"'Singapore Charlie's,' they call it. It's a center for some of the Chinese societies, I believe, but all sorts of opium3-smokers use it. There have never been any complaints that I know of. I don't understand this."
We stood in his room at New Scotland Yard, bending over a sheet of foolscap upon which were arranged some burned fragments from poor Cadby's grate, for so hurriedly had the girl done her work that combustion4 had not been complete.
"What do we make of this?" said Smith. "'… Hunchback … lascar went up … unlike others … not return … till Shen-Yan' (there is no doubt about the name, I think) 'turned me out … booming sound … lascar in … mortuary I could ident … not for days, or suspici … Tuesday night in a different make … snatch … pigtail…'"
"The pigtail again!" rapped Weymouth.
"She evidently burned the torn-out pages all together," continued Smith. "They lay flat, and this was in the middle. I see the hand of retributive justice in that, Inspector. Now we have a reference to a hunchback, and what follows amounts to this: A lascar (amongst several other persons) went up somewhere—presumably upstairs—at Shen-Yan's, and did not come down again. Cadby, who was there disguised, noted6 a booming sound. Later, he identified the lascar in some mortuary. We have no means of fixing the date of this visit to Shen-Yan's, but I feel inclined to put down the 'lascar' as the dacoit who was murdered by Fu-Manchu! It is sheer supposition, however. But that Cadby meant to pay another visit to the place in a different 'make-up' or disguise, is evident, and that the Tuesday night proposed was last night is a reasonable deduction7. The reference to a pigtail is principally interesting because of what was found on Cadby's body."
Inspector Weymouth nodded affirmatively, and Smith glanced at his watch.
"Exactly ten-twenty-three," he said. "I will trouble you, Inspector, for the freedom of your fancy wardrobe. There is time to spend an hour in the company of Shen-Yan's opium friends."
Nayland Smith laughed.
"Worse than useless! By your own showing, the place is open to inspection10. No; guile11 against guile! We are dealing12 with a Chinaman, with the incarnate13 essence of Eastern subtlety14, with the most stupendous genius that the modern Orient has produced."
"I don't believe in disguises," said Weymouth, with a certain truculence15. "It's mostly played out, that game, and generally leads to failure. Still, if you're determined16, sir, there's an end of it. Foster will make your face up. What disguise do you propose to adopt?"
"A sort of Dago seaman17, I think; something like poor Cadby. I can rely on my knowledge of the brutes18, if I am sure of my disguise."
"You are forgetting me, Smith," I said.
He turned to me quickly.
"Petrie," he replied, "it is MY business, unfortunately, but it is no sort of hobby."
"You mean that you can no longer rely upon me?" I said angrily.
Smith grasped my hand, and met my rather frigid19 stare with a look of real concern on his gaunt, bronzed face.
"My dear old chap," he answered, "that was really unkind. You know that I meant something totally different."
"It's all right, Smith;" I said, immediately ashamed of my choler, and wrung20 his hand heartily21. "I can pretend to smoke opium as well as another. I shall be going, too, Inspector."
As a result of this little passage of words, some twenty minutes later two dangerous-looking seafaring ruffians entered a waiting cab, accompanied by Inspector Weymouth, and were driven off into the wilderness22 of London's night. In this theatrical23 business there was, to my mind, something ridiculous—almost childish—and I could have laughed heartily had it not been that grim tragedy lurked24 so near to farce25.
The mere26 recollection that somewhere at our journey's end Fu-Manchu awaited us was sufficient to sober my reflections—Fu-Manchu, who, with all the powers represented by Nayland Smith pitted against him, pursued his dark schemes triumphantly27, and lurked in hiding within this very area which was so sedulously28 patrolled—Fu-Manchu, whom I had never seen, but whose name stood for horrors indefinable! Perhaps I was destined29 to meet the terrible Chinese doctor to-night.
I ceased to pursue a train of thought which promised to lead to morbid30 depths, and directed my attention to what Smith was saying.
"We will drop down from Wapping and reconnoiter, as you say the place is close to the riverside. Then you can put us ashore31 somewhere below. Ryman can keep the launch close to the back of the premises32, and your fellows will be hanging about near the front, near enough to hear the whistle."
"Yes," assented33 Weymouth; "I've arranged for that. If you are suspected, you shall give the alarm?"
"I don't know," said Smith thoughtfully. "Even in that event I might wait awhile."
"Don't wait too long," advised the Inspector. "We shouldn't be much wiser if your next appearance was on the end of a grapnel, somewhere down Greenwich Reach, with half your fingers missing."
The cab pulled up outside the river police depot34, and Smith and I entered without delay, four shabby-looking fellows who had been seated in the office springing up to salute35 the Inspector, who followed us in.
"Guthrie and Lisle," he said briskly, "get along and find a dark corner which commands the door of Singapore Charlie's off the old Highway. You look the dirtiest of the troupe36, Guthrie; you might drop asleep on the pavement, and Lisle can argue with you about getting home. Don't move till you hear the whistle inside or have my orders, and note everybody that goes in and comes out. You other two belong to this division?"
"Well, you're on special duty to-night. You've been prompt, but don't stick your chests out so much. Do you know of a back way to Shen-Yan's?"
The men looked at one another, and both shook their heads.
"There's an empty shop nearly opposite, sir," replied one of them. "I know a broken window at the back where we could climb in. Then we could get through to the front and watch from there."
"Good!" cried the Inspector. "See you are not spotted38, though; and if you hear the whistle, don't mind doing a bit of damage, but be inside Shen-Yan's like lightning. Otherwise, wait for orders."
Inspector Ryman came in, glancing at the clock.
"Launch is waiting," he said.
"Right," replied Smith thoughtfully. "I am half afraid, though, that the recent alarms may have scared our quarry—your man, Mason, and then Cadby. Against which we have that, so far as he is likely to know, there has been no clew pointing to this opium den5. Remember, he thinks Cadby's notes are destroyed."
"The whole business is an utter mystery to me," confessed Ryman. "I'm told that there's some dangerous Chinese devil hiding somewhere in London, and that you expect to find him at Shen-Yan's. Supposing he uses that place, which is possible, how do you know he's there to-night?"
"I don't," said Smith; "but it is the first clew we have had pointing to one of his haunts, and time means precious lives where Dr. Fu-Manchu is concerned."
"Who is he, sir, exactly, this Dr. Fu-Manchu?"
"I have only the vaguest idea, Inspector; but he is no ordinary criminal. He is the greatest genius which the powers of evil have put on earth for centuries. He has the backing of a political group whose wealth is enormous, and his mission in Europe is to PAVE THE WAY! Do you follow me? He is the advance-agent of a movement so epoch-making that not one Britisher, and not one American, in fifty thousand has ever dreamed of it."
Ryman stared, but made no reply, and we went out, passing down to the breakwater and boarding the waiting launch. With her crew of three, the party numbered seven that swung out into the Pool, and, clearing the pier39, drew in again and hugged the murky40 shore.
The night had been clear enough hitherto, but now came scudding41 rainbanks to curtain the crescent moon, and anon to unveil her again and show the muddy swirls42 about us. The view was not extensive from the launch. Sometimes a deepening of the near shadows would tell of a moored43 barge44, or lights high above our heads mark the deck of a large vessel45. In the floods of moonlight gaunt shapes towered above; in the ensuing darkness only the oily glitter of the tide occupied the foreground of the night-piece.
The Surrey shore was a broken wall of blackness, patched with lights about which moved hazy46 suggestions of human activity. The bank we were following offered a prospect47 even more gloomy—a dense48, dark mass, amid which, sometimes, mysterious half-tones told of a dock gate, or sudden high lights leapt flaring49 to the eye.
Then, out of the mystery ahead, a green light grew and crept down upon us. A giant shape loomed50 up, and frowned crushingly upon the little craft. A blaze of light, the jangle of a bell, and it was past. We were dancing in the wash of one of the Scotch51 steamers, and the murk had fallen again.
Discords52 of remote activity rose above the more intimate throbbing53 of our screw, and we seemed a pigmy company floating past the workshops of Brobdingnagian toilers. The chill of the near water communicated itself to me, and I felt the protection of my shabby garments inadequate54 against it.
Far over on the Surrey shore a blue light—vaporous, mysterious—flicked translucent55 tongues against the night's curtain. It was a weird56, elusive57 flame, leaping, wavering, magically changing from blue to a yellowed violet, rising, falling.
"Only a gasworks," came Smith's voice, and I knew that he, too, had been watching those elfin fires. "But it always reminds me of a Mexican teocalli, and the altar of sacrifice."
The simile58 was apt, but gruesome. I thought of Dr. Fu-Manchu and the severed59 fingers, and could not repress a shudder60.
"On your left, past the wooden pier! Not where the lamp is—beyond that; next to the dark, square building—Shen-Yan's."
It was Inspector Ryman speaking.
"drop us somewhere handy, then," replied Smith, "and lie close in, with your ears wide open. We may have to run for it, so don't go far away."
From the tone of his voice I knew that the night mystery of the Thames had claimed at least one other victim.
"Dead slow," came Ryman's order. "We'll put in to the Stone Stairs."
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1
burrows
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| n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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combustion
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| n.燃烧；氧化；骚动 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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guile
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| n.诈术 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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truculence
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| n.凶猛，粗暴 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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19
frigid
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| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
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20
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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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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24
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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sedulously
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| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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33
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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35
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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36
troupe
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| n.剧团，戏班；杂技团；马戏团 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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38
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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40
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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41
scudding
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| n.刮面v.（尤指船、舰或云彩）笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的现在分词 ) | |
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42
swirls
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| n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 ) | |
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43
moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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44
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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45
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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46
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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47
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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48
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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49
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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50
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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51
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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52
discords
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| 不和（discord的复数形式） | |
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53
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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54
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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55
translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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56
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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57
elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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58
simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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59
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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60
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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