at him curiously161. He was gaunt and worn and dirty, and his eyes burned like twin coals in their cavernous sockets162.
"I am hungry, Tyee," he said. "Very hungry."
"And I am dirt at thy feet," Tyee responded.
"Thy word is my law. Further, I commanded my people not to withstand thee. I counselled—"
But Bill-Man had turned and was calling back into the passage. "Hey! Charley! Jim! Fetch the woman along and come on!"
"We go now to eat," he said, when his comrades and Mesahchie had joined him.
Tyee rubbed his hands deprecatingly. "We have little, but it is thine."
"After that we go south on the snow," Bill-Man continued.
"May you go without hardship and the trail be easy."
"It is a long way. We will need dogs and food—much!"
"Thine the pick of our dogs and the food they may carry."
Bill-Man slipped over the edge of the opening and prepared to descend163. "But we come again, Tyee. We come again, and our days shall be long in the land."
And so they departed into the trackless south, Bill-Man, his brothers, and Mesahchie. And when the next year came, the Search Number Two rode at anchor in Mandell Bay. The few Mandell men, who survived because their wounds had prevented their crawling into the cave, went to work at the best of the Sunlanders and dug in the ground. They hunt and fish no more, but receive a daily wage, with which they buy flour, sugar, calico, and such things which the Search Number Two brings on her yearly trip from the Sunlands.
And this mine is worked in secret, as many Northland mines have been worked; and no white man outside the Company, which is Bill-Man, Jim, and Charley, knows the whereabouts of Mandell on the rim of the polar sea. Aab-Waak still carries his head on one shoulder, is become an oracle164, and preaches peace to the younger generation, for which he receives a pension from the Company. Tyee is foreman of the mine. But he has achieved a new theory concerning the Sunlanders.
"They that live under the path of the sun are not soft," he says, smoking his pipe and watching the day-shift take itself off and the night-shift go on. "For the sun enters into their blood and burns them with a great fire till they are filled with lusts165 and passions. They burn always, so that they may not know when they are beaten. Further, there is an unrest in them, which is a devil, and they are flung out over the earth to toil166 and suffer and fight without end. I know. I am Tyee."
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1
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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3
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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4
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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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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6
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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7
sagely
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| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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9
outfits
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| n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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11
aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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12
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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13
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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14
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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petulantly
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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24
attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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25
craftily
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| 狡猾地，狡诈地 | |
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unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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28
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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29
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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30
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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32
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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38
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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shambles
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| n.混乱之处；废墟 | |
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40
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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41
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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42
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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43
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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44
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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45
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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46
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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48
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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49
protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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51
gainsay
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| v.否认，反驳 | |
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52
squeaked
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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53
singed
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| v.浅表烧焦( singe的过去式和过去分词 )；（毛发）燎，烧焦尖端[边儿] | |
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54
hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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55
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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56
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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57
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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58
clogged
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| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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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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61
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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62
wheezed
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| v.喘息，发出呼哧呼哧的喘息声( wheeze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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64
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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65
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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66
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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67
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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68
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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69
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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70
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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71
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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72
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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73
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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74
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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75
burrowed
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的过去式和过去分词 )；翻寻 | |
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76
shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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77
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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78
propitiate
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| v.慰解，劝解 | |
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79
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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80
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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81
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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82
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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83
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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84
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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85
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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86
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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87
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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88
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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89
descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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90
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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91
gash
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| v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝 | |
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92
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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93
betokened
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| v.预示，表示( betoken的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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94
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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95
clamorous
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| adj.吵闹的，喧哗的 | |
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96
barricade
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| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
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97
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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98
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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100
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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101
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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102
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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103
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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104
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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105
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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106
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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107
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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109
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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110
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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111
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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112
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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113
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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114
slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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115
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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116
paltry
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| adj.无价值的，微不足道的 | |
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117
furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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118
succinctly
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| adv.简洁地；简洁地，简便地 | |
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119
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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120
puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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121
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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122
dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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123
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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124
cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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125
converged
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| v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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126
manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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127
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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128
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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129
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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130
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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131
cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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132
crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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133
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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134
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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135
labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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136
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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137
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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138
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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139
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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140
slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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141
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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142
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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143
prurient
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| adj.好色的，淫乱的 | |
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144
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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145
bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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146
horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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147
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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148
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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149
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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150
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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151
lurk
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| n.潜伏，潜行；v.潜藏，潜伏，埋伏 | |
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152
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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153
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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154
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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155
wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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156
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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157
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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158
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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159
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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160
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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161
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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162
sockets
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| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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163
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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164
oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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165
lusts
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| 贪求（lust的第三人称单数形式） | |
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166
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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