Part Two Chapter 2

Fyodor took his short-stemmed pipe out of his mouth and poked¹ reflectively at the ash in the bowl with a cautious finger; the pipe was out.
A dense² cloud of grey smoke from a dozen cigarettes hovered³ below the ceiling and over the chair where sat the Chairman of the Gubernia Executive Committee. From the corners of the room the faces of the people seated around the table were only dimly visible through the haze⁴.
Tokarev, sitting next to the Chairman, leaned forward and plucked irritably⁶ at his sparse⁷ beard, glancing now and again out of the corner of his eye at a short, bald-headed man whose high-pitched voice went on endlessly stringing out phrases that were as empty and meaningless as a sucked egg.
Akim caught the look in the old worker's eye and was reminded of a fighting cock back in his childhood days in the village who had had the same wicked look in his eye just before pouncing⁸ on his adversary⁹.
The Gubernia Party Committee had been in conference for more than an hour. The bald man was Chairman of the Railway Firewood Committee.
Leafing with nimble fingers through the heap of papers before him, the bald man rattled¹⁰ on: "..
.Under these circumstances it is clearly impossible to carry out the decision of the Gubernia Committee and the railway management. I repeat, even a month from now we shall not be able to give more than four hundred cubic metres of firewood. As for the one hundred and eighty thousand cubic metres required, well, that's sheer..." the speaker fumbled¹¹ for the right word, "er... sheer utopia!" he wound up and his small mouth pursed itself up into an expression of injury. There was a long silence.
Fyodor tapped his pipe with his fingernail and knocked out the ashes. It was Tokarev who finally broke the silence.
"There's no use wasting our breath," he began in his rumbling¹² bass¹³. "The Railway Firewood Committee hasn't any firewood, never had any, and doesn't expect any in the future.... Right?"
The bald man shrugged¹⁴ a shoulder.
"Excuse me, Comrade, we did stock up firewood, but the shortage of road transport...." He swallowed, wiped his polished pate¹⁵ with a checkered¹⁶ handkerchief; he made several fruitless attempts to stuff the handkerchief back into his pocket, and finally shoved it nervously¹⁷ under his portfolio¹⁸.
"What have you done about delivering the wood? After all, a good many days have passed since the leading specialists mixed up in the conspiracy²⁰ were arrested," Denekko observed from his corner.
The bald man turned to him. "I wrote the railway administration three times stating that unless we had the proper transport facilities it would be impossible...."
Tokarev stopped him. "We've heard that already," he said coldly, eyeing the bald man with hostility²¹. "Do you take us for a pack of fools?"
The bald man felt a chill run down his spine²² at these words.
"I cannot answer for the actions of counter-revolutionaries," he replied in a low voice.
"But you knew, didn't you, that the timber was being felled a long distance from the railway line?"
"I heard about it, but I could not bring the attention of my superiors to irregularities on a sector²³ outside my province."
"How many men have you on the job?" the chairman of the trade union council demanded.
"About two hundred," the bald man replied.
"That makes a cubic metre a year for every parasite²⁴!" fumed²⁵ Tokarev.
"The Railway Firewood Committee has been allotted²⁶ special rations²⁷, food the workers ought to be getting, and look what you're doing? What happened to those two carriages of flour you received for the workers?" the trade union chairman persisted.
Similar pointed²⁸ questions rained down on the bald man from all sides and he answered them in the harassed²⁹ manner of a man trying to ward⁵ off annoying creditors³⁰. He twisted and turned like an eel³¹ to avoid direct answers, but his eyes darted³² nervously about him. He sensed danger and his cowardly soul craved³³ but one thing: to get away from here as quickly as possible and slink off to his cosy³⁴ nest, to his supper and his still youthful wife who was probably cosily³⁵ whiling away the time with a Paul de Kock novel.
Lending an attentive³⁶ ear to the bald man's replies, Fyodor scribbled³⁷ in his notebook: "I believe this man ought to be checked up on properly. This is more than mere³⁸ incompetence³⁹. I know one or two things about him.... Stop the discussion and let him go so we can get down to business."
The Chairman read the note and nodded to Fyodor.
Zhukhrai rose and went out into the corridor to make a telephone call. When he returned the Chairman was reading the resolution:
". . .to remove the management of the Railway Firewood Committee for downright sabotage⁴⁰, the matter of the timber workings to be turned over to the investigation⁴¹ authorities."
The bald man had expected worse. True, to be removed from his post for downright sabotage would raise the question of his reliability⁴² in general, but that was a mere trifle. As for the Boyarka business, he was not worried, that was not his province after all. "A close shave, though," he said to himself, "I thought they had really dug up something. ..."
Now almost reassured⁴³, he remarked as he put his papers back into his portfolio: "Of course, I am a non-Party specialist and you are at liberty to distrust me. But my conscience is clear. If I have failed to do what was required of me that was because it was impossible."
No one made any comment. The bald man went out, hurried downstairs, and opened the street door with a feeling of intense relief.
"Your name, please?" a man in an army coat accosted⁴⁵ him.
With a sinking heart the baldhead stammered⁴⁶: "Cher. . . vinsky...."
Upstairs as soon as the outsider was gone, thirteen heads bent⁴⁷ closer over the large conference table.
"See here," Zhukhrai's finger jabbed the unfolded map. "That's Boyarka station. The timber felling is six versts away. There are two hundred and ten thousand cubic metres of wood stacked up at this point: a whole army of men worked hard for eight months to pile up all that wood, and what's the result? Treachery. The railway and the town are without firewood. To haul that timber six versts to the station would take five thousand carts no less than one month, and that only if they made two trips a day. The nearest village is fifteen versts away. What's more, Orlik and his band are prowling about in those parts. You realise what this means? Look, according to the plan the felling was to have been started right here and continued in the direction of the station, and those scoundrels carried it right into the depths of the forest. The purpose was to make sure we would not be able to haul the firewood to the railway line. And they weren't far wrong — we can't even get a hundred carts for the job. It's a foul⁴⁸ blow they've struck us. The uprising was no more serious than this."
Zhukhrai's clenched⁴⁹ fist dropped heavily onto the waxed paper of the map. Each of the thirteen clearly visualised the grimmer aspects of the situation which Zhukhrai had omitted to mention.
Winter was in the offing. They saw hospitals, schools, offices and hundreds of thousands of people caught in the icy grip of the frost; the railway stations swarming⁵⁰ with people and only one train a week to handle the traffic.
There was deep silence as each man pondered the situation.
At length Fyodor relaxed his fist.
"There is one way out, Comrades," he said.
"We must build a seven-verst narrow-gauge line from the station to the timber tract⁵¹ in three months. The first section leading to the beginning of the tract must be ready in six weeks. I've been working on this for the past week. We'll need," Zhukhrai's voice cracked in his dry throat, "three hundred and fifty workers and two engineers. There is enough rails and seven engines at Pushcha-Voditsa. The Komsomols dug them up in the warehouses⁵². There was a project to lay a narrow-gauge line from Pushcha-Voditsa to the town before the war. The trouble is there are no accommodations in Boyarka for the workers, the place is in ruins. We'll have to send the men in
small groups for a fortnight at a time, they won't be able to hold out any longer than that. Shall we send the Komsomols, Akim?" And without waiting for an answer, he went on: "The Komsomol will rush as many of its members to the spot as possible. There's the Solomenka organisation⁵³ to begin with, and some from the town. The-task is hard, very hard, but if the youngsters are told what is at stake I'm certain they'll do it."
The chief of the railway shook his head dubiously⁵⁴.
"I'm afraid it's no use. To lay seven versts of track in the woods under such conditions, with the autumn rains due and the frosts coming..." he began wearily. But Zhukhrai cut him short. "You ought to have paid more attention to the firewood problem, Andrei Vasilievich. That line has got to be built and we're going to build it. We're not going to fold our hands and freeze to death,are we?"

The last crates⁵⁵ of tools were loaded onto the train. The train crew took their places. A fine drizzle⁵⁶ was falling. Crystal raindrops rolled down Rita's glistening⁵⁷ leather jacket.
Rita shook hands warmly with Tokarev. "We wish you luck," she said softly.
The old man regarded her affectionately from beneath his bushy grey eyebrows⁵⁸.
"Yes, they've given us a peck of trouble, blast 'em," he growled⁵⁹ in answer to his own thoughts.
"You here had better look to things, so that if there's any hitch⁶⁰ over there you can put a bit of pressure on where it's needed. These good-for-nothings here can't do anything without a lot of red tape. Well, time I was getting aboard, daughter."
The old man buttoned up his jacket. At the last moment Rita inquired casually⁶¹: "Isn't Korchagin going along? I didn't notice him among the boys."
"No, he and the job superintendent⁶² went out there yesterday by handcar to prepare for our coming."
At that moment Zharky, Dubava, and Anna Borhart with her jacket thrown carelessly across her shoulders and a cigarette between her slender fingers, came hurrying down the platform toward them.
Rita had time to ask Tokarev one more question before the others joined them.
"How are your studies with Korchagin getting along?"
The old man looked at her in surprise.
"What studies? The lad's under your wing, isn't he? He's told me a lot about you. Thinks the world of you."
Rita looked sceptical. "Are you quite sure, Comrade Tokarev? Didn't he always go to you for a proper explanation after his lessons with me?"
The old man burst out laughing. "To me? Why, I never saw hide or hair of him."
The engine shrieked⁶³. Klavicek shouted from one of the carriages:
"Hey, Comrade Ustinovich, give us our daddy back! What'd we do without him?"
The Czech was about to say something else, but catching⁶⁴ sight of the three late-comers he checked himself. He noticed the anxious look in Anna's eyes, caught with a pang⁶⁵ her parting smile to Dubava and turned quickly away from the window.

The autumn rain lashed⁶⁶ the face. Low clouds, leaden-hued and swollen⁶⁷ with moisture, crawled over the earth. Late autumn had stripped the woods bare; and the old hornbeams looked gaunt and downcast, their wrinkled trunks hidden under the brown moss⁶⁸. Remorseless autumn had robbed them of their luxuriant garments, and they stood there naked and pitiful.
The little station building huddled⁶⁹ forlornly in the midst of the forest. A strip of freshly dug earth ran from the stone freight platform into the woods. Around this strip men swarmed⁷⁰ like ants.
The clayey mud squelched⁷¹ unpleasantly underfoot. There was a ringing of crowbars and a grating of spades on stone over by the embankment where the men were furiously digging.
The rain came down as if through a fine sieve⁷² and the chill drops penetrated⁷³ the men's clothing.
The rain threatened to wash away what their labour had accomplished⁷⁴, for the clay slid down the embankment in a soggy mass.
Soaked to the skin, their clothing chill and sodden⁷⁵, the men worked on until long after dark.
And with every day the strip of upturned earth penetrated farther and farther into the forest.
Not far from the station loomed⁷⁶ the grim skeleton of what had once been a brick building.
Everything that could be removed bodily, torn out or blasted loose had long since been carried off by marauders. There were gaping⁷⁷ holes in place of windows and doors; black gashes⁷⁸ where stove doors had once been. Through the holes in the tattered⁷⁹ roof the rafters showed like the ribs⁸⁰ of a skeleton.
Only the concrete floor in the four large rooms remained intact. At night four hundred men slept on this floor in their damp, mud-caked clothing. Muddy water streamed from their clothes when they wrung⁸¹ them out at the doorway⁸². And the men heaped bitter curses on the rain and the boggy⁸³ soil. They lay in compact rows on the concrete floor with its thin covering of straw, huddling⁸⁴ together for warmth. The steam rose from their clothing but it did not dry. And the rain seeped⁸⁵ through the sacks that were nailed over the empty window frames and trickled⁸⁷ down onto the floor. It drummed loudly on the remnants of sheet metal roofing, and the wind whistled through
the great cracks in the door. In the morning they drank tea in the tumbledown barracks that served for a kitchen, and went off to their work. Dinner, day after day with sickening monotony, consisted of plain boiled lentils, and there was a daily allowance of a pound and a half of bread as black as coal.
That was all the town could provide. The job superintendent, Valerian Nikodimovich Patoshkin, a tall spare old man with two deep lines at his mouth, and technician Vakulenko, a thickset man with a coarse-featured face and a fleshy nose, had put up at the station master's house.
Tokarev shared the tiny room occupied by the station Cheka agent, a small, volatile⁸⁸ man named Kholyava.
The men endured the hardships with dogged fortitude⁹⁰, and the railway embankment reached farther into the forest from day to day.
True, there had been some desertions: at first nine, and a few days later, another five.
The first major calamity⁹¹ occurred a week after the work started, when the bread supply failed to arrive with the night train.

Dubava woke Tokarev and told him the news. The secretary of the Party group swung his hairy legs over the side of the bed and scratched himself furiously under the armpit.
"The fun's beginning!" he growled and began hastily to dress.
Kholyava waddled⁹² in on his short legs.
"Run down to the telephone and call the Special Department," Tokarev instructed him, and turning to Dubava added, "and not a word to anybody about the bread, mind."
After berating⁹³ the railway telephone operators for a full half hour, the irrepressible Kholyava succeeded in getting Zhukhrai, the assistant chief of the Special Department, on the line, while Tokarev stood by fidgeting with impatience⁹⁴.
"What! Bread not delivered? I'll find out who's responsible for that!" Zhukhrai's voice coming over the wire had an ominous⁹⁵ ring.
"What are we going to give the men to eat tomorrow?" Tokarev shouted back angrily.
There was a long pause; Zhukhrai was evidently considering some plan of action. "You'll get the bread tonight," he said at last. "I'll send young Litke with the car. He knows the way. You'll have the bread by morning."
At dawn a mud-spattered car loaded with sacks of bread drove up to the station. Litke, his face white and strained after a sleepless⁹⁶ night at the wheel, climbed out wearily.
Work on the railway line became a struggle against increasing odds⁹⁷. The railway administration announced that there were no sleepers⁹⁹ to be had. The town authorities could find no means of shipping¹⁰⁰ the rails and engines to the railway job, and the engines themselves turned out to be in need of substantial repairs. No workers were forthcoming to replace the first batch¹⁰² who had done their share and were now so completely worn out that there could be no question of detaining them.
The leading Party members met in the tumbledown shed dimly lit by a wick lamp and sat up late into the night discussing the situation.
The following morning Tokarev, Dubava and Klavicek went to town, taking six men with them to repair the engines and speed up the shipment of the rails. Klavicek, who was a baker¹⁰³ by trade, was sent as inspector¹⁰⁴ to the supply department, while the rest went on to Pushcha-Voditsa.
The rain poured down without ceasing.

Pavel Korchagin pulled his foot out of the sticky slime with an effort. A sharp sensation of cold told him that the worn sole of his boot had finally parted from the uppers. His torn boots had been a source of keen discomfort¹⁰⁵ to Pavel ever since he had come to the job. They were never dry and the mud that filtered in squelched when he walked. Now one sole was gone altogether and the icy mire¹⁰⁶ cut into his bare foot. Pavel pulled the sole out of the mud and regarded it with despair and
broke the vow¹⁰⁷ he had given himself not to swear. He could not go on working with one foot exposed, so he hobbled back to the barracks, sat down beside the field kitchen, took off his muddy footcloth and stretched out his numb¹⁰⁸ foot to the fire.
Odarka, the lineman's wife who worked as cook's helper, was busy cutting up beetroots at the kitchen table. A woman of generous proportions, still youthful, with broad almost masculine shoulders, an ample bosom¹⁰⁹ and massive hips⁸⁹, she wielded¹¹⁰ the kitchen knife with vigour¹¹¹ and the mountain of sliced vegetables grew rapidly under her nimble fingers.

Odarka threw a careless glance at Pavel and snapped at him:
"If it's dinner you're hankering after you're a bit early, my lad. Ought to be ashamed of yourself sneaking¹¹² away from work like that! Take your feet off that stove. This is a kitchen, not a bathhouse!"
The cook came in at that point.
"My blasted boot has gone to pieces," Pavel said, explaining his untimely presence in the kitchen.
The elderly cook looked at the battered¹¹³ boot and nodding toward Odarka he said: "Her husband might be able to do something with it, he's a bit of a cobbler. Better see to it or you'll be in a bad way. You can't get along without boots."
When she heard this, Odarka took another look at Pavel.
"I took you for a loafer," she admitted.
Pavel smiled to show that there were no hard feelings. Odarka examined the boot with the eye of an expert.
"There's no use trying to patch it," she concluded.
"But I'll tell you what I can do. I'll bring you an old galosh we've got lying around at home and you can wear it on top of the boot. You can't go around like that, you'll kill yourself! The frosts will start any day now!"
And Odarka, now all sympathy, laid down her knife and hurried out, returning shortly with a deep galosh and a strip of stout¹¹⁴ linen¹¹⁵.
As he wrapped his foot, now warm and dry, in the thick linen and put it into the galosh, Pavel rewarded Odarka with a grateful look.

Tokarev came back from town fuming¹¹⁶. He called a meeting of the leading Communists in Kholyava's room and told them the unpleasant news.
"Nothing but obstacles all along the line. Wherever you go the wheels seem to be turning but they don't get anywhere. Far too many of those White rats about, and it looks as if there'll be enough to last our lifetime anyway. I tell you, boys, things look bad. There are no replacements¹¹⁷ for us yet and no one knows how many there will be. The frosts are due any day now, and we must get through the marsh¹¹⁸ before then at all costs, because when the ground freezes it'll be too late. So while they're shaking up those fellows in town who're making a mess of things, we here have to double our speed. That line has got to be built and we're going to build it if we die doing it.
Otherwise it isn't Bolsheviks we'll be but jelly-fish." There was a steely note in Tokarev's hoarse¹¹⁹ bass voice, and his eyes under their bushy brows had a stubborn gleam.
"We'll call a closed meeting today and pass on the news to our Party members and tomorrow we'll all get down to work. In the morning we'll let the non-Party fellows go; the rest of us will stay.
Here's the Gubernia Committee decision," he said, handing Pankratov a folded sheet of paper.
Pavel Korchagin, peering over Pankratov's shoulder, read: "In view of the emergency all members of the Komsomol are to remain on the job and are not to be relieved until the first consignment¹²⁰ of firewood is forthcoming. Signed R. Ustinovich, on behalf of the Secretary of the Gubernia Committee."
The kitchen barracks was packed. One hundred and twenty men had squeezed themselves into its narrow confines. They stood against the walls, climbed on the tables and some were even perched on top of the field kitchen.
Pankratov opened the meeting. Then Tokarev made a brief speech winding¹²¹ up with an announcement that had the effect of a bombshell:
"The Communists and Komsomols will not leave the job tomorrow."
The old man accompanied his statement with a gesture that stressed the finality of the "decision. It swept away all cherished hopes of returning to town, going home, getting away from this hole.
A roar of angry voices drowned out everything else for a few moments. The swaying bodies caused the feeble oil light to flicker¹²² fitfully. In the semidarkness the commotion¹²³ increased. They wanted to go "home"; they protested indignantly that they had had as much as they could stand.
Some received the news in silence. And only one man spoke¹²⁴ of deserting.
"To hell with it all!" he shouted angrily from his corner, loosing an ugly stream of invective¹²⁵. "I'm not going to stay here another day. It's all right to do hard labour if you've committed a crime. But what have we done? We're fools to stand for it. We've had two weeks of it, and that's enough. Let those who made the decision come out and do the work themselves. Maybe some folks like poking¹²⁶ around in this muck, but I've only one life to live. I'm leaving tomorrow."
The voice came from behind Okunev and he lit a match to see who it was. For an instant the speaker's rage-distorted face and open mouth were snatched out of the darkness by the match's flame. But that instant was enough for Okunev to recognise the son of a gubernia food commissariat bookkeeper.
"Checking up, eh?" he snarled¹²⁷. "Well, I'm not afraid, I'm no thief."
The match flickered¹²⁸ out. Pankratov rose and drew himself up to his full height.
"What kind of talk is that? Who dares to compare a Party task to a hard-labour sentence?" he thundered, running his eyes menacingly over the front rows. "No, Comrades, there's no going to town for us, our place is here. If we clear out now folks will freeze to death. The sooner we finish the job the sooner we get back home. Running away like that whiner¹²⁹ back there suggests doesn't fit in with our ideas or our discipline."
Pankratov, a stevedore¹³¹, was not fond of long speeches but even this brief statement was interrupted by the same irate¹³² voice.
"The non-Party fellows are leaving, aren't they?"
"Yes."
A lad in a short overcoat came elbowing his way to the front. A Komsomol card flew up, struck against Pankratov's chest, dropped onto the table and stood on edge.
"There, take your card. I'm not going to risk my health for a bit of cardboard!"
His last words were drowned out by a roar of angry voices:
"What do you think you're throwing around!"
"Treacherous¹³³ bastard¹³⁴!"
"Got into the Komsomol because he thought he'd have it easy."
"Chuck him out!"
"Let me get at the louse!"
The deserter, his head lowered, made his way to the exit. They let him pass, shrinking away from him as from a leper. The door closed with a creak behind him.
Pankratov picked up the discarded membership card and held it to the flame of the oil lamp.
The cardboard caught alight and curled up as it burned.

A shot echoed in the forest. A horseman turned from the tumbledown barracks and dived into the darkness of the forest. A moment later men came pouring out of the barracks and school building.
Someone discovered a piece of plywood that had been stuck into the door. A match flared¹³⁵ up and shielding the unsteady flame from the wind they read the scrawled¹³⁶ message: "Clear out of here and go back where you came from. If you don't, we will shoot every one of you. I give you till tomorrow night to get out. Ataman Chesnok."
Chesnok belonged to Orlik's band.

An open diary lies on the table in Rita's room.

December 2

"We had our first snow this morning. The frost is severe. I met Vyacheslav Olshinsky on the stairs and we walked down the street together.
" 'I always enjoy the first snowfall,' he said. 'Particularly when it is frosty like this. Lovely, isn't it?'
"But I was thinking of Boyarka and I told him that the frost and snow do not gladden me at all. On the contrary they depress me. And I told him why.
" 'That is a purely¹³⁷ subjective¹³⁸ reaction,' he said. 'If one argues on that premise¹³⁹ all merriment or any manifestation¹⁴⁰ of joy in wartime, for example, would have to be banned. But life is not like that.
The tragedy is confined to the strip of front line where the battle is being fought. There life is overshadowed by the proximity¹⁴¹ of death. Yet even there people laugh. And away from the front, life goes on as always: people laugh, weep, suffer, rejoice, love, seek amusement, entertainment, excitement.'
"It was difficult to detect any shade of irony¹⁴² in Olshinsky's words. Olshinsky is a representative of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. He has been in the Party since 1917. He dresses well, is always cleanly shaven with a faint scent¹⁴³ of perfume about him. He lives in our house, in Segal's apartment. Sometimes he drops in to see me in the evenings. He is very interesting to talk to, he knows a lot about Europe, lived for many years in Paris. But I doubt whether he and I could
ever be good friends. That is because for him I am primarily a woman; the fact that I am his Party comrade is a secondary consideration. True, he does not attempt to disguise his sentiments and opinions on this score, he has the courage of his convictions and there is nothing coarse about his attentions. He has the knack¹⁴⁴ of investing them with a sort of beauty. Yet I do not like him.
"The gruff simplicity¹⁴⁵ of Zhukhrai is far more to my taste than all Olshinsky's polished European manners.
"News from Boyarka comes in the form of brief reports. Each day another two hundred yards laid.
They are laying the sleepers straight on the frozen earth, hewing¹⁴⁶ out shallow beds for them. There are only two hundred and forty men on the job. Half of the replacements deserted¹⁴⁷. The conditions there are truly frightful¹⁴⁸. I can't imagine how they will be able to carry on in the frost. Dubava has been gone a week now. They were only able to repair five of the eight engines at Pushcha-Voditsa, there were not enough parts for the others.
"Dmitri has had criminal charges laid against him by the tramcar authorities. He and his brigade held up all the flatcars belonging to the tram system running to town from Pushcha-Voditsa, cleared off the passengers and loaded the cars with rails for the Boyarka line. They brought 19 carloads of rails along the tram tracks to the railway station in town. The tram crews were only too glad to help.
"The Solomenka Komsomols still in town worked all night loading the rails onto railway cars and Dmitri and his brigade went off with them to Boyarka.
"Akim refused to have Dubava's action taken up at the Komsomol Bureau. Dmitri has told us about the outrageous¹⁴⁹ bureaucracy and red tape in the tramcar administration. They flatly refused to give more than two cars for the job.
"Tufta, however, privately¹⁵⁰ reprimanded Dubava. 'It's time to drop these partisan¹⁵¹ tactics,' he said, 'or you'll find yourself in jail before you know it. Surely you could have come to some agreement without resorting to force of arms?'
"I had never seen Dubava so furious.
" 'Why didn't you try talking to them yourself, you rotten pen-pusher?' he stormed. 'All you can do is sit here warming your chair and wagging your tongue. How do you think I could go back to Boyarka without those rails? Instead of hanging around here and getting in everybody's hair you ought to be sent out there to do some useful work. Tokarev would knock some sense into you!'
Dmitri roared so loudly he could be heard all over the building.
"Tufta wrote a complaint against Dubava, but Akim asked me to leave the room and talked to him alone for about ten minutes, after which Tufta stamped out red and fuming."

December 3

"The Gubernia Committee has received another complaint, this time from the Transport Cheka. It appears that Pankratov, Okunev and several other comrades went to Motovilovka station and removed all the doors and window frames from the empty buildings. When they were loading all this onto a freight train the station Cheka man tried to arrest them. They disarmed¹⁵⁴ him, emptied his revolver and returned it to him only after the train was in motion. They got away with the doors and window frames.
"Tokarev is charged by the supply department of the railway for taking twenty poods of nails from the Boyarka railway stocks. He gave the nails to the peasants in payment for their help in hauling the timber they are using for sleepers.
"I spoke to Comrade Zhukhrai about all these complaints. But he only laughed. 'We'll take care of all that,' he said.
"The situation at the railway job is very tense and now every day is precious. We have to bring pressure to bear here for every trifle. Every now and then we have to summon hinderers to the Gubernia Committee. And over at the job the boys are overriding¹⁵⁵ all formalities more and more often.
"Olshinsky has brought me a little electric stove. Olga Yureneva and I warm our hands over it, but it doesn't make the room any warmer. I wonder how those men in the woods are faring this bitter cold night? Olga tells me that it is so cold in the hospital that the patients shiver under their blankets. The place is heated only once in two days.
"No, Comrade Olshinsky, a tragedy at the front is a tragedy in the rear too!"

December 4

"It snowed all night. From Boyarka they write that everything is snowbound and they have had to stop working to clear the track. Today the Gubernia Committee passed a decision that the first section of the railway, up to where the wood was being cut, is to be ready not later than January 1,1922. When this decision reached Boyarka, Tokarev is said to have remarked: 'We'll do it, if we don't croak¹⁵⁶ by then.'
"I hear nothing at all about Korchagin. I'm rather surprised that he hasn't been mixed up in something like the Pankratov 'case'. I still don't understand why he avoids me."

December 5

"Yesterday there was a bandit raid on the railway job."

The horses trod warily¹⁵⁷ in the soft, yielding snow. Now and then a twig¹⁵⁸ hidden under the snow would snap under a hoof¹⁵⁹ and the horse would snort and shy, but a sharp rap over its laid-back ears would send it galloping¹⁶¹ after the others.
Some dozen horsemen crossed the hilly ridge¹⁶² beyond which lay a strip of dark earth not yet blanketed with snow. Here the riders reined¹⁶³ in their horses. There was a faint clink as stirrup met stirrup. The leader's stallion, its coat glossy¹⁶⁴ with sweat after the long run, shook itself noisily.
"There's a hell of a lot of them here," said the head rider in Ukrainian. "But we'll soon put the fear of God into 'em. The ataman said the bastards¹⁶⁵ were to be chased out of here by tomorrow. They're getting too damned close to the firewood."
They rode up to the station single file, hugging the sides of the narrow-gauge line. In sight of the clearing near the old school building they slowed down to a walking pace and came to a halt behind the trees, not venturing out into the open.
A volley rent the silence of the night. A layer of snow dropped squirrel-like off the branch of a birch that gleamed like silver in the light of the moon. Gunfire flashed among the trees, bullets bored into crumbling¹⁶⁶ plaster and there was a tinkling¹⁶⁷ of broken glass as Pan-kratov's window panes¹⁶⁸ were smashed to smithereens.
The men on the concrete floor leapt up at the shooting only to drop back again on top of one another when the lethal¹⁶⁹ insects began to fly about the room.
"Where you going?" Dubava seized Pavel by the coat tail.
"Outside."
"Get down, you idiot!" Dmitri hissed¹⁷⁰. "They'll get you the moment you stick your head out."

They lay side by side next to the door. Dubava was flattened¹⁷¹ against the floor, with his revolver pointing toward the door. Pavel sat on his haunches nervously fingering the drum of his revolver.
There were five rounds in it — one chamber¹⁷² was empty. He turned the cylinder¹⁷³ another notch¹⁷⁴.
The shooting ceased suddenly. The silence that followed was weighted with tension.
"All those who have weapons come this way," Dubava commanded in a hoarse whisper.
Pavel opened the door cautiously. The clearing was deserted. Snowflakes were falling softly.
In the forest ten horsemen were whipping their mounts into a gallop¹⁶⁰.
The next day a trolley¹⁷⁵ arrived from town. Zhukhrai and Akim alighted and were met by Tokarev and Kholyava. A machine-gun, several crates of cartridge¹⁷⁶ belts and two dozen rifles were unloaded onto the platform.
They hurried over to the railway line. The tails of Fyodor's long greatcoat trailed a zigzag¹⁷⁷ pattern in the snow behind him. He still walked with the clumsy rolling gait of the seaman¹⁷⁸, as if he were pacing the pitching deck of a destroyer. Long-legged Akim walked in step with Fyodor, but Tokarev had to break into a trot¹⁷⁹ now and again to keep up with them.
"The bandit raid is not our worst trouble. There's a nasty rise in the ground right in the path of the line. Just our bad luck. It'll mean a lot of extra digging."
The old man stopped, turned his back to the wind and lit a cigarette, cupping his hand over the match. After blowing out a few puffs¹⁸⁰ of smoke he hurried to catch up with the others. Akim had stopped to wait for him, but Zhukhrai strode on ahead.
"Do you think you'll be able to finish the line on time?" Akim asked Tokarev.
Tokarev paused a while before replying.
"Well, it's like this, son," he said at last. "Generally speaking it can't be done. But it's got to be done, so there you are."
They caught up with Fyodor and continued abreast¹⁸².
"Here's how it is," Tokarev began earnestly. "Only two of us here, Patoshkin and I, know that it's impossible to build a line under these conditions, with the scanty¹⁸³ equipment and labour power we have. But all the others, every last man of them, know that the line has got to be built at all costs.
So you see that's why I said if we don't freeze to death, it'll be done. Judge for yourselves: we've been digging here for over a month, the fourth batch of replacements are due for a rest, but the main body of workers have been on the job all the time. It's only their youth that keeps them going. But half of them are badly chilled. Makes your heart bleed to look at them. These lads are worth their weight in gold. But this cursed hole will be the death of more than one of them."

The ready narrow-gauge track came to an end a kilometre from the station. Beyond that, for a stretch of about one and a half kilometres, the levelled roadbed was covered by what looked like a log palisade blown down by wind — these were the sleepers, all firmly planted in place. And beyond them, all the way to the rise, there was only a level road.
Pankratov's building crew No. 1 was working at this section. Forty men were laying ties, while a carroty-bearded peasant wearing a new pair of bast shoes was unhurriedly emptying a load of logs on the roadbed. Several more sleds were being unloaded a little farther away. Two long iron bars lay on the ground — these were used to level up the sleepers properly. Axes, crowbars and shovels¹⁸⁷ were all used to tamp¹⁵² down the ballast.

Laying railway sleepers is slow, laborious¹⁸⁸ work. The sleepers must be firmly imbedded in the earth so that the rails press evenly on each of them.
Only one man in the group knew the technique of laying sleepers. That was Talya's father, the line foreman Lagutin, a man of 54 with a pitch-black beard parted in the middle and not a grey hair in his head. He had worked at Boyarka since the beginning of the job, sharing all the hardships with the younger men and had earned the respect of the whole detachment. Although he was not a Party member, Lagutin invariably held a place of honour at all Party conferences. He was very proud of this and had given his word not to leave until the job was finished.
"How can I leave you to carry on by yourselves? Something's bound to go wrong without an experienced man to keep an eye on things. When it comes to that, I've hammered in more of these here sleepers up and down the country in my time than I can remember," he would say goodhumouredly each time the question of replacements came up. And so he stayed.
Patoshkin saw that Lagutin knew his job and rarely inspected his sector. When Tokarev with Akim and Zhukhrai came over to where they were working, Pankratov, flushed and perspiring¹⁸⁹ with exertion¹⁹⁰, was hewing out a hollow for a sleeper⁹⁸. Akim hardly recognised the young stevedore. Pankratov had lost much weight, his broad cheekbones protruded¹⁹¹ sharply in his grimy face which was sallow and sunken.
"Well, well," he said as he gave Akim a hot, damp hand, "the big chiefs have come!"
The ringing of spades ceased. Akim surveyed the pale worn faces of the men around him. Their coats and jackets lay in a careless heap on the snow.
After a brief talk with Lagutin, Tokarev took the party to the excavation¹⁹² site, inviting¹⁹³ Pankratov to join them. The stevedore walked alongside Zhukhrai.
"Tell me, Pankratov, what happened at Motovilovka? Don't you think you overdid¹⁹⁴ it disarming¹⁹⁵ that Cheka man?" Fyodor asked the taciturn stevedore sternly.
Pankratov grinned sheepishly.
"It was all done by mutual¹⁹⁶ consent," he explained. "He asked us to disarm¹⁵³ him. He's a good lad.
When we explained what it was all about, he says: 'I see your difficulty, boys, but I haven't the right to let you take those windows and doors away. We have orders from Comrade Dzerzhinsky to put a stop to the plunder¹⁹⁷ of railway property. The station master here has his knife in me. He's stealing stuff, the bastard, and I'm in his way. If I let you get away with it he's bound to report me and I'll be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. But you can disarm me and clear off. And if the station master doesn't report the matter that will be the end of it.' So that's what we did. After all, we weren't taking those doors and windows for ourselves, were we?"
Noting the twinkle in Zhukhrai's eye, he went on: "You can punish us for it if you want to, but don't be hard on that lad, Comrade Zhukhrai."
"That's all over and done with. But see there's no more of that in the future, it's bad for discipline.
We are strong enough now to smash bureaucracy in an organised way. Now let's talk about something more important." And Fyodor proceeded to inquire about the details of the bandit raid.

About four and a half kilometres from Boyarka station a group of men were digging furiously into a rise in the ground that stood in the path of the line. Seven men armed with all the weapons the detachment possessed¹⁹⁸ — Kholyava's rifle and the revolvers belonging to Korchagin, Pankratov, Dubava and Khomutov — stood on guard.
Patoshkin was sitting on top of the rise jotting¹⁹⁹ down figures in his notebook. He was the only engineer on the job. Vakulenko, the technician, preferring to stand trial for desertion rather than death at a bandit's hand, had fled that morning.
"It will take two weeks to clear this hill out of the way. The ground's frozen hard," Patoshkin remarked in a low voice to the gloomy Khomutov standing²⁰⁰ beside him.
"We've been given twenty-five days to finish the whole line, and you're figuring fifteen for this,"
Khomutov growled, chewing the tip of his moustache.
"Can't be done, I'm afraid. Of course, I've never built anything before under such conditions and with workers like these. I may be mistaken. As a matter of fact I have been mistaken twice before."
At that moment Zhukhrai, Akim and Pankratov were seen approaching the slope.
"Look, who's that down there?" cried Pyotr Trofimov, a young mechanic from the railway workshops in an old sweater torn at the elbows. He nudged Korchagin and pointed to the newcomers. The next moment Korchagin, spade in hands, was dashing down the hill. His eyes under the peak of his helmet smiled a warm greeting and Fyodor lingered over their handshake.
"Hallo there, Pavel! Hardly recognised you in this rig-out."
Pankratov laughed drily: "Rig-out isn't the word for it. Plenty of ventilation holes anyway. The deserters pinched his overcoat, Okunev gave him that jacket — they've got a commune, you know. But Pavel's all right, he's got warm blood in his veins²⁰¹. He'll warm himself for a week or two more on the concrete floor — the straw doesn't make much difference — and then he'll be ready for a nice pine-wood coffin," the stevedore wound up with grim humour.
Dark-browed, snub-nosed Okunev narrowed his mischievous²⁰² eyes and objected: "Never mind,we'll take care of Pavel. We can vote him a job in the kitchen helping²⁰³ Odarka. If he isn't a fool he can get himself a bit of extra grub and snuggle up to the stove or to Odarka herself."
A roar of laughter met this remark; it was the first time they had laughed that day.

Fyodor inspected the rise, then drove out with Tokarev and Patoshkin by sled to the timber felling.
When he returned, the men were still digging with dogged persistence²⁰⁴ into the hill. Fyodor noted²⁰⁵ the rapid movement of the spades, and the backs of the workers bent under the strain. Turning to Akim, he said in an undertone:
"No need of meetings. No agitation²⁰⁶ required here. You were right, Tokarev, when you said these lads are worth their weight in gold. This is where the steel is tempered."
Zhukhrai gazed at the diggers with admiration²⁰⁷ and stern, yet tender pride. Some of them only a short time back had stood before him bristling²⁰⁸ with the steel of their bayonets. That was on the night before the insurrection. And now, moved by a single impulse, they were toiling²⁰⁹ in order that the steel arteries²¹⁰ of the railway might reach out to the precious source of warmth and life.

Politely but firmly Patoshkin showed Fyodor that it was impossible to dig through the rise in lessthan two weeks. Fyodor listened to his arguments with a preoccupied²¹¹ air, his mind clearly busywith some problem of its own.


"Stop all work on the cut and carry on farther up the line. We'll tackle that hill in a different way,"he said finally.
Down at the station he spent a long time at the telephone. Kholyava, on guard outside the door,heard Fyodor's hoarse bass from within.
"Ring up the chief of staff of the Military Area and tell him in my name to transfer Puzyrevsky's regiment²¹² to the railway job at once. The bandits must be cleared out of the area without delay.
Send an armoured train over with demolition²¹³ men. I'll take care of the rest myself. I'll be back late.
Tell Litke to be at the station with the car by midnight."
In the barracks, after a short speech by Akim, Zhukhrai took the floor and an hour fled by in comradely discussion. Fyodor told the men there could be no question of extending the January 1 time limit allotted for the completion of the job.
"From now on we are putting the work on a military footing," he said. "The Party members will form a special task company with Comrade Dubava in command. All six work teams will receive definite assignments. The remainder of the job will be divided into six equal sectors²¹⁴, one for each team. By January 1 all the work must be completed. The team that finishes first will be allowed to go back to town. Also, the Presidium of the Gubernia Executive Committee is asking the Government to award the Order of the Red Banner to the best worker in the team that comes out first."
The leaders of the various teams were appointed as follows: No. 1, Comrade Pankratov, No. 2,Comrade Dubava, No. 3, Comrade Khomutov, No. 4, Comrade Lagutin, No. 5, Comrade
Korchagin, No. 6, Comrade Okunev.
"The chief of the job, its political and administrative²¹⁵ leader will, as before, be Anton Nikiforovich Tokarev," Zhukhrai wound up with an oratorical²¹⁶ flourish.
Like a flock of birds suddenly taking wing, the hand-clapping burst forth¹⁰¹ and stern faces relaxed in smiles. The warm whimsical conclusion to the speech relieved the strained attention of the meeting in a gust²¹⁷ of laughter.
Some twenty men trooped down to the station to see Akim and Fyodor off.
As he shook hands with Korchagin, Fyodor glanced down at Pavel's snow-filled galosh.
"I'll send you a pair of boots," he said in a low voice. "You haven't frozen your feet yet, I hope?"
"They've begun to swell²¹⁸ a bit," Pavel replied, then remembering something he had asked for a long time ago, he caught Fyodor by the arm. "Could you let me have a few cartridges²¹⁹ for my revolver? I believe I only have three good ones left."
Zhukhrai shook his head in regret, but catching Pavel's disappointed look, he quickly unstrapped his own Mauser. "Here's a present for you."
Pavel could not believe at first that he was really getting something he had set his heart on for so long, but Zhukhrai threw the leather strap²²⁰ over his shoulder saying: "Take it, take it! I know you've had your eye on it for a long time. But take care you don't shoot any of our own men with it. Here are three full clips to go with it." Pavel felt the envious²²¹ eyes of the others upon him. "Hey, Pavka," someone yelled, "I'll swap²²² with you for a pair of boots and a sheepskin thrown in."
Pankratov nudged Pavel provokingly in the back.
"Come on, I'll give you a pair of felt boots for it. Anyway you'll be dead before Christmas with that galosh of yours."
With one foot on the step of the trolley for support, Zhukhrai wrote out a permit for the Mauser.

Early the next morning an armoured train clattered²²³ over the switches and pulled up at the station.
The engine spouted²²⁴ plumes²²⁵ of steam as white as swansdown that vanished in the crystal-clear frosty air. Leather-clad figures emerged from the steel cars. A few hours later three demolition men from the train had planted in the earth of the hill two large black pumpkin-like objects with long fuses attached. They fired a few warning shots and the men scattered²²⁶ in all directions away from the now deadly hill. A match was put to the end of the fuse which flared up with a tiny phosphorescent flame.
For a while the men held their breath. One or two moments of suspense²²⁷, and then the earth trembled, and a terrific force rent the hill asunder²²⁸, tossing huge chunks²²⁹ of earth skywards. The second explosion was more powerful than the first. The thunder of it reverberated²³⁰ over the surrounding forest, filling it with a confusion of sound.
When the smoke and dust cleared a deep pit yawned where the hill had just stood, and the sugary snow was sprinkled with earth for dozens of paces all around.
Men with picks and shovels rushed to the cavity formed by the explosion.

After Zhukhrai's departure, a stubborn contest for the honour of being the first to finish the job commenced among the teams.
Long before dawn Korchagin rose quietly, taking care not to wake the others, and stepping cautiously on numb feet over the chilly²³¹ floor made his way to the kitchen. There he heated the water for tea and went back to wake up his team.
By the time the others were up it was broad daylight. That morning Pankratov elbowed his way through the crowded barracks to where Dubava and his group were having their breakfast.
"Hear that, Mityai?" he said heatedly. "Pavka went and got his lads up before daylight. I bet they've got a good twenty yards laid out by now. The fellows say he's got those railway repair shop boys all worked up to finish their section by the twenty-fifth. Wants to beat the rest of us hollow. But I say nothing doing!"
Dubava gave a sour smile. He could understand why the secretary of the river-port Komsomol had been touched on the raw by what the railway repair shopmen had done. As a matter of fact his friend Pavel had stolen a march on him, Dubava, as well. Without saying a word to anyone he had simply challenged the whole company.
"Friends or no friends, it's the best man who wins," Pankratov said.
Around midday Korchagin's team was hard at work when an unexpected interruption occurred.
The sentry²³² standing guard over the rifles caught sight of a group of horsemen approaching through the trees and fired a warning shot.
"To arms, lads! Bandits!" cried Pavel. He flung down his spade and rushed over to the tree where his Mauser hung.
Snatching their rifles the others dropped down straight in the snow by the edge of the line. The leading horsemen waved their caps.
"Steady there, Comrades, don't shoot!" one of them shouted.

Some fifty cavalrymen in Budyonny caps with bright red stars came riding up the road.
A unit of Puzyrevsky's regiment had come on a visit to the job. Pavel noticed that the commander's horse, a handsome grey mare²³⁴ with a white blaze on her forehead, had the tip of one ear missing. She pranced²³⁵ restlessly under her rider, and when Pavel rushed forward and seized her by the bridle²³⁶, she shied away nervously.
"Why, Lyska old girl, I never thought we'd meet again! So the bullets didn't get you, my one-eared beauty."
He embraced her slender neck tenderly and stroked her quivering nostrils²³⁷.
The commander stared at Pavel for a moment, then cried out in amazement²³⁸: "Well, if it isn't Korchagin! You recognise the mare but you don't see your old pal¹⁸⁵ Sereda. Greetings, lad!"

In the meantime back in town pressure was being exerted in all quarters to expedite the building of the line, and this was felt at once at the job. Zharky had literally²³⁹ stripped the Komsomol District Committee of all the male personnel and sent them out to Boyarka. Only the girls were left at Solomenka. He got the railway school to send out another batch of students.
"I'm left here with the female proletariat," he joked, reporting the results of his work to Akim. "I think I'll put Talya Lagutina in my place, hang out the sign 'Women's Department' on the door and clear out to Boyarka myself. It's awkward for me here, the only man among all these women. You ought to see the nasty looks they give me. I'm sure they're saying: 'Look, the sly beggar sent everybody off, but stays on himself.' Or something worse still. You must let me go."
But Akim merely laughed at his words.

New workers continued to arrive at Boyarka, among them sixty students from the railway school.
Zhukhrai induced the railway administration to send four passenger carriages to Boyarka to house the newcomers.
Dubava's team was released from work and sent to Pushcha-Voditsa to bring back the engines and sixty-five narrow-gauge flatcars. This assignment was to be counted as part of the work on their section.
Before leaving, Dubava advised Tokarev to recall Klavicek from town and put him in charge of one of the newly-organised work teams at Boyarka. Tokarev did so. He did not know the real reason for Dubava's request: a note from Anna which the newcomers from Solomenka had brought.

"Dmitri!" Anna wrote. "Klavicek and I have prepared a pile of books for you. We send our warmest greetings to you and all the other Boyarka shock workers. You are all wonderful! We wish you strength and energy to carry on. Yesterday the last stocks of wood were distributed.
Klavicek asks me to send you his greetings. He is wonderful. He bakes all the bread for Boyarka,sifts the flour and kneads the dough²⁴⁰ high himself. He doesn't trust anyone in the bakery to do it.
He managed to get excellent flour and his bread is good, much better than the kind I get. In the evenings our friends gather in my place — Lagutina, Artyukhin, Klavicek, and sometimes Zharky. We do a bit of reading but mostly we talk about everybody and everything, chiefly about you in Boyarka. The girls are furious with Tokarev for refusing to let them work on the railway. They say they can endure hardships as well as anyone. Talya declares she's going to dress up in her father's
clothes and go out to Boyarka by herself. 'Let him just try to kick me out,' she says.
"I wouldn't be surprised if she kept her word. Please give my regards to your dark-eyed friend.
"Anna."

The blizzard²⁴¹ came upon them suddenly. Low grey clouds spread themselves over the sky and the snow fell thickly. When night came the wind howled in the chimneys and moaned in the trees,
chasing the whirling snow-flakes and awakening²⁴² the forest echoes with its malevolent²⁴³ whine¹³⁰.
All night long the storm raged in a wild fury, and although the stoves were kept warm throughout the night the men shivered; the wrecked²⁴⁴ station building could not hold the warmth.
In the morning they had to plough through the deep snow to reach their sections. High above the trees the sun shone in a blue sky without a single cloudlet to mar⁴⁴ its clear expanse.
Korchagin and his men went to work to clear the snowdrifts from their section. Only now did Pavel realise how much a man could suffer from the cold. Okunev's threadbare jacket gave him scant¹⁸⁴ protection and his galosh was constantly full of snow. He kept losing it in the snow, and now his other boot was threatening to fall apart. Two enormous boils had broken out on his neck — the result of sleeping on the cold floor. Tokarev had given him his towel to wear in place of a scarf.
Gaunt and red-eyed, Pavel was furiously plying¹⁸¹ his wooden snow shovel¹⁸⁶ when a passenger train puffed²⁴⁵ slowly into the station. Its expiring engine had barely managed to haul it this far; there was not a single log of wood in the tender and the last embers were burning low in the firebox.
"Give us fuel and we'll go on, or else shunt us onto a siding while we still have the power to move!" the engine driver yelled to the station master.
The train was switched onto a siding. The reason for the halt was explained to the disgruntled passengers and a storm of complaints and curses broke out in the crowded carriages.
"Go and talk to that old chap," the station master advised the train guards, pointing to Tokarev who was walking down the platform.
"He's the chief of the job here. Maybe he can get wood brought down by sled to the engine.
They're using the logs for sleepers."
"I'll give you the wood, but you'll have to work for it," said Tokarev when" the conductors applied²⁴⁶ to him. "After all, it's our building material. We're being held up at the moment by the snow.
There must be about six or seven hundred passengers inside your train. The women and children can stay inside but let the men come and lend a hand clearing the snow until evening and I'll give you firewood. If they refuse they can stay where they are till New Year's."

"Look at the crowd coming this way! Look, women too!" Korchagin heard a surprised
exclamation²⁴⁷ at his back. He turned round. Tokarev came up.
"Here are a hundred helpers for you," he said. "Give them work and see none of them is idle."
Korchagin put the newcomers to work. One tall man in a smart railway uniform with a fur collar and a warm caracul cap indignantly twirled the shovel in his hands and turned to his companion, a young woman wearing a sealskin hat with a fluffy²⁴⁸ pompon on top.
"I am not going to shovel snow and nobody has the right to force me to do it. As a railway engineer I could take charge of the work if they ask me to, but neither you nor I need to shovel snow. It's contrary to the regulations. That old man is breaking the law. I can have him prosecuted²⁴⁹.
Where is your foreman?" he demanded of the worker nearest him.
Korchagin came over.
"Why aren't you working?"
The man examined Pavel contemptuously from head to foot.
"And who may you be?"
"I am a worker."
"Then I have nothing to say to you. Send me your foreman, or whatever you call him...."
Korchagin scowled²⁵⁰.
"You needn't work if you don't want to. But you won't get back on that train unless your ticket is countersigned²⁵¹ by us. That's the construction chief's orders."
"What about you?" Pavel turned to the woman and was struck dumb with surprise. Before him stood Tonya Tumanova!
Tonya could hardly believe that this tramp who stood before her in his tattered clothing and incredible footwear, with a filthy²⁵² towel around his neck and a face that had not been washed for many a day, was the Korchagin she once knew. Only his eyes blazed as fiercely as ever. The eyes of the Pavel she remembered. And to think that only a short while ago she had given her love to this ragged²⁵³ creature. How everything had changed!
She had recently married, and she and her husband were on their way to the city where he held an important position in the railway administration. Who could have thought that she would meet the object of her girlish affections in this way? She even hesitated to give him her hand. What would Vasili think? How awful of Korchagin to have fallen so low. Evidently the young stoker had not been able to rise above navvy work.
She stood hesitating, her cheeks burning. Meanwhile the railway engineer, infuriated by what he considered the insolence²⁵⁴ of this tramp who stood staring at his wife, flung down his shovel and went over to her side.
"Let us go, Tonya, I can't stand the sight of this lazzarone."
Korchagin had read Giuseppe Garibaldi and he knew what that word meant.
"I may be a lazzarone, but you're no more than a rotten bourgeois," he said hoarsely²⁵⁵, and turning to Tonya, added curtly²⁵⁶: "Take a shovel, Comrade Tumanova, and get into line. Don't take an example from this prize bull here. . .. Excuse me if he is any relation of yours."
Pavel glanced at Tonya's fur boots and smiled grimly, adding casually:
"I wouldn't advise you to stop over here. The other night we were attacked by bandits."
With that he turned on his heel and walked off, his galosh flapping as he went.
His last words impressed the railway engineer, and Tonya succeeded in persuading him to stay and work.
That evening, when the day's work was over, the crowd streamed back to the station. Tonya's husband hurried ahead to make sure of a seat in the train. Tonya, stopping to let a group of workers pass, saw Pavel trudging²⁵⁷ wearily behind the others, leaning heavily on his shovel.
"Hello, Pavlusha," she said and fell into step beside him. "I must say I never expected to find you in such straits. Surely the authorities ought to know you deserve something better than navvy's work? I thought you'd be a commissar or something like that by now. What a pity life has been so unkind to you...."
Pavel halted and surveyed Tonya with surprise.
"Nor did I expect to find you ... so stuffy," he said, choosing the most polite word he could think of to express his feelings.
The tips of Tonya's ears burned.
"You're just as rude as ever!"
Korchagin hoisted²⁵⁸ his shovel onto his shoulder and strode off. After a few steps he stopped.
"My rudeness, Comrade Tumanova," he said, "is not half as offensive as your so-called politeness.
And as for my life, please don't worry about that. There's nothing wrong with it. It's your life that's all wrong, ever so much worse than I expected. Two years ago you were better, you wouldn't have been ashamed to shake hands with a workingman. But now you reek²⁵⁹ of moth²⁶⁰ balls. To tell the truth, you and I have nothing more to say to each other."

Pavel had a letter from Artem announcing that he was going to be married and urging Pavel to come to the wedding without fail.
The wind tore the sheet of paper out of Pavel's hand and it flew off into the air. No wedding parties for him. How could he leave now? Only yesterday that bear Pankratov had outstripped²⁶¹ his team and spurted²⁶² forward at a pace that amazed everyone. The stevedore was making a desperate bid for first place in the contest. His usual nonchalance²⁶³ had forsaken²⁶⁴ him and he was whipping up his "water-fronters" to a furious tempo²⁶⁵.
Patoshkin, noting the silent intensity²⁶⁶ with which the men worked, scratched his head perplexedly.
"Are these men or giants?" he marvelled²⁶⁷. "Where do they get their incredible strength? If the weather holds out for only eight more days we'll reach the timber! Well, live and learn! These men are breaking all records and estimates." Klavicek came from town bringing the last batch of bread he had baked. He had a talk with Tokarev and then went off to hunt for Korchagin. The two men shook hands warmly. Klavicek with a broad smile dived into his knapsack and produced a handsome fur-lined leather jacket of Swedish make.
"This is for you!" he said stroking the soft leather. "Guess from whom? What! You don't know?
You are dense, man! It's from Comrade Ustinovich. So you shouldn't catch cold. Olshinsky gave it to her. She took it from him and handed it straight to me with orders to take it to you. Akim told her you've been going about in the frost with nothing but a thin jacket. Olshinsky's nose was put out of joint²⁶⁸ a bit. 'I can send the comrade an army coat,' he says. But Rita only laughed. 'Never mind,' she said, 'he'll work better in this jacket.' "
The astonished Pavel took the luxurious-looking jacket and after some hesitation²⁶⁹ slipped it on. Almost at once he felt the warmth from the soft fur spreading over his shoulders and chest.


Rita wrote in her diary:

December 20


"We have been having a bout¹⁹ of blizzards²⁷⁰. Snow and wind. Out at Boyarka they had almost reached their goal when the frosts and storms halted them. They are up to their necks in snow and the frozen earth is not easy to dig. They have only three-quarters of a kilometre to go, but this is the hardest lap of all.
"Tokarev reports an outbreak of typhoid fever. Three men are down with it."

December 22

"There was a plenary session of the Komsomol Guber-nia Committee but no one from Boyarka attended. Bandits derailed a trainload of grain seventeen kilometres from Boyarka, and the Food Commissariat representative ordered all the construction workers to be sent to the spot."

December 23

"Another seven typhoid cases have been brought to town from Boyarka. Okunev is one of them. I went down to the station and saw frozen corpses²⁷² of people who had been riding the buffers²⁷³ taken off a Kharkov train. The hospitals are unheated. This accursed blizzard, when will it end?"

December 24

"Just seen Zhukhrai. He confirmed the rumour²⁷⁴ that Orlik and his band attacked Boyarka last night. The fight lasted two hours. Communications were cut and Zhukhrai did not get the exact report until this morning. The band was beaten back but Tokarev has been wounded, a bullet went right through his chest. He will be brought to town today. Franz Klavicek, who was in charge of the guard that night, was killed. He was the one who spotted²⁷⁵ the band and raised the alarm. He started shooting at the raiders but they were on him before he had time to reach the school building. He was cut down by a sabre blow. Eleven of the builders were wounded. Two cavalry²³³ squadrons and an armoured train are there by now.
"Pankratov has taken charge of the job. Today Puzyrevsky caught up with part of the band in Gluboky village and wiped it out. Some of the non-Party workers started out for town without waiting for a train; they are walking along the track."

December 25

"Tokarev and the other wounded men arrived, and were placed in hospital. The doctors promised to save the old man. He is still unconscious. The lives of the others are not in danger.
"A telegram came from Boyarka addressed to us and the Gubernia Party Committee. 'In reply to the bandit assault, we builders of the narrow-gauge line gathered at this meeting together with the crew of the armoured train For Soviet²⁷⁶ Power and the Red Army men of the cavalry regiment, vow to you that notwithstanding all obstacles the town shall have firewood by January 1. Mustering²⁷⁷ all our strength we are setting to work. Long live the Communist Party, which sent us here!
Korchagin, chairman of the meeting. Berzin, secretary.'
"Klavicek was buried with military honours at Solomenka."

The cherished goal was in sight, but the advance toward it was agonisingly slow, for every day typhoid fever tore dozens of badly needed hands from the builders' ranks.
One day Korchagin, returning from work to the station, staggered along like a drunkard, his legs ready to give way beneath him. He had been feverish²⁷⁸ for quite some time, but today it gripped him more fiercely than usual.
Typhoid fever, which had thinned the ranks of the building detachment, had claimed a new victim.
But Pavel's sturdy constitution resisted the disease and for five days in succession he had found the strength to pick himself up from his straw pallet on the concrete floor and join the others at work. But the fever had taken possession of him and now neither the warm jacket nor the felt boots, Fyodor's gift, worn over his already frostbitten feet, helped.
A sharp pain seared his chest with each step he took, his teeth chattered²⁷⁹, and his vision was blurred²⁸⁰ so that the trees seemed to be whirling around in a strange merry-go-round.
With difficulty he dragged himself to the station. An unusual commotion there caused him to halt,and straining his fever-hazed eyes, he saw a long train of flatcars stretching the entire length of the platform. Men who had come with the train were busy unloading narrow-gauge engines, rails and leepers. Pavel staggered forward and lost his balance. He felt a dull pain as his head hit the ground and the pleasant coolness of the snow against his burning cheek.
Several hours later he was found and carried back to the barracks. He was breathing heavily, quite unconscious of his surroundings. A doctor's assistant summoned from the armoured train examined him and diagnosed pneumonia²⁸¹ and typhoid fever. His temperature was over 106°. The doctor's assistant noted the inflammation of the joints²⁸² and the ulcers²⁸³ on the neck but said they  were trifles compared with the pneumonia and typhoid which alone were enough to kill him.
Pankratov and Dubava, who had arrived from town, did all they could to save Pavel.
Alyosha Kokhansky, who came from the same town as Pavel, was entrusted²⁸⁴ with taking him home to his people.
With the help of all the members of Korchagin's team, and mainly with Kholyava acting²⁸⁵ as battering²⁸⁶ ram⁸⁶, Pankratov and Dubava managed to get Alyosha and the unconscious Korchagin into the packed railway carriage. The passengers, suspecting typhus, resisted violently and threatened to throw the sick man out of the train en route.
Kholyava waved his gun under their noses and roared: "His illness is not infectious! And he's going on this train even if we have to throw out the whole lot of you! And remember, you swine,if anyone lays a finger on him, I'll send word down the line and you'll all be taken off the train and put behind the bars. Here, Alyosha, take Pavel's Mauser and shoot the first man who tries to put him off," Kholyava wound up for additional emphasis.
The train puffed out of the station. Pankratov went over to Dubava standing on the deserted platform.
"Do you think he'll pull through?"
The question remained unanswered.

"Come along, Mityai, it can't be helped. We've got to answer for everything now. We must get those engines unloaded during the night and in the morning we'll try to start them going."
Kholyava telephoned to all his Cheka friends along the line urging them to make sure that the sick Korchagin was not taken off the train anywhere. Not until he had been given a firm assurance that this would be done did he finally go to bed.

At a railway junction²⁸⁷ farther down the line the body of an unknown fair-haired young man was carried out of one of the carriages of a passenger train passing through and set down on the platform. Who he was and what he had died of no one knew. The station Cheka men, remembering Kholyava's request, ran over to the carriage, but when they saw that the youth was dead, gave instructions for the corpse²⁷¹ to be removed to the morgue, and immediately telephoned to Kholyava at Boyarka informing him of the death of his friend whose life he had been so anxious to save.
A brief telegram was sent from Boyarka to the Gubernia Committee of the Komsomol announcing Korchagin's death.
In the meantime, however, Alyosha Kokhansky delivered the sick Korchagin to his people and came down himself with the fever.

January 9

"Why does my heart ache so? Before I sat down to write I wept bitterly. Who would have believed that Rita could weep and with such anguish²⁸⁸? But are tears always a sign of weakness? Today mine are tears of searing grief. Why did grief come on this day of victory when the horrors of cold have been overcome, when the railway stations are piled high with precious fuel, when I have just returned from the celebration of the victory, an enlarged plenary meeting of the Town Soviet where the heroes of the railway job were accorded all honours. This is victory, but two men lost their lives — Klavicek and Korchagin.
"Pavel's death has opened my eyes to the truth — he was far dearer to me than I had thought.
"And now I shall close this diary. I doubt whether I shall ever return to it. Tomorrow I am writing to Kharkov to accept the job offered me in the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Komsomol."

朱赫来一边思考，一边从嘴里取下烟斗，小心地用指头按了按隆起的烟灰。烟斗已经灭了。

屋子里十几个人在吸烟，灰色的烟雾宛如浮云，在天花板上的毛玻璃灯罩下面，在省委书记坐椅的上方缭绕。围着桌子坐在办公室角落里的人，看上去就像罩在薄雾中。

胸口贴着桌子，坐在省委书记旁边的是托卡列夫老头。他气愤地捻着小胡子，偶尔斜眼瞅一下那个秃顶的矮个子，这家伙嗓子又尖又细，一直在罗里罗嗦地兜圈子，说些像鸡蛋壳一样空洞的废话。

阿基姆看见了这个老钳工斜视的目光，这目光使他回想起童年——那时候他们家里有一只爱斗的公鸡，叫“专啄眼”。每当它准备进攻的时候，也是这样斜眼打量对手的。

省党委的会议已经开了一个多小时。秃头是铁路林业委员会的主席。

他一边用敏捷的手指翻动文件，一边滔滔不绝地说：“……正是因为有这些客观原因，省委和铁路管理局的决议才无法实现。我再说一遍，就是再过一个月，我们能够提供的木柴也不会超过四百立方米。至于完成十八万立方米的任务，那简直是……”秃头在挑选字眼，“乌托邦！”说完，小嘴巴一撇，露出一副抱屈的神情。

接着是一阵沉默，仿佛持续了很久。

朱赫来用指甲敲着烟斗，想把烟灰磕出来。托卡列夫说话了，他那低沉的喉音打破了沉默：“这没什么好磨嘴皮子的。你的意思是说：铁路林业委员会过去没有木柴，现在没有，将来也不会有……是这样吗？”

秃头耸了耸肩膀。

“很抱歉，同志，木柴我们早就准备好了，只是没有马车往外运……”小矮个子哽住了。他用方格手绢擦了擦光秃秃的脑袋，擦完之后，好久也找不到衣袋，就焦躁地把手绢塞到皮包底下去了。

“您都采取了些什么措施运送木柴呢？原来领导这项工作的那些专家搞了鬼，可是他们给抓起来好些日子了。”坐在角落里的杰涅科说。

秃头朝他转过身来，说：“我已经向铁路管理局打了三次报告，说没有运输工具就不可能……”

托卡列夫打断了他的话：“这我们早就听说了，”老钳工轻蔑地哼了一声，狠狠地瞪了秃头一眼。“拿我们当傻瓜还是怎么的？”

这一问，吓得秃头起了一身鸡皮疙瘩。

“对反革命分子的活动，我可不能负责。”秃头回答的声音已经低了下来。

“但是，他们在离铁路很远的地方伐木，这事您知道吧？”

阿基姆问。

“听说过，不过这种不正常的现象是别人辖区里的事，我是不能向上级报告的。”

“您手下有多少工作人员？”工会理事会主席向秃头提了一个问题。

“大约二百人。”

“这帮饭桶每人一年只砍一立方米！”托卡列夫冒火了，使劲啐了一口。

“铁路林业委员会全体人员都领头等口粮，我们让城里的工人把口粮节约下来给你们，可你们干了些什么呢？我们拨给工人的那两车皮面粉，你们弄到哪儿去了？”工会理事会主席继续追问。

四面八方都向秃头提出各种各样尖锐的问题，可是他对这些问题却一味支吾搪塞，就像对付逼债的债主一样。

这家伙滑得像条泥鳅，根本不正面回答问题，两只眼睛却不停地东张西望。他本能地感觉到危险逼近了。他又心虚，又紧张，现在他只有一个愿望——赶快离开这里回家，家里已经准备好了丰盛的晚餐，他那风韵犹存的妻子正在读保罗·德·科克［保罗·德·科克（１７９４—１８７１），法国作家。——译者］的小说消遣，等他回去吃晚饭。

朱赫来一面注意听秃头的回答，一面在笔记本上写道：“我认为，应当对这个人做更深入的审查，他不是工作能力低的问题。我已经掌握了他的一些材料……不必再同他谈下去，让他滚开，咱们好干正事。”

省委书记读完接到的纸条，向朱赫来点了点头。

朱赫来站起来，走到外屋去打电话。他回来的时候，省委书记已经念到决议的结尾：“……鉴于铁路林业委员会领导人公然消极怠工，故撤销其职务，并将此案交侦查机关审理。”

秃头本来以为不会这么便宜他。不错，指责他消极怠工，撤了他的职，说明对他是不是可靠产生了怀疑，不过，这终究是小事一桩。至于博亚尔卡的事情，他是不用担心的，又不是他辖区里的事。“呸，真见鬼，我还以为他们摸到我的什么底了呢……”

他差不多完全放下心来了，一边往皮包里收拾文件，一边说：“也好，反正我是一个非党专家，你们有权不信任我。但是我问心无愧。要是有什么工作我没有做到，那只是因为力不从心。”

谁也没有答理他。秃头走出房间，急急忙忙跑下楼梯，轻松地舒了一口气，拉开了临街的大门。就在门口，一个穿军大衣的人问他：“公民，您贵姓？”

秃头吓得心都要蹦出来了，结结巴巴地说：“切尔……温斯基……”

在省委书记的办公室里，那个“外人”走出去之后，十三个人全把脑袋紧紧地凑到大桌子上面来了。

“你们看……”朱赫来用手指按着摊开的地图说。“这是博亚尔卡站，离车站七俄里是伐木场。这儿堆积着二十一万立方米木柴。一支劳动大军在这儿干了八个月，付出了巨大的劳动，结果呢——咱们被出卖了，铁路和城市还是得不到燃料。木柴要从六俄里以外的地方运到车站来。这就至少需要五千辆大车，整整运一个月，而且每天要运两趟。最近的一个村庄在十五俄里以外，而且奥尔利克匪帮就在这一带活动……这是什么意思，你们明白了吧？……再看，按照计划，伐木应该从这儿开始，然后向车站方向推进，可是这帮坏蛋反而把伐木队往森林里引。他们的算盘打得倒挺如意：这样一来，咱们就不能把伐倒的木头运到铁路沿线。事实上也是这样，咱们连一百辆大车也弄不到。他们就是这样整咱们的！……这一招跟搞暴动没有什么两样。”

朱赫来紧握着的拳头沉重地落在打了蜡的地图上。

对于日益逼近的威胁，朱赫来虽然没有明说，但是在座的十三个人心里都十分清楚。冬天已经到了大门口。医院、学校、机关和几十万居民都只能听任严寒的摆布。车站挤满了人，像一窝蚂蚁，而火车却只能每星期开一次。

每个人都陷入了沉思。

朱赫来松开了拳头，说：“同志们，只有一条出路，就是在三个月的期限内，从车站到伐木场修一条轻便铁路，全长是七俄里。争取在一个半月之内，就把铁路修到伐木场的边缘。这件事我已经研究了一个星期。要完成这项工程，”朱赫来焦干的嗓子变得沙哑了。

“需要三百五十个工人和两个工程师。普夏—沃季察有现成的铁轨和七个火车头，是共青团员们在那儿的仓库里找到的。战前想从那儿铺一条轻便铁路到城里来。不过，工人们在博亚尔卡没有地方住。当地只有一所破房子，过去是林业学校。工人只好分批派去，两个星期轮换一次，时间长了受不了。阿基姆，咱们把共青团员调上去，怎么样？”

他没有等回答，接着说：“共青团要把能派出的人都派去，首先是索洛缅卡区的团员和城里的一部分团员。任务十分艰巨，但是只要跟同志们讲清楚，只有这样才能拯救全城和铁路，他们一定会完成任务的。”

铁路局长怀疑地摇了摇头。

“这么干不见得会有什么结果吧。在这么荒凉的地方铺七俄里长的铁路，又赶上现在是秋天，雨水多，眼看就要上冻了。”他有气无力地说。

朱赫来连头也没有回，不客气地说：“你要是早把伐木工作管好，就没这些事了，安德列·瓦西里耶维奇。铁路支线一定要建成。总不能抱着肩膀，干等着冻死。”

丽达的日记本里新写了满满两页纸：

组织人力去修轻便铁路的动员工作已经进行两天多了。

索洛缅卡区的团组织几乎整个都派去。团省委委员去三个人——杜巴瓦、潘克拉托夫和柯察金，由此可见这项工程多么重要。这三个人是朱赫来同志亲自选中的。我和阿基姆曾两次去他那里，一起商量了好久。他说，这项工程极其艰苦，如果失败，那就要大难临头。后天有一列专车送工人到工地去。

昨天召开了去工地的党团员会议，托卡列夫发表了精彩的演说。省党委把领导这项工程的重任托付给这位老人，这个人选太恰当了。总共有四百人要去，其中共青团员一百名，党员二十名，工程师和技术员各一名。今天扎尔基和柯察金到交通专科学校去动员学生。是的，是柯察金。要不是图夫塔吹毛求疵，挑起事端，我还真不知道他就是谢廖沙常常谈起的那个保尔。图夫塔因为挟嫌泄私愤，在常委会上受到申斥的处分。就是在常委会上，他也没有完全放弃指责保尔。事情发生在积极分子会议上。

当时正在挑选去工地的人员。图夫塔突然对保尔的任命提出异议。他的理由让我们全都感到吃惊。图夫塔说，保尔同资产阶级分子有联系，加之过去参加过反对派，因此，不能让他担任小队的领导。

我看着保尔。当图夫塔应大家的要求，提出证明，进行解释的时候，保尔的目光由惊奇变成了愤怒。图夫塔说的是：粉碎反革命阴谋那次，图夫塔和保尔编在同一个分队里，他们到一个教授家去搜查。这个教授的女儿原来是保尔的熟人。图夫塔偷听到她和保尔的谈话，她问保尔：“真的是您让人来搜查我家的吗，柯察金同志？要真是这样，对我便是一种莫大的侮辱。您对我们家好像是相当了解的。”保尔回答说，如果在你们家什么可疑的人都搜不出来，分队会离开的。图夫塔要求保尔说清楚，他跟资产阶级小姐怎么会这么亲近熟悉。

保尔表现得不错。他控制住了自己的情绪，这在他是不容易的。他是这样回敬图夫塔的：“同志们，如果是你们当中任何一个别的人说我这种闲话，我是会很恼火的。现在是图夫塔说，那就是另一码事了。眼下大家都忙得不可开交，而这位同志不是和大家共同做好工作，却在那里乱咬人，这是为什么呢？只有天知道。朋友们，我当然是要解释清楚的，不过不是向他，而是向你们大家。事情很简单，一九二○年，我在这个教授家中寄住过一阵子，这就相互认识了呗。这家人没有做过什么坏事。至于我过去犯的政治错误，我一直牢记心间。没有一位同志再翻过老帐。图夫塔现在的做法是不正确的。等到了工地，我们会有机会来证明这一点的。”

保尔的话给打断了，大家不让他再说下去。图夫塔受到申斥的处分。我想在保尔去博亚尔卡之前同他见一次面。

交通专科学校两层楼的大楼房里闹哄哄的一片，各年级的头头在召集学生开全体会议。有人拽了一下保尔的袖子。

“你好，保尔，哪阵风把你给吹来啦？”打招呼的是一个目光严肃的小伙子，他戴着学校的制帽，帽子底下耷拉下来一绺波浪形的鬈发。

小伙子名叫阿廖沙·科汉斯基，与保尔同年，是保尔的同乡。阿廖沙的哥哥也在阿尔焦姆工作的机车库当钳工。科汉斯基一家辛辛苦苦，省吃俭用，供他读书。小伙子也不赖，一边劳动一边学习，读完了技工学校高级班，又到基辅来上学。阿廖沙长话短说，向保尔讲了讲他上学的经过和波折：“咱们城里来了六个人。这些人你大概都认识，有舒拉·苏哈里科、扎利瓦诺夫、沙拉蓬，就是那个小滑头，独眼龙，记得吧？还有萨什卡·切博塔里、万卡·尤林。他们几个，一路上吃的东西，家里全给准备得好好的，又是果酱，又是香肠，又是烙饼，七七八八一大堆。我呢，塞了一盒子黑面包干就上路，再也没有别的可带的。这几个中学生，一路上一个劲儿耍笑我。把我气得要命，恨不得狠狠揍这几个坏蛋一顿。别看他们有五个狗东西，我兴许要吃亏，可捞到一个我算够本。实在叫人受不了。听他们说的：‘龟孙子，你往哪儿钻哪？傻瓜，呆家里抠土豆去吧。’唉，算了。总算到了基辅。

他们全都带着介绍信，去找这个长那个长。我一口气跑到军区参谋部。我想当飞行员。睡觉做梦我都能梦见在半空中打转转。”

保尔微微一笑，开玩笑地问阿廖沙：“地下就挤不下你了？”

阿廖沙也笑了笑，露出一口雪白的牙齿，说：“参谋部的人也这么说：‘你干吗非要穿云破雾呢？还是地下保险。’他们都取笑我。我连县团委的介绍信都带着呢，请他们帮助我进空军。我们家还住过一个搞军需供应的政委，叫安德列耶夫。他也在介绍信背面写了几句。一字不差，这么写的：‘本人认为科汉斯基同志有觉悟。总的说是个棒小伙子。脑袋瓜也挺灵。出身工人家庭。他想开飞机，那就让他去学嘛，可以支援世界革命嘛。’下面的签名是：‘第一三○博贡师军需队政委安德列耶夫’。”

保尔打心眼里乐开了。阿廖沙也哈哈大笑，引得一帮学生围拢过来。阿廖沙边笑边继续说：“是啊，飞行员的事没办成。参谋部里的人向我解释说，眼下没有飞机让我开。要是先学点技术，倒可以，飞机嘛，啥时候开都不晚。我就跑这里来了，递了申请书。结果呢，入学要考试。那五个家伙也在这里。考试两个礼拜之后进行。我一看——大事不妙。一个名额八个人争，来的还大多是城里人。有的找到教授先来一遍模拟考试，有的像我们这几位，都是中学七年级毕业。我赶紧翻书，恢复恢复记忆。还要去打工，卸一车皮木柴，够两天吃的。后来木柴没有卸的了，只好勒裤腰带。而我们那几位呢，成天忙着跑剧院，深更半夜才回宿舍。宿舍本来冷冷清清的，学生们差不多都去度暑假了。可只要这几个家伙一回来，就甭想再看书：叫啊，闹啊，笑啊。扎利瓦诺夫领他们去轻歌剧院，介绍他们认识了一些女演员。三天工夫，她们把他们口袋里的钱掏了个精光。等到没东西下肚了，这帮混蛋就来个顺手牵羊，牵走了一个外地考生的四十只鸡蛋，又趁我不在，一顿嚼光了我剩下的一点面包干。

“考试的一天终于到了。第一门考的是几何。发的试卷上都盖了图章，三十五分钟解习题。我看看黑板上的试题，全会做。再瞧瞧那几个中学生，一个个傻了眼，都在绞脑汁呢。

愁眉苦脸，龇牙咧嘴的，又好像他们椅子上有人钉了几只尖木桩，坐也不是，不坐也不是。沙拉蓬那个汗哪，劈里啪啦往下掉。他那副傻瓜嘴脸，一只独眼溜东溜西的。我心里寻思，狗娘养的，这可不像你拧姑娘大腿那么容易。”

阿廖沙笑得喘不过气来，又接着说下去：“我解完了题，站起来，准备交给教授。苏哈里科和扎利瓦诺夫压低嗓门，老鼠似的吱吱叫唤：‘递张小抄过来。’“我径直朝桌子走去，路过切博塔里身旁。他在小声咒骂我，骂得可难听了。两天下来，他们各得了四个两分，退出了考试。我沉住气继续考。他们在干什么呢？有一次苏哈里科来找我，说：‘别在这里泡啦。我们私下里从老师那儿打听到，你有两个两分。反正考不取。跟我们一起报建筑专科学校吧，那里容易取。现在还来得及。’我差点信了他的话，不过并没有放弃考试。反正只剩下两门了，考完再说。结果呢，他们是糊弄我。我考取了，他们几个进了专科学校附设的二年制技校，这样就可以蒙骗家里人。入学没有要他们考试，因为技校只要求中学二年级的文化。他们领到了学生证、免票卡。如今哪条铁路线上都少不了他们。跑单帮，投机倒把，腰包塞得鼓鼓的。有了钱就大吃大喝。在城里已经搬了三次家。

到哪儿都闹事，酗酒，让人家撵出来。尤林也尽量躲着他们，他进了建筑专科学校。”

走廊上越来越挤。人不断往大教室去。保尔和阿廖沙也往那里去。路上，阿廖沙又想起了什么，笑得喘不上气来，说：“前不久尤林顺路去看他们。他们在赌牌。尤林也凑热闹，没想到赢了。你猜怎么着？他们把他的钱抢过去，还狠揍了一顿，又赶出了门。这真叫活该。”

宽敞的大教室里，会议一直开到半夜，做争取多数人的工作。扎尔基发了三次言。去建筑工地的事，多数学生听都不想听。身穿校服、戴着锤子领章的学生叫喊起哄，两次破坏了投票。扎尔基在这里没有依靠对象。两个团员对五百个学生，学生中三分之二又都是“爹妈的宝贝疙疸”。民主空气最好的是一年级，那里的头是阿廖沙。机械系一年级的头达尼洛夫也支持去工地。他是一个长着一对充满幻想的眼睛的青年。这两个年级多数人投了赞成票。到了第二天早晨，学校团支部才答应派四十名学生去修铁路。

最后几只工具箱搬上了火车。乘务员也都站到了各自的岗位上。天下着蒙蒙细雨。丽达的皮夹克湿得发亮，雨珠像小玻璃球一样从上面滚下来。

丽达在送别托卡列夫，她紧紧握住老人的手，轻声说：“祝你们成功。”

老人的眼睛从灰白的长眉毛下面亲切地看了看她。

“是呀，真他妈的给咱们找麻烦。”他咕哝了一句。“你们在这儿看着点。要是谁跟我们扯皮，你们看准地方，就给他们点厉害看看。这帮废物干什么都拖拖拉拉的。好了，孩子，我该上车了。”

托卡列夫裹紧了短外衣。就在他临上车前，丽达像是无意地问：“怎么，难道保尔不跟你们一起去吗？他怎么不在这儿呢？”

“他昨天就坐轧道车走了，跟技术指导员打前站去了。”

扎尔基和杜巴瓦沿站台匆匆朝这边走来，同他们在一起的还有安娜·博哈特，她把短外套很随便地披在身上，纤细的手指夹着一支熄了的香烟。

丽达注视着这三个人，又向托卡列夫提出了最后一个问题：“保尔跟你学得怎么样？”

托卡列夫惊讶地看了她一眼：“什么学得怎么样？那小伙子不是一直归你管的吗？他常跟我提到你，夸起来没个完。”

丽达仔细听着，有点不大相信老人的话。

“是这样吗，托卡列夫同志？他说他跟我学过的东西，都要上你那儿再学一遍。”

老人大笑起来。

“上我那儿？……我连他的影子都没见过。”

汽笛响了。克拉维切克在车厢里喊道：“乌斯季诺维奇同志，你放我们的大叔上车吧，这样不行啊！没有他我们可怎么办呢？”

这个捷克人还想说些什么，但是一看见走到跟前的那三个人，便不再做声了。他在瞬息间同安娜的不平静的眼神接触了一下，看到她对杜巴瓦露出惜别的微笑，觉得心里很不是滋味，便迅速离开了车窗。

秋雨打着人们的脸。一团团饱含雨水的乌云，在低空慢慢移动。深秋，一望无际的森林里，树叶全落了。老榆树阴郁地站着，把满身皱纹藏在褐色的苔藓下面。无情的秋天剥去了它们华丽的盛装，它们只好光着枯瘦的身体站在那里。

小车站孤独地隐在树林里。一条新修的路基从车站的石头货台伸向森林。路基周围是蚂蚁一样密集的人群。

讨厌的粘泥在靴子底下扑哧扑哧直响。路基两旁的人们狠劲地挖着土。铁器发出沉重的撞击声，铁锹碰着石头，铿然作响。

雨像用筛子筛过的一样，又细又密，下个不停。冰冷的雨水渗进了衣服。雨水也冲走了人们的劳动成果，泥浆如同稠粥从路基上淌下来。

湿透了的衣服又重又冷，但是人们一直干到天黑透了才离开工地。

修筑的路基一天比一天延长，不断伸向密林深处。

离车站不远的地方，有一座石头房的空架子，凄凉地立在那里。里面的东西，凡是撬得下、拆得开、砸得动的，早就被洗劫一空了。门窗成了张口的大洞；炉门成了黑窟窿。房顶也破烂不堪，好多地方露出了椽子。

唯一没有遭劫的是四个房间里的水泥地面。每天夜里，四百个人就穿着里外湿透、溅满泥浆的衣服躺在上面睡觉。大家在门口拧衣服，脏水一股股流下来。他们用最难听的话咒骂这恶劣的天气和遍地的泥泞。水泥地面上薄薄地铺了一层干草，他们紧挨着睡在上面，相互用体温取暖。衣服冒着气，但是从来没有干过。雨水渗过挡窗洞的麻袋，滴落到地上。雨点像密集的霰弹敲打着屋顶上残留的铁皮。冷风不断从破门缝里吹进来。

厨房是一座破旧的板棚。早晨大家在这里草草吃完茶点，就到工地上去。午饭是单调得要命的素扁豆汤和一磅半几乎跟煤一样黑的面包。

城里能够供应的只有这些东西。

技术指导员瓦列里安·尼科季莫维奇·帕托什金是个高个子的干巴老头，脸上有两道很深的皱纹。技术员瓦库连科个子不高，但是很壮，粗笨的脸上长着一个肉墩墩的大鼻子。

他们俩住在火车站站长家里。

托卡列夫住在车站肃反工作人员霍利亚瓦的小房间里。

霍利亚瓦长着两条短腿，像水银一样好动。

筑路工程队以坚韧不拔的毅力经受着各种艰难困苦。

路基一天天向森林的深处伸展。

工程队里已经有九个人开了小差。过了几天，又跑了五个。

筑路工程刚进行一个多星期，就受到了第一次打击——有一天晚上，火车没有从城里运面包来。

杜巴瓦叫醒了托卡列夫，向他报告了这件事。

工程队党组织书记托卡列夫坐起来，把两条长毛腿垂到地板上，使劲地搔着胳肢窝。

“真会开玩笑！”他一边咕哝，一边迅速穿上衣服。

霍利亚瓦像球一样跑进房间来。

“快去挂电话，要特勤部。”托卡列夫吩咐他，接着又叮咛杜巴瓦：“面包的事，你对谁也不许说。”

不达目的决不罢休的霍利亚瓦跟电话接线员吵了半个钟头，终于同特勤部副部长朱赫来接通了电话。托卡列夫听他跟接线员争吵，急得直跺脚。

“什么？面包没送到？我马上就查，看是谁干的。”听筒里响起了朱赫来的怒吼声。

“你说吧，明天我们拿什么给大伙吃？”托卡列夫生气地朝话筒里喊。

朱赫来显然在考虑怎么办。过了好一会儿，托卡列夫听到朱赫来说：“面包我们连夜送去。我派小利特克开车去，他认识路。天亮前一定送到。”

天刚透亮，一辆沾满泥浆的汽车开到了火车站，车上装着一袋装面包。小利特克疲惫地从车上爬下来，他因为一夜没有睡觉，脸色很苍白。

为修建铁路而进行的斗争越来越艰苦。铁路管理局送来通知，说枕木用完了。城里也找不到车辆，不能把铁轨和小火车头运到工地上来，而且发现那些小火车头还需要大修。第一批筑路人员眼看就要到期，可是接班的人员还没有着落；现有的人员已经筋疲力尽，要把他们留下来再干，是不可能的。

旧板棚里点着一盏油灯，积极分子在这里开会，一直到深夜还没有散。

第二天早晨，托卡列夫、杜巴瓦和克拉维切克到城里去了，还带着六个人去修理火车头，运铁轨。克拉维切克是面包工人出身，这次派他到供应部门去当监督员，其余的人都到普夏—沃季察去。

雨还是下个不停。

保尔费了好大劲才把脚从泥里拔出来。他感到脚底下冰冷彻骨，知道是那只烂靴底掉下来了。他从到这里的第一天起，就一直吃这双破靴子的苦头。靴子总是湿漉漉的，走起路来里面的泥浆扑哧扑哧直响。现在倒好，一只靴底干脆掉下来了，他只好光着脚板泡在刺骨的泥泞里。这只破靴子害得他活都没法干。他从烂泥里捡起破靴底，绝望地看了看。虽然他已经发誓不再骂人，但是这次却怎么也忍不住了。他拎着破靴子朝板棚走去。他在行军灶旁边坐了下来，打开沾满污泥的包脚布，把那只冻木了的脚伸到炉子跟前。

奥达尔卡正在案板上切甜菜。她是一个养路工人的妻子，在这里给厨师打下手。这个一点也不老的妇女可真是得天独厚——肩膀同男人的一样宽，胸脯高高隆起，大腿又粗又壮，切起菜来真有功夫，不一会儿案板上便堆成了一座小山。

奥达尔卡轻蔑地瞥了保尔一眼，挖苦他说：“你怎么啦，等饭吃哪？还早呢。你这小伙子准是偷懒溜出来的。你把脚丫子伸哪儿去啦？这儿是厨房，不是澡堂子！”

她训斥着保尔。

一个上了年纪的厨师走了进来。

“靴子全烂了。”保尔解释了一下他到厨房来的原因。

厨师看了看破靴子，对奥达尔卡点了点头，说：“她男人是半拉子鞋匠，让他帮帮你的忙吧，没鞋穿就别想要命了。”

奥达尔卡听厨师这样说，又仔细看了看保尔，感到有点不好意思。

“我把您错当成懒虫了。”她抱歉地说。

保尔笑了笑。奥达尔卡用行家的眼光翻看着那只靴子。

“我们当家的才不补它呢。——不顶事了。我家阁楼上有一只旧套鞋，我给您拿来吧，可别冻坏了脚。受这种罪，哪儿见过呀！明后天就要上大冻，那您可够受的。”奥达尔卡同情地说。她放下菜刀，走了出去。

不一会儿，她拿来一只高统套鞋和一块亚麻布。保尔用布包好脚，烤得热乎乎的，穿上了暖和的套鞋。这时，他以感激的心情，默默地看了看养路工的妻子。

托卡列夫从城里回来，窝着一肚子火。他把积极分子召集到霍利亚瓦的房间里，向他们讲了那些令人不快的消息。

“到处都怠工。不管你到哪儿，车轮都没停，可就是在原地打转。对那些反动家伙，看来咱们还是抓少了，一辈子都得碰上这号人。”老人对屋里的人说。“同志们，我就跟你们明说了吧：情况糟透了。到现在换班的人还没凑齐，能派来多少也不知道。转眼就要上大冻。上冻前，豁出命来也要把路铺过那片洼地。不然，以后用牙啃也啃不动。就是这样，同志们，城里那帮捣鬼的家伙，会有人收拾他们的，咱们呢，要在这儿加油干，快干。哪怕脱五层皮，也要修好。要不，咱们还叫什么布尔什维克呢？只能算草包。”托卡列夫的声音铿锵有力，完全不是平时那种沙哑的低音。紧锁着的眉毛下面，两只眼睛炯炯发亮，说明他坚定不移，下决心干到底。

“今天咱们就召开党团员会议，向同志们讲清楚，明天大家照常上工。非党非团的同志，明天早晨就可以回去，党团员都留下。这儿是团省委的决议。”说着，他把一张叠成四折的纸交给了潘克拉托夫。

保尔从潘克拉托夫肩头看过去，纸上写的是：

团省委认为，全体共青团员应继续留在工地，待第一批木柴运出以后方能换班。

共青团省委书记丽达·乌斯季诺维奇（代签）。

板棚里挤得水泄不通。一百二十个人都挤在这里。人们靠板壁站着，有的上了桌子，甚至灶上也有人。

潘克拉托夫宣布开会。托卡列夫讲话不长，但是最后一句一下子叫大家凉了半截：“明天共产党员和共青团员都不能回城里去。”

老人的手在空中挥了一下，强调这个决定是不可改变的。

这个手势把大家摆脱污泥、返回城里同家人团聚的希望扫得精光。一开始，会场里一片喊叫声，什么也听不清。人体晃动着，暗淡的灯光也跟着摇曳起来。昏暗中看不见人们脸上的表情。吵嚷声越来越大。有的人憧憬着谈论起“家庭的舒适”，有的人气愤地叫喊着，说太疲劳了。更多的人沉默不语。

只有一个人声明要离队。他连喊带骂，从角落里发出忿忿不平的声音：“去他妈的！我一天也不在这儿待了！罚犯人做苦工，那是因为他们犯了罪。可凭什么罚我们？逼我们干了两星期，也就够了。没那么多傻瓜。谁做了决议，谁自己来干。谁乐意在污泥里打滚，谁就去打滚好了，我可只有一条命。我明天就走。”

这个大喊大叫的人就站在奥库涅夫背后。奥库涅夫划着一根火柴，想看看这个要开小差的人。火柴点燃的一瞬间，照亮了一张气歪了的脸和张开的大嘴。奥库涅夫认出他是省粮食委员会会计的儿子。

“你照什么？我不怕，又不是贼。”

火柴灭了。潘克拉托夫站起来，挺直了身子。

“谁在那儿胡说八道？谁说党给的任务是苦工？”他瓮声瓮气地说，严峻地扫视着站在周围的人群。“弟兄们，咱们说什么也不能回城去，咱们的岗位就在这儿。要是咱们从这儿溜走，许多人就得冻死。弟兄们，咱们赶紧干完，就可以早点回去。当逃兵，像这个可怜虫想的那样，是咱们的思想和咱们的纪律所不容许的。”

这个码头工人不喜欢发表长篇大论，但是，就是这短短的几句话，也被刚才那个人的声音打断了：“那么，非党非团的可以走吗？”

“可以。”潘克拉托夫斩钉截铁地说。

那个家伙穿着城里人常穿的短大衣，朝桌子挤了过来。他扔出一张小卡片，卡片像蝙蝠一样在桌子上方翻了一个筋斗，撞在潘克拉托夫胸口上，弹了回来，立着落在桌子上。

“这是我的团证，收回去吧，我可不为一张硬纸片卖命！”

他的后半句话被全场爆发出来的叱骂声淹没了。

“你扔掉了什么！”

“你这个出卖灵魂的家伙！”

“钻到共青团里来，想的就是升官发财！”

“把他撵出去！”

“看我们不揍你一顿，你这个传播伤寒病的虱子！”

扔团证的那个家伙低着头朝门口挤去。大家像躲避瘟神一样闪向两旁，放他过去。他一走出去，门就呀的一声关上了。

潘克拉托夫抓起扔下的团证，伸到小油灯的火苗上。

卡片烧着了，卷了起来，变成了一个黑色的小圆筒。

森林里响了一枪。一个骑马的人迅速逃离破旧的板棚，钻进了黑漆漆的森林。人们从学校和板棚里跑出来。有人无意中碰到一块插在门缝里的胶合板上。人们划亮火柴，用衣服下摆挡住风，借着火光，看到胶合板上写着：

滚出车站！从哪里来的，滚回哪里去。谁敢赖着不走，就叫他脑袋开花。我们要把你们斩尽杀绝，对谁也不留情。限明天晚上以前滚蛋。

下面的署名是：大头目切斯诺克。

切斯诺克是奥尔利克匪帮里的人物。

在丽达的房间里，桌子上放着一本没有合上的日记。

１２月２日

早晨下了第一场雪。天很冷。在楼梯上遇见维亚切斯拉夫·奥利申斯基。我们一起走着。

“我就喜欢初雪。一派寒冬景象！多么迷人，是不是？”奥利申斯基说。

我想起了在博亚尔卡的人们，就回答他说，我对寒冬和这场雪丝毫没有好感，相反，只觉得心里烦恼。我向他解释了原因。

“这种想法很主观。如果把您的想法引申下去，那就应该认为，比方说在战时，笑声和一切乐观的表现都是不许可的。

但是生活里并不是这样。悲剧只发生在前线，在那里，生命常常受到死神的威胁。然而即便在前线，也还有笑声。至于远离前线的地方，生活当然还是照旧：嬉笑、眼泪、痛苦、欢乐、追求眼福和享受、感情的风波、爱情……”

从奥利申斯基的话中，很难听出哪句只是说着玩的。他是外交人民委员部的特派员，一九一七年入党。他的衣着是西欧式的，胡子总是刮得光光的，身上洒点香水。他就住在我们这幢楼中谢加尔那套房间里。晚上常常来看我。同他聊天倒挺有意思，他在巴黎住过很长时间，知道西方的许多事情。但是我并不认为，我们能够成为好朋友。因为他首先把我看作一个女人，其次才看作一个党内同志。诚然，他并不掩饰他的意图和思想——他在说实话上，倒是有足够的勇气——而且，他的情意也并不粗野。他善于把那番情意表达得很漂亮。但是我并不喜欢他。

对我来说，朱赫来那种略带粗犷的朴实，比起奥利申斯基的西欧式的风雅来，不知要亲切多少倍。

我们从博亚尔卡收到了一些简短的报告。每天铺路一百俄丈。他们把枕木直接铺在冻土上，放在刨出来的座槽里。那里总共只有二百四十个人。第二批人员已经有一半逃走了。环境确实很艰苦。在那样的冰天雪地里，他们往后怎么工作呢？

……杜巴瓦到普夏—沃季察去已经一个星期了。那里有七个火车头，他们只修好了五个。其余的没有零件了。

电车公司对杜巴瓦提出了刑事诉讼，控告他带着一帮人，强行扣留从普夏—沃季察开到城里来的全部电车。他把乘客动员下来，把铺支线用的轶轨装到车上，然后沿着城里的电车线路把十九辆车统统开到火车站。他们得到了电车工人的全力支援。

在火车站，索洛缅卡区的一群共青团员连夜把铁轨装上了火车，杜巴瓦带着他那一帮人把铁轨运到了博亚尔卡。

阿基姆拒绝把杜巴瓦的问题提到常委会上讨论。杜巴瓦向我们反映，电车公司的官僚主义和拖拉作风简直不像话。他们顶多只肯给两辆车，连商量的余地也没有。可是图夫塔却教训起杜巴瓦来：“该把游击作风扔掉了，现在再这么干，就要蹲监狱。难道不能跟他们好好商量，非用武力不可吗？”

我还从来没有看到过杜巴瓦发那么大的火。

“你这个死啃公文的家伙，自己怎么不去跟他们好好商量呢？坐在这儿，喝饱了墨水，就耍嘴皮子，唱高调。我不把铁轨送到博亚尔卡，就要挨骂。我看得把你送到工地上去，请托卡列夫管教管教，省得在这儿碍手碍脚，惹人讨厌！”杜巴瓦暴跳如雷，整个省委大楼都可以听到他的吼声。

图夫塔写了一个要求处分杜巴瓦的报告，但是阿基姆让我暂时出去一下，单独同他谈了大约十分钟。图夫塔从阿基姆房间出来的时候，满脸通红，怒气冲冲。

１２月３日

省委又收到了新的控告信，这回是铁路肃反委员会送来的。潘克拉托夫、奥库涅夫，还有另外几个同志，在莫托维洛夫卡车站拆走了空房子的门窗。当他们把拆下来的东西往火车上搬的时候，站上的一个肃反工作人员想逮捕他们。但是他们缴了他的枪，直到火车开动了，才把退空了子弹的手枪还给他。门窗都运走了。另外，铁路局物资处控告托卡列夫擅自从博亚尔卡仓库提出二十普特钉子，发给农民作为报酬，让农民帮他们从伐木场运出长木头，代替枕木使用。

我跟朱赫来同志谈了这两件事，他笑笑说：“这些控告咱们都给顶回去。”

工地上的情况十分紧张，每一天都是宝贵的。在一些微不足道的小事上，往往也需要施加压力。我们常常要把那些专门制造障碍的人拉到省委来。工地上的同志们不守常规的事越来越多了。

奥利申斯基给我送来了一个小电炉。我和奥莉加·尤列涅娃用它烤手。但是房间里并没有因为有了电炉而暖和一些。

那么在森林里人们怎样捱过这样的夜晚呢？奥莉加说，医院里很冷，病人都不敢爬出被窝。他们隔两天才生一次火。

你错了，奥利申斯基同志，前线的悲剧也就是后方的悲剧！

１２月４日

大雪下了整整一夜。有报告说，博亚尔卡工地全都给大雪封住了。工程停了下来。人们在清除路上的积雪。今天省委决定：第一期筑路工程一定要在一九二二年一月一日以前完成，把路铺到伐木场边缘。据说，这个决定传达到博亚尔卡的时候，托卡列夫的回答是：“只要我们还有一个人在，一定按期完工。”

关于保尔，一点消息也没有。他居然没有像潘克拉托夫那样受到“控告”，这倒是怪事。我直到现在也不知道，他为什么不愿意同我见面。

１２月５日

昨天匪徒袭击了工地。

马在松软的雪地上谨慎地迈着步子。马蹄偶尔踩在雪下的枯枝上，树枝折断，发出劈啪的响声。这时马就打个响鼻，闪到一边去，但是抿着的耳朵挨了一枪托后，又急步赶上前去。

大约有十个人骑着马，翻过了一片起伏不平的丘陵地，丘陵地的前面是一长条没有被雪覆盖的黑色地面。

他们在这里勒住了马。马镫碰在一起，当地响了一声。领头的那匹公马使劲抖动了一下身体，长途跋涉使它浑身冒着热气。

“他们人真他妈的来得不少，”领头的人用乌克兰话说。

“咱们狠狠吓唬他们一下。大头目下令，一定要让这群蝗虫明天全都滚蛋。眼看这帮臭工人就要把木柴弄到手了……”

他们排成单行，沿轻便铁路两侧朝车站走去，慢慢地靠近了林业学校旁边的一片空地。他们隐藏在树背后，没有敢到空地上来。

一阵枪声打破了黑夜的寂静。雪团像松鼠似的，从那棵被月光照成银白色的桦树上滚落下来。短筒枪贴着树身，吐出火光，子弹打在墙上，泥灰纷纷掉在地上，潘克拉托夫他们运来的玻璃窗也被打得粉碎。

枪声惊醒了睡在水泥地上的人，他们立即跳了起来，但是一见房间里子弹横飞，又都卧倒了。

有人压在别人身上。

“你要上哪儿去？”杜巴瓦一把抓住保尔的军大衣问。

“出去。”

“趴下，傻瓜！你一露头，就会把你撂倒。”杜巴瓦急促地低声说。

他俩紧挨着躲在大门旁边。杜巴瓦紧贴在地上，一只手握着手枪，伸向门口。保尔蹲着，手指紧张地摸着转轮手枪的弹槽，里面只有五颗子弹了。他摸到空槽，便把转轮转了过去。

射击突然停止了。接着是一片令人惊奇的寂静。

“同志们，有枪的都到这边来。”杜巴瓦低声指挥那些伏在地上的人。

保尔小心地打开了门。空地上连人影也没有，只有雪花缓慢地飘舞着，落向地面。

森林里，十个人狠命抽着马，逃走了。

午饭的时候，城里飞快地开来一辆轧道车。朱赫来和阿基姆走下车来。托卡列夫和霍利亚瓦在站台上迎接他们。车上卸下一挺马克沁机枪、几箱机枪子弹和二十支步枪。

他们急急忙忙地向工地走去。朱赫来的大衣下摆擦在地面的积雪上，留下了一道道锯齿形的曲线。他走起路来像熊一样，左右摇晃。老习惯还是改不了：两条腿总像圆规似的叉开着，仿佛脚下仍然是颠簸的甲板。阿基姆个子高，步子大，能跟得上朱赫来，托卡列夫走一会儿，就要跑几步，才能跟上他们。

“匪徒的袭击——还是次要问题。眼前有个山包横在路上，倒是麻烦事，这么个大家伙叫我们碰上了，真他妈的晦气！得挖很多土方才行。”

托卡列夫站住了。他背过身子，两手拢成小船的样子，挡住风，点着烟，赶紧抽了两口，又去追赶前边的人。阿基姆停下来等他。朱赫来没有放慢脚步，继续往前走。

阿基姆问托卡列夫：“这条支线你们能按期修好吗？”

托卡列夫没有立即回答，过了一会儿才说：“你知道，老弟，一般说来是不能按期修好的，但是不修好也不行。问题就这么明摆着。”

他们赶上朱赫来，三个人并排走着。托卡列夫很激动地接着说：“问题难，就难在这里。工地上只有我和帕托什金两个人心里清楚，这个地方条件这样差，人力和设备又这样少，按期完工是不可能的。但是，同时全体筑路人员都知道，不按期完工绝对不行。所以我上回才说：只要我们还有一个人在，就一定完成任务。现在你们亲眼看看吧！我们在这儿挖土已经快两个月了，第四班眼看又要到期，可是基本成员一直没换过班，完全靠青春的活力支持着。这些人当中，有一半受了寒。看着这些小伙子，真叫人心疼。他们是无价之宝……有些人连命也会断送在这个鬼地方，而且不止一两个人。”

从车站起，已经有一公里铁路修好了。

往前，大约有一公里半，是平整好的路基，上面挖了座槽，座槽里铺着一排长木头，看上去像是被大风刮倒的栅栏。

这就是枕木。再往前，一直到小山包跟前，是一条刚平出来的路面。

在这里干活的是潘克拉托夫的第一筑路队。他们四十个人正在铺枕木。一个留着红胡子的农民，穿一双新的树皮鞋，不慌不忙地把木头从雪橇上卸下来，扔在路基上。再远一点的地方，也有几个这样的雪橇在卸木头。地上放着两根长长的铁棍，代替路轨，用来给枕木找平。为了把路基夯实，斧子、铁棍、铁锹全都用上了。

铺枕木是一项细致的工作，很费工夫。枕木要铺得既牢固又平稳，使每根枕木都承受铁轨同样的压力。

这里懂得铺路技术的只有筑路工长拉古京一个人。这位老同志虽然五十四岁了，却一根白头发也没有，黑黑的胡子从中间向两边分开。他每次都自愿留下，现在已经是干第四班了。他跟年轻人一样忍受饥寒困苦，因此，在筑路队里受到普遍的尊敬。党组织每次开会，都邀请这位非党同志（他是塔莉亚的父亲）出席，请他坐在荣誉席上。为此，他很自豪，发誓决不离开工地。

“你们说说看，我怎么能扔下你们不管呢？我一走，你们会搞乱的，这儿需要有人照看，需要实践经验。我在俄罗斯跟枕木打了一辈子交道……”每到换班的时候，他都和蔼地这样说，于是就一次又一次地留了下来。

帕托什金很信任他，很少到他这个工段来检查工作。当朱赫来他们三个人走到正在劳动的人群跟前时，累得浑身冒汗、满脸通红的潘克拉托夫正用斧子砍着安放枕木的座槽。

阿基姆好不容易才认出了这个码头工人。他瘦多了，两个大颧骨显得更加突出，脸也没有好好洗过，看上去又黑又憔悴。

“啊，省里的大人物来了！”说着，他把热乎乎、湿漉漉的手伸给阿基姆。

铁锹的声音停了下来。阿基姆看见周围的人脸色都很苍白。人们脱下的大衣和皮袄就放在旁边的雪地上。

托卡列夫跟拉古京说了几句话，就拉着潘克拉托夫一起，陪刚来的朱赫来和阿基姆向小山包走去。潘克拉托夫和朱赫来并肩走着。

“潘克拉托夫，你讲讲，你们在莫托维洛夫卡整肃反工作人员是怎么回事？你们把人家的枪都缴了，你不认为这做得有点过火吗？”朱赫来严肃地问这个不爱做声的码头工人。

潘克拉托夫不好意思地笑了一下，说：“我们缴他的枪，是跟他商量好的，他自己要我们这么干的。这小伙子跟我们是一条心。我们把情况如实跟他一摆，他就说：‘同志们，我没有权力让你们把门窗卸走。捷尔任斯基同志有命令，严禁盗窃铁路财产。这儿的站长跟我结了仇，这个坏蛋老偷东西，我总是干涉他。要是我让你们把门窗拿走，他一定会上告，我就要到革命法庭受审。最好你们先下了我的枪，再把东西运走。站长不上告，就算没事了。’于是我们照他说的办了。我们又没把门窗往自己家里拉！”

潘克拉托夫看到朱赫来眼睛里露出一丝笑意，又补充说：“朱赫来同志，要处分就处分我们吧！您可千万别难为那个小伙子。”

“这件事就算过去了。今后再这样干可不行——这是破坏纪律的行为。我们完全有力量通过组织手段粉碎官僚主义。好了，现在谈谈更重要的事吧。”于是朱赫来把匪徒袭击的详情询问了一遍。

在离车站四公里半的地方，筑路的人们挥动铁锹，猛攻坚硬的冻土。他们要劈开挡在面前的小山包，修出一条路来。

工地周围，有七个人担任警戒。他们随身带着霍利亚瓦的马枪和保尔、潘克拉托夫、杜巴瓦、霍穆托夫的手枪。筑路队的全部武器都在这里了。

帕托什金坐在斜坡上，往本子上记着数字。工地上只剩下他一个工程技术人员了。他的助手瓦库连科怕被土匪打死，宁可受法办，也不在这里干，一清早开小差溜回城里去了。

“挖开这个山包，要花半个月的时间，地都冻了。”帕托什金低声对他面前的霍穆托夫说。霍穆托夫是个动作迟缓、总皱着眉头、不大爱讲话的人。他一听这话，生气地用嘴咬着胡子梢，回答说：“全部工程限我们二十五天完成，光挖山包您就计划用十五天，这怎么成！”

“这个期限定得不切合实际。”帕托什金说。“不错，我这辈子从来没有这样的条件下筑过路，也没同这样的筑路工人共过事。因此，我也可能估计错，以前就错过两回了。”

这时，朱赫来、阿基姆和潘克拉托夫走近了小山包。斜坡上的人发现了他们。

“瞧！谁来了？”铁路工厂的旋工彼佳·特罗菲莫夫，一个斜眼的小伙子，用露在破绒衣外面的胳膊肘捅了保尔一下，指着坡下刚来的人说。保尔连铁锹也没有顾得放下，立刻向坡下跑去。他的两只眼睛在帽檐下热情地微笑着，朱赫来紧紧地握住他的手，握的时间比谁都长。

“你好啊，保尔！瞧你这身衣服，大的大，小的小，简直认不出你来了。”

潘克拉托夫苦笑了一下。

“你没看他那五个脚趾头，行动有多一致，全在外面露着。

这还不算，开小差的人还把他的大衣偷走了。亏得奥库涅夫是他们同一个公社的，把自己的破上衣给了他。不过不要紧，保夫鲁沙是个热血青年，他还可以在水泥地板上躺上一个星期，铺不铺干草都行，然后再进棺材。”码头工人怏怏不乐地对阿基姆说。

黑眉毛、鼻子微翘的奥库涅夫调皮地眯起眼睛，反驳说：“我们才不让保夫鲁沙完蛋呢。我们可以推举他到厨房去，给奥达尔卡当后备火头军。他要不是傻瓜，那儿吃的也有，暖和地方也有——靠着炉子也行，挨着奥达尔卡也可以。”

一阵哄笑淹没了奥库涅夫的话。

这是今天他们发出的第一阵笑声。

朱赫来察看了小山包，然后同托卡列夫、帕托什金坐雪橇到伐木场去了一趟，又转了回来。斜坡上的人还在坚持不懈地挖土。朱赫来望着飞舞的铁锹，望着弯腰紧张劳动的人群，低声对阿基姆说：“群众大会用不着开了，这儿谁也不需要进一步动员。托卡列夫，你说得对，这些人是无价之宝。钢铁就是这样炼成的！”

朱赫来看着这些挖土的人，眼神里充满了喜悦、疼爱和庄严的自豪。就在不久以前，在那次反革命叛乱的前夜，他们当中的一部分人，曾经扛起钢枪，投入战斗。现在，他们又胸怀一个共同目标，要把钢铁动脉铺到堆放着大量木柴的宝地去，全城的人都在急切地盼望着这些木柴给他们带来温暖和生命。

帕托什金工程师有礼貌地，但又不容置疑地向朱赫来证明：要在这个小山包上开出一条路来，没有两个星期的时间是不可能的。朱赫来一面听他计算，一面心里打着主意。

“您把斜坡上的人撤下来，调到前面去修路，这个小山包咱们另想办法。”

朱赫来在车站的电话机旁待了很长时间。霍利亚瓦在门口警卫，他听见朱赫来在屋里粗声粗气地说：“用我的名义马上给军区参谋长挂个电话，请他立刻把普济列夫斯基那个团调到筑路工地这一带来。一定要把这个地区的匪徒肃清。另外，再从部队派一列装甲车和几名爆破手来。其他事情我自己安排。我夜里回去。让利特克在十二点以前把车开到车站来。”

在板棚里，阿基姆简短地讲过几句话以后，朱赫来接着讲起来。他亲切地同大家交谈着，一个小时不知不觉地过去了。朱赫来告诉大家，原定的计划不能变，第一期工程必须在一月一日以前完工。

“从现在起，筑路队要按战时状态组织起来。所有党员编成一个特勤中队，中队长由杜巴瓦同志担任。六个筑路小队都接受固定的任务。没有完成的工程平均分成六段，每队承担一段。全部工程必须在一月一日以前结束。提前完成任务的小队可以回城休息。另外，省执行委员会主席团还要向全乌克兰中央执行委员会呈报，给这个小队最优秀的工人颁发红旗勋章。”

各队的队长都派定了：第一队是潘克拉托夫同志，第二队是杜巴瓦同志，第三队是霍穆托夫同志，第四队是拉古京同志，第五队是柯察金同志，第六队是奥库涅夫同志。

“筑路工程队队长、思想工作和组织工作的总负责人，”朱赫来在结束发言时说。“仍然是安东·尼基福罗维奇·托卡列夫，这是非他莫属的。”

仿佛一群鸟突然振翅起飞一样，噼噼啪啪地响起了一阵掌声。一张张刚毅的脸上露出了笑容。朱赫来一向很严肃，他最后这句话却说得既亲切又风趣，一直在注意听他讲话的人全都轻松地笑了起来。

二十几个人簇拥着阿基姆和朱赫来，一直把他们送上轧道车。

朱赫来同保尔道别的时候，望着他那只灌满雪的套鞋，低声对他说：“我给你捎双靴子来，你的脚还没冻坏吧？”

“好像是冻坏了，已经肿起来了。”保尔说到这里，想起了很久以前提出过的请求，抓住朱赫来的袖子，央求说：“我跟你要过几发手枪子弹，现在你能给我吗？我这儿能用的只有三发了。”

朱赫来抱歉地摇了摇头，但是他看到保尔一脸失望的神情，就毅然决然地解下了自己的毛瑟枪。

“这是我送给你的礼物。”

保尔开头简直不敢相信，他会得到一件盼望了这么久的贵重礼物，可是朱赫来已经把枪带挂在他的肩膀上。

“拿着吧，拿着吧！我知道你早就眼红了。不过你要多加小心，可不许打自己人。这支枪还有满满三夹子弹，也给你。”

一道道羡慕的目光立刻射到保尔身上。不知是谁喊着说：“保尔，咱俩换吧，我给你一双靴子，外带一件短大衣。”

潘克拉托夫在保尔背上推了一下，打趣地说：“鬼东西，换毡靴穿吧。要是再穿你那只套鞋，连圣诞节也活不到！”

这时候，朱赫来一只脚踏着轧道车的踏板，正在给保尔开持枪许可证。

清晨，一列装甲车轰隆轰隆驶过道岔，开进了车站。一团团天鹅绒般的白色蒸汽，像盛开的绣球花一样喷发出来，又立即消失在清新而寒冷的空气里。从装甲车厢里走出来几个穿皮衣的人。几小时以后，装甲车送来的三个爆破手在斜坡上深深地埋下了两个深蓝色的大南瓜，接上了长长的导火线。

放了信号枪之后，人们便纷纷离开现在已经变成险地的小山包，四散隐蔽。火柴触到了导火线，磷光闪了一下。

刹那间，几百个人的心都提了起来。一分钟，两分钟，等待是那样难熬——终于……大地颤抖了一下，一股可怕的力量炸开了小山包，把巨大的土块抛向天空。接着，第二炮又响了，比第一炮还要厉害。可怕的轰鸣响彻密林，山崩地裂的隆隆声在林间回荡。

刚才还是小山包的那个地方，现在出现了一个张着大口的深坑，方圆几十米内，在像糖一样洁白的雪地上，撒满了爆破出来的土块。

人们拿着镐和锹一齐向炸开的深坑冲去。

朱赫来走后，工地上展开了争取首先完成任务的异常激烈的竞赛。

离天亮还很早，保尔谁也没有惊动，就悄悄地起来了。他独自艰难地迈着在水泥地上冻僵了的双脚，到厨房去了。烧开了一桶沏茶水，才回去叫醒他那个小队的队员。

等到其他各队的人醒来，外面天已经亮了。

在板棚里吃早点的时候，潘克拉托夫挤到杜巴瓦和他的兵工厂伙伴的桌子跟前，激愤地对他说：“看见了没有，德米特里，天蒙蒙亮，保尔就把他那伙人叫了起来。现在他们大概已经铺了十俄丈了。听大伙说，他们铁路工厂的人，弦都让他给绷得紧紧的，他们决心在二十五号以前铺完自己分担的地段。他这是想给咱们点颜色看哪。但是，对不起，咱们走着瞧吧！”

杜巴瓦苦笑了一下。他非常理解，为什么铁路工厂那一队的行动，会使这位货运码头的共青团书记如此激动。就连他杜巴瓦也挨了好朋友保尔一闷棍：保尔竟连招呼也不打，就向各队挑战了。

“真是朋友归朋友，有烟各自抽——这里有个‘谁战胜谁’的问题。”潘克拉托夫说。

快到中午了，柯察金小队正干得热火朝天，突然一声枪响，打断了他们的工作。这是站在步枪垛旁边的哨兵，发现树林里来了一队骑兵，在鸣枪示警。

“拿枪，弟兄们！土匪来了！”保尔喊了一声，扔下铁锹，朝一棵大树跑去，树上挂着他的毛瑟枪。

全队马上拿起武器，贴着路边直接卧倒在雪地上。走在前面的几个骑兵挥着帽子，其中有个人喊道：“别开枪，同志们！自己人！”

五十来个骑兵顺着大路跑了过来，他们都戴着缀红星的布琼尼帽。

原来这是普济列夫斯基团的一个排，前来探望筑路人员。

排长的坐骑少一只耳朵，这引起了保尔的注意。那是一匹漂亮的灰骒马，额上有一块白斑，它在骑者身下“跳着舞”，不肯老实站着。保尔跑到它跟前，一把抓住笼头绳，马吓得直往后退。

“小斑秃，你这个淘气鬼，想不到在这儿碰见你！你没让子弹打死啊，我的缺只耳朵的美人。”

他亲切地搂住马的细长脖子，抚摸着它那翕动的鼻子。排长仔细地端详着保尔，一下认出来了，他惊奇地喊道：“啊，这不是保尔吗！……马你认出来了，老朋友谢列达反倒不认识啦。你好，兄弟！”

城里各部门都积极行动起来，全力支援筑路工程。这立刻产生了良好的效果。扎尔基把还在城里的人都派到了博亚尔卡，团区委的人走个精光。整个索络缅卡区只剩下一些女团员了。扎尔基又到铁路专科学校去动员，结果他们又派了一批学生到工地去。

他向阿基姆汇报这些情况的时候，半开玩笑地说：“现在只剩下我和女无产者了。我想让拉古京娜替我，门口换上‘妇女部’的牌子，我就上博亚尔卡去。要知道，我一个男子汉在人家女人堆里转悠，实在不像话。姑娘们都怀疑地瞧着我。这帮喜鹊私下里准在嘁嘁喳喳议论我：‘他把别人都撵走了，自己却泡在城里，这个大滑头。’说不定还有比这更难听的。求求你，让我也去吧。”

阿基姆笑着拒绝了。

一批一批的人不断到博亚尔卡来，铁路专科学校的六十名学生也到了。

朱赫来设法让铁路管理局调了四节客车到博亚尔卡，给新到的工人住宿。

杜巴瓦小队从工地撤了下来，派到普夏—沃季察去。他们的任务是把供轻便铁路用的小火车头和六十五节平板车运到工地来。这项工作顶替他们在工地上承担的一部分任务。

杜巴瓦出发前向托卡列夫建议，把克拉维切克调回来，叫他领导新成立的一个小队。托卡列夫采纳了他的建议，下达了命令，根本没有去想他的真实动机。而杜巴瓦这个时候会想起那个捷克人，却是安娜托索洛缅卡来的人带来的一张便条引起的。便条上这样写着：

德米特里：我和克拉维切克给你们挑了一大批书报。我们向你和博亚尔卡的全体突击手们致以热烈的敬礼。你们都是好样的！祝你们身体强健，精神饱满。昨天，各木柴场的最后一批存货都配售完了。克拉维切克要我向你们致意。他真是个好小伙子。他亲自给你们烤面包。他对面包房里的人，谁也信不过。他自己动手筛面粉，自己用机器和面。不知道他从哪儿弄来的好面粉，面包做得好极了，跟我领到的简直没法比。晚上咱们的人都到我这里来，有拉古京娜、阿尔秋欣、克拉维切克，扎尔基有时也来。我们也搞点学习，但主要是议论我们所知道的人和事，无所不谈，而谈得最多的还是你们。姑娘们对托卡列夫不让她们去工地意见可大了。她们说保证能和你们大家一样吃苦耐劳。拉古京娜说：“我换上一身爸爸的衣服，一下子跑到那老爷子跟前，看他能把我撵回来！”

说不定她真会这样做。替我向你那个黑眼睛的朋友问好。

安娜

暴风雪突然袭来。灰色的阴云低低地压在地面上，移动着，布满了天空。大雪纷纷飘落下来。晚上，刮起了大风，烟筒发出了呜呜的怒吼。风追逐着在树林中飞速盘旋、左躲右闪的雪花，凄厉地呼啸着，搅得整个森林惊惶不安。

暴风雪咆哮不止，猖狂了一夜。车站上那间破房子根本存不住热气，虽然通宵生着火，大家还是从里到外都冻透了。

第二天清晨上工，雪深得使人迈不开步，而树梢上却挂着一轮红彤彤的太阳，碧蓝的天空没有一丝云彩。

柯察金的小队在清除自己地段上的积雪。直到这时保尔才体会到，严寒造成的痛苦是多么难以忍受。奥库涅夫那件旧上衣一点也不保暖，脚上那只旧套鞋老往里灌雪，好几次掉在雪里找不到。另一只脚上的靴子也随时有掉底的危险。由于睡在水泥地上，他脖子上长了两个大痈疮。托卡列夫把自己的毛巾送给他做了围巾。

瘦骨嶙峋的保尔两眼熬得通红，他猛烈地挥动大木锨铲雪。

这时，一列客车爬进了车站，有气无力的火车头勉勉强强把它拖到了这里。煤水车上一块木柴也没有，炉里的余火也快要熄灭了。

“给我们木柴，就开走；不给，就趁它还能动弹，让我停到侧线上去！”司机向站长喊道。

列车开到侧线上去了。他们把停车的原因通知了沮丧的旅客。挤得满满的车厢里响起了一片叫嚷和咒骂。

“你们去跟那个老头讲讲，就是在站台上走着的那个，他是工地的负责人。工地上有当枕木用的木头，他可以下令用雪橇给火车头运点来。”站长给乘务员们出了个主意。乘务员们立刻迎着托卡列夫走去。

“要木柴可以，但是不能白给。要知道，这是我们的建筑材料。现在工地让雪封住了。车上有六七百个乘客。妇女、小孩可以留在车里，其他人都得拿起锨来铲雪，干到晚上，就给你们木柴。要是不愿意干，那就让他们等到新年再说。”托卡列夫对乘务员们说。

“瞧！同志们，来了这么多人！看，还有女的呢！”保尔背后有人惊奇地说。

保尔回过头去。

托卡列夫走到跟前，对他说：“给你一百人，分配他们干活吧。看着点，别叫他们偷懒。”

保尔给这些新来的人派了活。有一个高个子男人，穿着皮领子的铁路制服大衣，戴着羔皮帽，正跟旁边的一个青年妇女说话。那青年妇女戴着一顶海狗皮帽，顶上还有个绒球。

他愤愤地转动着手里的木锨，大发牢骚：“我才不铲雪呢，谁也没有权力强迫我。要是请我这个铁路工程师给指挥一下倒还可以，铲雪吗，你我都没有这个义务，规章上没有这么一条。那个老头子违法乱纪。我要告他。

谁是这儿的工长？”他问身边的一个工人。

保尔走上前去，问：“公民，您为什么不干活？”

那个男人轻蔑地把保尔从头到脚打量了一番。

“您是什么人？”

“我是工人。”

“那我跟您没什么可谈的。把工长给我叫来，别的领导也……”

保尔皱起眉头，白了他一眼，说：“不想干拉倒。火车票上没我们的签字，您就别想上车。这是工程队长的命令。”

“您呢，女公民，也拒绝干活吗？”保尔转过身来问那个女人。一刹那间他呆住了：站在他面前的竟是冬妮亚·图曼诺娃。

她好容易才认出这个像叫花子的人是保尔。一身破烂不堪的衣服，两只稀奇古怪的鞋子，脖子上围着一条脏毛巾，脸好久没有洗了——保尔就这副模样站在她面前。只有那一双眼睛，还同从前一样，炯炯发光。正是他的眼睛。就是这个像流浪汉一样衣衫褴褛的小伙子，不久以前还是她热恋的人。

真是沧海桑田哪！

她最近结了婚，现在同丈夫一起到一个大城市去。她丈夫在那里的铁路管理局担任重要职务。真想不到，她竟会在这种情况下遇见少年时代的恋人。她甚至没好意思同他握手。

她的瓦西里会怎样想呢？保尔竟如此潦倒，真叫人心里不是滋味。看来，这个火夫一直没有什么长进，只能干个挖土的差事。

她犹豫不决地站着，窘得双颊通红。那个铁路工程师气疯了，一个穷小子竟敢目不转睛地盯着他的妻子，他觉得实在太放肆了。他把锨往地下一扔，走到冬妮亚跟前，说：“咱们走，冬妮亚。这个拉查隆尼真叫人受不了，我实在看不下去。”

保尔读过《朱泽培·加里波第》这部小说，知道意大利语拉查隆尼是穷光蛋的意思。

“如果我是拉查隆尼，那你就是还没断气的资本家。”他粗声粗气地回敬了工程师一句，然后把目光转向冬妮亚，一字一句冷冷地说：“图曼诺娃同志，把锨拿起来，站到队伍里去吧。别学这个胖水牛的样。请原谅，我不知道他是您的什么人。”

保尔看着冬妮亚那双长统套靴，冷笑了一下，又顺便补充说：“我劝你们还是别留在这儿，前两天土匪还来光顾过呢。”

他转过身，拖着那只套鞋，啪哒啪哒地回自己人那里去了。

最后这句话对工程师也发生了作用。

冬妮亚终于说服了他一起去铲雪。

傍晚收工之后，人们都向车站走去。冬妮亚的丈夫抢在前面，到火车上去占位子。冬妮亚停下来，让工人们先过去。

走在最后面的是保尔，他拄着锨，已经非常疲乏。等他过来，冬妮亚和他并排走着，说：“你好，保夫鲁沙！坦白地说，我没想到你会弄成这个样子。难道你不能在政府里搞到一个比挖土强一点的差事吗？我还以为你早就当上了委员，或者委员一类的首长呢。你的生活怎么这样不顺心哪……”

保尔站住了，用惊奇的眼光打量着冬妮亚。

“我也没想到你会变得这么……酸臭。”保尔想了想，才找到了这个比较温和的字眼。

冬妮亚的脸一下子红到了耳根。

“你还是这么粗鲁！”

保尔把木锨往肩上一扛，迈开大步向前走去。走了几步，他才回答说：“说句不客气的话，图曼诺娃同志，我的粗鲁比起您的彬彬有礼来，要好得多。我的生活用不着担心，一切都正常。但是您的生活，却比我原来想象的还要糟。两年前你还好一些，还敢跟一个工人握手。可现在呢，你浑身都是臭樟脑丸味。说实在的，我跟你已经没什么可谈的了。”

保尔收到了阿尔焦姆的来信。哥哥说最近就要结婚，要他无论如何回去一趟。

风吹走了保尔手中的白信纸，它像鸽子一样飞向天空。他不能去参加婚礼。现在哪能离开工地呢？昨天，潘克拉托夫这头大熊已经赶过了他们小队，正在以令人目瞪口呆的速度前进。这个码头工人正在拼命争夺第一。他已经失去了惯有的沉静，不断鼓动他那些从码头上来的伙伴以疯狂的速度进行工作。

帕托什金观察着这些筑路工人怎样一言不发地闷头苦干。他惊奇地搔着头皮，问自己：“这是些什么人哪？哪儿来的这股不可思议的力量呢？要是再这么晴上七八天，我们就可以铺到伐木场了。真是应了那句俗话：活到老，学到老，到老还是懂得少。这些人的工作打破了一切常规和定额。”

克拉维切克带着他亲手烤的最后一批面包从城里来了。

见过托卡列夫之后，他在工地上找到了保尔。他俩亲热地互相问过好。接着，克拉维切克笑嘻嘻地从麻袋里拿出一件瑞典精制的黄面毛皮短大衣，拍了一下那富有弹性的皮面，说：“这是给你的。不知道是谁送的吧？……嗬！小伙子，你可真傻呀！这是丽达同志让带来的，怕把你这个傻瓜冻死。这件衣服是奥利申斯基同志送给她的，她刚从他手里接过来就交给我，说给保尔捎去吧。她听阿基姆说过，你穿着单衣在冰天雪地里干活。奥利申斯基皱了皱鼻子说：‘我可以给那位同志另送一件军大衣去。’但是，丽达笑着说，不用了，穿短的干活更方便，拿去吧！”

保尔惊异地拿起这件珍贵的礼物，过了一会儿，才犹犹豫豫地穿在冻得冰凉的身上。柔软的毛皮很快就使他的后背和前胸感到了温暖。

丽达在日记里写道：

１２月２０日

连日暴风雪。今天仍然又是风，又是雪。博亚尔卡的筑路大军眼看就可以把路铺到目的地，但是他们被严寒和暴风雪阻住了。他们常常陷在没人深的积雪里。挖掘冻土是很困难的。只剩下四分之三公里了，但这是最困难的一段。

托卡列夫报告说，工地上发现了伤寒，已经有三个人病倒了。

１２月２２日

共青团省委召开全体会议，博亚尔卡没有人来参加。匪徒在离博亚尔卡十七公里的地方把一列运粮火车弄出轨了。

按照粮食人民委员部全权代表的命令，工程队全体人员都调到出事地点去了。

１２月２３日

又有七个伤寒病人从博亚尔卡送回城里。其中有奥库涅夫。我到车站去了。哈尔科夫开来一列火车，从车厢连接板上抬下来几具冻僵的尸体。医院里也很冷。该死的暴风雪！什么时候才能停呢？

１２月２４日

刚从朱赫来那里回来。消息证实了：奥尔利克匪帮昨天夜里倾巢出动，袭击了博亚尔卡。我们的人跟他们打了两个小时。他们切断了电话线，所以直到今天早上，朱赫来才得到确实消息。匪徒被打退了。托卡列夫受了伤，胸部被打穿了。今天就能把他送回来。弗兰茨·克拉维切克被砍死了。他昨天夜里正好担任警卫队长。是他发现匪徒，发出了警报；他一边往回跑，一边阻击进攻的敌人，但是没有来得及跑到学校，就被砍死了。工程队有十一个人受伤。现在那里派去了一列装甲车和两中队骑兵。

潘克拉托夫继任工程队长。今天，普济列夫斯基团在格卢博基村追上了一部分匪徒，把他们一个不留地全都砍死了。

一部分非党非团干部，没有等火车，就沿着铁路离开了工地。

１２月２５日

托卡列夫和其他伤员都已经送回，被安置在医院里。医生们保证把托卡列夫救活。他仍然昏迷不醒。其他人没有生命危险。

省党委和我们都收到了博亚尔卡的来电：为了回答匪徒的袭击，我们，所有参加今天群众大会的轻便铁路建设者，同“保卫苏维埃政权号”装甲列车和骑兵团的全体指战员一起，向你们保证，我们将克服一切困难，在一月一日以前把木柴运到城里。我们决心全力以赴，完成任务。派遣我们的共产党万岁！大会主席柯察金。书记员别尔津。

我们以军礼在索洛缅卡安葬了克拉维切克。

日夜盼望的木柴已经近在眼前。但是筑路进度十分缓慢。

伤寒每天都要夺去几十只有用的手。

有一天，保尔两腿发软，像喝醉酒似的，摇摇晃晃地走回车站。他已经发烧好几天了，今天热度比哪天都高。

吮吸工程队血液的肠伤寒也悄悄地向保尔进攻了。但是他那健壮的身体在抵抗着，接连五天，他都打起精神，奋力从铺着干草的水泥地上爬起来，和大家一起去上工。他身上穿着暖和的皮大衣，冻坏的双脚穿上了朱赫来送给他的毡靴，可是这些东西对他也无济于事了。

他每走一步，都像有什么东西猛刺他的胸部，浑身发冷，上下牙直打架，两眼昏黑，树木像走马灯一样围着他打转。

他好容易才走到车站。异常的喧哗声使他吃了一惊。仔细一看，站台旁边停着一列同车站一样长的平板车。上面载的是小火车头、铁轨和枕木，随车来的人正在卸车。他又向前走了几步，终于失去了平衡。他模模糊糊地感觉到头碰到地上，积雪冰着他那灼热的面颊，怪舒服的。

几小时以后，才有人偶然发现了他，把他抬到板棚里。保尔呼吸困难，已经认不得周围的人了。从装甲车上请来的医生说，他是肠伤寒，并发大叶性肺炎。体温四十一度五。关节炎和脖子上的痈疮，就不值一提了，都算小病。肺炎加伤寒就足以把他送到另一个世界去了。

潘克拉托夫和刚回来的杜巴瓦尽一切可能抢救保尔。

他们托保尔的同乡阿廖沙·科汉斯基护送他回家乡去。

只是在柯察金小队全体队员的帮助下，更主要是靠霍利亚瓦施加的压力，潘克拉托夫和杜巴瓦才把阿廖沙和不省人事的保尔塞进了挤得满满的车厢。车上的人怕斑疹伤寒传染，怎么也不肯让他们上车，并且威胁说，车开动后，就把病人扔下去。

霍利亚瓦用转轮手枪指着那些不让病人上车的人的鼻子，喊道：“这个病人不传染！就是把你们全撵下车，也得让他走！

你们这帮自私自利的家伙，记住，我马上通知沿线各站，要是谁敢动他一根毫毛，就把你们全都撵下车，扣起来。阿廖沙，这是保尔的毛瑟枪，给你拿着。谁敢动他，你就照准谁开枪。”霍利亚瓦最后又威胁地加上了这么一句。

火车开走了。在空荡荡的站台上，潘克拉托夫走到杜巴瓦身旁，问：“你说，他能活吗？”

没有得到回答。

“走吧，德米特里，只好听其自然了。现在全部工作都得咱们俩负责了。今天连夜把机车卸下来，明天早上就试车。”

霍利亚瓦给沿线各站做肃反工作的朋友们打了电话，恳切地请求他们不要让乘客把柯察金弄下来，直到每个同志都回答“一定办到”之后，他才去睡觉。

在一个铁路枢纽站的站台上，从一列客车的车厢里抬出来一个淡黄色头发的青年的尸体。他是谁，怎么死的——谁也不知道。站上的肃反工作人员想起霍利亚瓦的嘱托，赶忙跑到车厢跟前阻止，但是看到这个青年确实已经死了，就叫人把尸体抬到了停尸房。

他们立刻打电话到博亚尔卡通知霍利亚瓦，说他让他们关照的那个同志已经去世了。

博亚尔卡打了个简短的电报给省委，报告了保尔的死讯。

阿廖沙·科汉斯基把重病的柯察金送到了家，接着，他自己也得了伤寒，发高烧，病倒了。

丽达在日记上写着：

１月９日

我为什么这样难过呢？还没有拿起笔来，就哭了一场。谁能想到丽达会失声痛哭，还哭得这样伤心！难道眼泪一定是意志薄弱的表现吗？今天流泪是因为有一种难以抑制的悲痛。

为什么悲痛会突然袭来呢？今天是大喜的日子，可怕的严寒已经被战胜，铁路各站堆满了宝贵的木柴，我又刚从祝捷大会——市苏维埃为祝贺筑路英雄们而召开的扩大会议——回来，为什么悲痛恰恰在这个时刻降临呢？我们是取得了胜利，但是，有两个人为此献出了生命：克拉维切克和保尔。

保尔的死揭示了我内心的真情：对我来说，他比我原先所想的更珍贵。

日记就记到这里吧，不知道哪天再提起笔来接着写。明天写信到哈尔科夫去，告诉他们我同意到乌克兰共青团中央委员会去工作。

1 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

3 hovered   

鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• A hawk hovered over the hill. 一只鹰在小山的上空翱翔。
• A hawk hovered in the blue sky. 一只老鹰在蓝色的天空中翱翔。

4 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

5 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

6 irritably   

ad.易生气地

参考例句：

• He lost his temper and snapped irritably at the children. 他发火了，暴躁地斥责孩子们。
• On this account the silence was irritably broken by a reproof. 为了这件事，他妻子大声斥责，令人恼火地打破了宁静。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

7 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

8 pouncing   

v.突然袭击( pounce的现在分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击）

参考例句：

• Detective Sun grinned and, pouncing on the gourd, smashed it against the wall. 孙侦探笑了，一把将瓦罐接过来，往墙上一碰。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• We saw the tiger pouncing on the goat. 我们看见老虎向那只山羊扑过去。 来自互联网

9 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

10 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

11 fumbled   

（笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下

参考例句：

• She fumbled in her pocket for a handkerchief. 她在她口袋里胡乱摸找手帕。
• He fumbled about in his pockets for the ticket. 他（瞎）摸着衣兜找票。

12 rumbling   

n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词

参考例句：

• The earthquake began with a deep [low] rumbling sound. 地震开始时发出低沉的隆隆声。
• The crane made rumbling sound. 吊车发出隆隆的响声。

13 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

14 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 pate   

n.头顶；光顶

参考例句：

• The few strands of white hair at the back of his gourd-like pate also quivered.他那长在半个葫芦样的头上的白发，也随着笑声一齐抖动着。
• He removed his hat to reveal a glowing bald pate.他脱下帽子，露出了发亮的光头。

16 checkered   

adj.有方格图案的

参考例句：

• The ground under the trees was checkered with sunlight and shade.林地光影交错。
• He’d had a checkered past in the government.他过去在政界浮沉。

17 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

18 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

19 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

20 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

21 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

22 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

23 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

24 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

25 fumed   

愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• He fumed with rage because she did not appear. 因为她没出现，所以他大发雷霆。
• He fumed and fretted and did not know what was the matter. 他烦躁，气恼，不知是怎么回事。

26 allotted   

分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I completed the test within the time allotted . 我在限定的时间内完成了试验。
• Each passenger slept on the berth allotted to him. 每个旅客都睡在分配给他的铺位上。

27 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

28 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

29 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

30 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

31 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

32 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

33 craved   

渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求

参考例句：

• She has always craved excitement. 她总渴望刺激。
• A spicy, sharp-tasting radish was exactly what her stomach craved. 她正馋着想吃一个香甜可口的红萝卜呢。

34 cosy   

adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的

参考例句：

• We spent a cosy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。
• It was so warm and cosy in bed that Simon didn't want to get out.床上温暖而又舒适，西蒙简直不想下床了。

35 cosily   

adv.舒适地，惬意地

参考例句：

• Its snow-white houses nestle cosily in a sea of fresh green vegetation. 雪白的房屋舒适地筑在一片翠绿的草木中。 来自辞典例句

36 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。

37 scribbled   

v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• She scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper. 她把他的电话号码匆匆写在一张小纸片上。
• He scribbled a note to his sister before leaving. 临行前，他给妹妹草草写了一封短信。

38 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

39 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

40 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。

41 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

42 reliability   

n.可靠性，确实性

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。

43 reassured   

adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The captain's confidence during the storm reassured the passengers. 在风暴中船长的信念使旅客们恢复了信心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The doctor reassured the old lady. 医生叫那位老妇人放心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

44 mar   

vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟

参考例句：

• It was not the custom for elderly people to mar the picnics with their presence.大人们照例不参加这样的野餐以免扫兴。
• Such a marriage might mar your career.这样的婚姻说不定会毁了你的一生。

45 accosted   

v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭

参考例句：

• She was accosted in the street by a complete stranger. 在街上，一个完全陌生的人贸然走到她跟前搭讪。
• His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him. 他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。 来自《简明英汉词典》

46 stammered   

v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He stammered most when he was nervous. 他一紧张往往口吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Barsad leaned back in his chair, and stammered, \"What do you mean?\" 巴萨往椅背上一靠，结结巴巴地说，“你是什么意思？” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

47 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

48 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

49 clenched   

v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
• She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上，以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

50 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

51 tract   

n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林)

参考例句：

• He owns a large tract of forest.他拥有一大片森林。
• He wrote a tract on this subject.他曾对此写了一篇短文。

52 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

53 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

54 dubiously   

adv.可疑地，怀疑地

参考例句：

• "What does he have to do?" queried Chin dubiously. “他有什么心事？”琴向觉民问道，她的脸上现出疑惑不解的神情。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• He walked out fast, leaving the head waiter staring dubiously at the flimsy blue paper. 他很快地走出去，撇下侍者头儿半信半疑地瞪着这张薄薄的蓝纸。 来自辞典例句

55 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

56 drizzle   

v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨

参考例句：

• The shower tailed off into a drizzle.阵雨越来越小，最后变成了毛毛雨。
• Yesterday the radio forecast drizzle,and today it is indeed raining.昨天预报有小雨，今天果然下起来了。

57 glistening   

adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyes were glistening with tears. 她眼里闪着晶莹的泪花。
• Her eyes were glistening with tears. 她眼睛中的泪水闪着柔和的光。 来自《用法词典》

58 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

59 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

60 hitch   

v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉

参考例句：

• They had an eighty-mile journey and decided to hitch hike.他们要走80英里的路程，最后决定搭便车。
• All the candidates are able to answer the questions without any hitch.所有报考者都能对答如流。

61 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

62 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

63 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

64 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

65 pang   

n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷

参考例句：

• She experienced a sharp pang of disappointment.她经历了失望的巨大痛苦。
• She was beginning to know the pang of disappointed love.她开始尝到了失恋的痛苦。

66 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

67 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

68 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

69 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

70 swarmed   

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

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

71 squelched   

v.发吧唧声，发扑哧声( squelch的过去式和过去分词 )；制止；压制；遏制

参考例句：

• We squelched over the soggy ground. 我们咕唧咕唧地走过泥泞的土地。
• The mud squelched as I walked through it. 我扑哧扑哧地穿过泥泞。

72 sieve   

n.筛，滤器，漏勺

参考例句：

• We often shake flour through a sieve.我们经常用筛子筛面粉。
• Finally,it is like drawing water with a sieve.到头来，竹篮打水一场空。

73 penetrated   

adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The knife had penetrated his chest. 刀子刺入了他的胸膛。
• They penetrated into territory where no man had ever gone before. 他们已进入先前没人去过的地区。

74 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

75 sodden   

adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑

参考例句：

• We stripped off our sodden clothes.我们扒下了湿透的衣服。
• The cardboard was sodden and fell apart in his hands.纸板潮得都发酥了，手一捏就碎。

76 loomed   

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

参考例句：

• A dark shape loomed up ahead of us. 一个黑糊糊的影子隐隐出现在我们的前面。
• The prospect of war loomed large in everyone's mind. 战事将起的庞大阴影占据每个人的心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

77 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

78 gashes   

n.深长的切口（或伤口）( gash的名词复数 )v.划伤，割破( gash的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The classmates' hearts ached for him and they begged him to wear gloves to prevent any more gashes. 同学们都心疼他，劝他干活时戴上手套，免得再弄破手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He stripped himself, and I counted twenty-seven separate scars and gashes. 他脱去衣服，我在他身上数出了二十七处瘢痕和深深的伤口。 来自辞典例句

79 tattered   

adj.破旧的，衣衫破的

参考例句：

• Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
• Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。

80 ribs   

n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

81 wrung   

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）

参考例句：

• He has wrung the words from their true meaning. 他曲解这些字的真正意义。
• He wrung my hand warmly. 他热情地紧握我的手。

82 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

83 boggy   

adj.沼泽多的

参考例句：

• Of, resembling, or characterized by a marsh or marshes; boggy. 沼泽般的，湿软的：类似沼泽地的，沼泽地所特有的；多沼泽的。 来自互联网
• The boggy is out of order, would be instead another one! 球车坏了，需要更换一部。 来自互联网

84 huddling   

n. 杂乱一团, 混乱, 拥挤 v. 推挤, 乱堆, 草率了事

参考例句：

• Twenty or thirty monkeys are huddling along the thick branch. 三十只猴子挤在粗大的树枝上。
• The defenders are huddling down for cover. 捍卫者为了掩护缩成一团。

85 seeped   

v.（液体）渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出

参考例句：

• The rain seeped through the roof. 雨水透过房顶渗透。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Icy air seeped in through the paper and the room became cold. 寒气透过了糊窗纸。屋里骤然冷起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

86 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

87 trickled   

v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动

参考例句：

• Blood trickled down his face. 血从他脸上一滴滴流下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The tears trickled down her cheeks. 热泪一滴滴从她脸颊上滚下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

88 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

89 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

90 fortitude   

n.坚忍不拔；刚毅

参考例句：

• His dauntless fortitude makes him absolutely fearless.他不屈不挠的坚韧让他绝无恐惧。
• He bore the pain with great fortitude.他以极大的毅力忍受了痛苦。

91 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

92 waddled   

v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A family of ducks waddled along the river bank. 一群鸭子沿河岸摇摇摆摆地走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The stout old man waddled across the road. 那肥胖的老人一跩一跩地穿过马路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

93 berating   

v.严厉责备，痛斥( berate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He deserved the berating that the coach gave him. 他活该受到教练的严厉训斥。 来自互联网
• The boss is berating those who were late for work. 老板正在呵斥那些上班迟到的员工。 来自互联网

94 impatience   

n.不耐烦，急躁

参考例句：

• He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢，他显得不耐烦。
• He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。

95 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

96 sleepless   

adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的

参考例句：

• The situation gave her many sleepless nights.这种情况害她一连好多天睡不好觉。
• One evening I heard a tale that rendered me sleepless for nights.一天晚上，我听说了一个传闻，把我搞得一连几夜都不能入睡。

97 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

98 sleeper   

n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺

参考例句：

• I usually go up to London on the sleeper. 我一般都乘卧车去伦敦。
• But first he explained that he was a very heavy sleeper. 但首先他解释说自己睡觉很沉。

99 sleepers   

n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环

参考例句：

• He trod quietly so as not to disturb the sleepers. 他轻移脚步，以免吵醒睡着的人。 来自辞典例句
• The nurse was out, and we two sleepers were alone. 保姆出去了，只剩下我们两个瞌睡虫。 来自辞典例句

100 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

101 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

102 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

103 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

104 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

105 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

106 mire   

n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境

参考例句：

• I don't want my son's good name dragged through the mire.我不想使我儿子的名誉扫地。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

107 vow   

n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓

参考例句：

• My parents are under a vow to go to church every Sunday.我父母许愿，每星期日都去做礼拜。
• I am under a vow to drink no wine.我已立誓戒酒。

108 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

109 bosom   

n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的

参考例句：

• She drew a little book from her bosom.她从怀里取出一本小册子。
• A dark jealousy stirred in his bosom.他内心生出一阵恶毒的嫉妒。

110 wielded   

手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响）

参考例句：

• The bad eggs wielded power, while the good people were oppressed. 坏人当道，好人受气
• He was nominally the leader, but others actually wielded the power. 名义上他是领导者，但实际上是别人掌握实权。

111 vigour   

（=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力

参考例句：

• She is full of vigour and enthusiasm.她有热情，有朝气。
• At 40,he was in his prime and full of vigour.他40岁时正年富力强。

112 sneaking   

a.秘密的，不公开的

参考例句：

• She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
• She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。

113 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

115 linen   

n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的

参考例句：

• The worker is starching the linen.这名工人正在给亚麻布上浆。
• Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool.精细的亚麻织品和棉织品像羊毛一样闻名遐迩。

116 fuming   

愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• She sat in the car, silently fuming at the traffic jam. 她坐在汽车里，心中对交通堵塞感到十分恼火。
• I was fuming at their inefficiency. 我正因为他们效率低而发火。

117 replacements   

n.代替( replacement的名词复数 )；替换的人[物]；替代品；归还

参考例句：

• They infiltrated behind the lines so as to annoy the emery replacements. 他们渗透敌后以便骚扰敌军的调度。 来自辞典例句
• For oil replacements, cheap suddenly looks less of a problem. 对于石油的替代品来说，价格变得无足轻重了。 来自互联网

118 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

119 hoarse   

adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的

参考例句：

• He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
• He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动，嗓子都喊哑了。

120 consignment   

n.寄售；发货；委托；交运货物

参考例句：

• This last consignment of hosiery is quite up to standard.这批新到的针织品完全符合规格。
• We have to ask you to dispatch the consignment immediately.我们得要求你立即发送该批货物。

121 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

122 flicker   

vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现

参考例句：

• There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
• At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时，光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现，几乎并不灿烂。

123 commotion   

n.骚动，动乱

参考例句：

• They made a commotion by yelling at each other in the theatre.他们在剧院里相互争吵，引起了一阵骚乱。
• Suddenly the whole street was in commotion.突然间，整条街道变得一片混乱。

124 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

125 invective   

n.痛骂，恶意抨击

参考例句：

• He retorted the invective on her.他用恶言讽刺还击她。
• His command of irony and invective was said to be very classic and lethal.据说他嬉笑怒骂的本领是极其杰出的，令人无法招架的。

126 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

127 snarled   

v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说

参考例句：

• The dog snarled at us. 狗朝我们低声吼叫。
• As I advanced towards the dog, It'snarled and struck at me. 我朝那条狗走去时，它狂吠着向我扑来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

128 flickered   

（通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The lights flickered and went out. 灯光闪了闪就熄了。
• These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which have gone mad. 这些灯象发狂的交通灯一样不停地闪动着。

129 whiner   

n.哀鸣者，啜泣者，悲嗥者，哀诉者

参考例句：

• He was a whiner, always complaining of the costs in his Family business. 他整天嘀嘀咕咕，老是埋怨自己的家族企业开销太大了。 来自教父部分
• And finally, make sure your boss sees you as a winner and not a whiner. 最后，确定你的老板认为你是一个成功者，而不是一名哀诉者。 来自互联网

130 whine   

v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣

参考例句：

• You are getting paid to think,not to whine.支付给你工资是让你思考而不是哀怨的。
• The bullet hit a rock and rocketed with a sharp whine.子弹打在一块岩石上，一声尖厉的呼啸，跳飞开去。

131 stevedore   

n.码头工人；v.装载货物

参考例句：

• The stevedores'work is to load and unload ships.装卸工人的工作是装卸船只。
• The stevedores are reluctant to be ordered around by the employers.装卸工人们不愿被雇主们差来遣去地随便使唤。

132 irate   

adj.发怒的，生气

参考例句：

• The irate animal made for us,coming at a full jump.那头发怒的动物以最快的速度向我们冲过来。
• We have received some irate phone calls from customers.我们接到顾客打来的一些愤怒的电话

133 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

134 bastard   

n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子

参考例句：

• He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
• There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。

135 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

136 scrawled   

乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I tried to read his directions, scrawled on a piece of paper. 我尽量弄明白他草草写在一片纸上的指示。
• Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it -- I got more." 汤姆在他的写字板上写了几个字：“请你收下吧，我多得是哩。”

137 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

138 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

139 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

140 manifestation   

n.表现形式；表明；现象

参考例句：

• Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
• What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。

141 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

142 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

143 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

144 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

145 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

146 hewing   

v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的现在分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟

参考例句：

• The farmer spent a day in the woods hewing timber. 这个农夫花了一天时间在森林里砍木材。 来自辞典例句
• He was hewing away at the trunk of the tree. 他不停地照着树干砍去。 来自辞典例句

147 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

148 frightful   

adj.可怕的；讨厌的

参考例句：

• How frightful to have a husband who snores!有一个发鼾声的丈夫多讨厌啊！
• We're having frightful weather these days.这几天天气坏极了。

149 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

150 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

151 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

152 tamp   

v.捣实，砸实

参考例句：

• Then I tamp down the soil with the back of a rake.然后我用耙子的背将土壤拍实。
• Philpott tamped a wad of tobacco into his pipe.菲尔波特往烟斗里塞了一卷碎烟叶。

153 disarm   

v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和

参考例句：

• The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
• He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。

154 disarmed   

v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。
• The swordsman disarmed his opponent and ran him through. 剑客缴了对手的械，并对其乱刺一气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

155 overriding   

a.最主要的

参考例句：

• Development is of overriding importance. 发展是硬道理
• My overriding concern is to raise the standards of state education. 我最关心的是提高国民教育水平。

156 croak   

vi.嘎嘎叫，发牢骚

参考例句：

• Everyone seemed rather out of sorts and inclined to croak.每个人似乎都有点不对劲，想发发牢骚。
• Frogs began to croak with the rainfall.蛙随着雨落开始哇哇叫。

157 warily   

adv.留心地

参考例句：

• He looked warily around him,pretending to look after Carrie.他小心地看了一下四周，假装是在照顾嘉莉。
• They were heading warily to a point in the enemy line.他们正小心翼翼地向着敌人封锁线的某一处前进。

158 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

159 hoof   

n.(马，牛等的)蹄

参考例句：

• Suddenly he heard the quick,short click of a horse's hoof behind him.突然间，他听见背后响起一阵急骤的马蹄的得得声。
• I was kicked by a hoof.我被一只蹄子踢到了。

160 gallop   

v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展

参考例句：

• They are coming at a gallop towards us.他们正朝着我们飞跑过来。
• The horse slowed to a walk after its long gallop.那匹马跑了一大阵后慢下来缓步而行。

161 galloping   

adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下，它就奔驰起来了。
• Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速，日新月异。

162 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

163 reined   

勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理

参考例句：

• Then, all of a sudden, he reined up his tired horse. 这时，他突然把疲倦的马勒住了。
• The officer reined in his horse at a crossroads. 军官在十字路口勒住了马。

164 glossy   

adj.平滑的；有光泽的

参考例句：

• I like these glossy spots.我喜欢这些闪闪发光的花点。
• She had glossy black hair.她长着乌黑发亮的头发。

165 bastards   

私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙

参考例句：

• Those bastards don't care a damn about the welfare of the factory! 这批狗养的，不顾大局！ 来自子夜部分
• Let the first bastards to find out be the goddam Germans. 就让那些混账的德国佬去做最先发现的倒霉鬼吧。 来自演讲部分

166 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

167 tinkling   

n.丁当作响声

参考例句：

• I could hear bells tinkling in the distance. 我能听到远处叮当铃响。
• To talk to him was like listening to the tinkling of a worn-out musical-box. 跟他说话，犹如听一架老掉牙的八音盒子丁冬响。 来自英汉文学

168 panes   

窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sun caught the panes and flashed back at him. 阳光照到窗玻璃上，又反射到他身上。
• The window-panes are dim with steam. 玻璃窗上蒙上了一层蒸汽。

169 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

170 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

171 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

172 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

173 cylinder   

n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸

参考例句：

• What's the volume of this cylinder?这个圆筒的体积有多少？
• The cylinder is getting too much gas and not enough air.汽缸里汽油太多而空气不足。

174 notch   

n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级

参考例句：

• The peanuts they grow are top-notch.他们种的花生是拔尖的。
• He cut a notch in the stick with a sharp knife.他用利刃在棒上刻了一个凹痕。

175 trolley   

n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车

参考例句：

• The waiter had brought the sweet trolley.侍者已经推来了甜食推车。
• In a library,books are moved on a trolley.在图书馆，书籍是放在台车上搬动的。

176 cartridge   

n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子

参考例句：

• Unfortunately the 2G cartridge design is very difficult to set accurately.不幸地2G弹药筒设计非常难正确地设定。
• This rifle only holds one cartridge.这支来复枪只能装一发子弹。

177 zigzag   

n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行

参考例句：

• The lightning made a zigzag in the sky.闪电在天空划出一道Z字形。
• The path runs zigzag up the hill.小径向山顶蜿蜒盘旋。

178 seaman   

n.海员，水手，水兵

参考例句：

• That young man is a experienced seaman.那个年轻人是一个经验丰富的水手。
• The Greek seaman went to the hospital five times.这位希腊海员到该医院去过五次。

179 trot   

n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧

参考例句：

• They passed me at a trot.他们从我身边快步走过。
• The horse broke into a brisk trot.马突然快步小跑起来。

180 puffs   

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

参考例句：

• We sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his. 我们坐在那里，轮番抽着他那支野里野气的烟斗。 来自辞典例句
• Puffs of steam and smoke came from the engine. 一股股蒸汽和烟雾从那火车头里冒出来。 来自辞典例句

181 plying   

v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意

参考例句：

• All manner of hawkers and street sellers were plying their trade. 形形色色的沿街小贩都在做着自己的买卖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was rather Mrs. Wang who led the conversation, plying Miss Liu with questions. 倒是汪太太谈锋甚健，向刘小姐问长问短。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

182 abreast   

adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地

参考例句：

• She kept abreast with the flood of communications that had poured in.她及时回复如雪片般飞来的大批信件。
• We can't keep abreast of the developing situation unless we study harder.我们如果不加强学习，就会跟不上形势。

183 scanty   

adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的

参考例句：

• There is scanty evidence to support their accusations.他们的指控证据不足。
• The rainfall was rather scanty this month.这个月的雨量不足。

184 scant   

adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略

参考例句：

• Don't scant the butter when you make a cake.做糕饼时不要吝惜奶油。
• Many mothers pay scant attention to their own needs when their children are small.孩子们小的时候，许多母亲都忽视自己的需求。

185 pal   

n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友

参考例句：

• He is a pal of mine.他是我的一个朋友。
• Listen,pal,I don't want you talking to my sister any more.听着，小子，我不让你再和我妹妹说话了。

186 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

187 shovels   

n.铲子( shovel的名词复数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份v.铲子( shovel的第三人称单数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份

参考例句：

• workmen with picks and shovels 手拿镐铲的工人
• In the spring, we plunge shovels into the garden plot, turn under the dark compost. 春天，我们用铁锨翻开园子里黑油油的沃土。 来自辞典例句

188 laborious   

adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅

参考例句：

• They had the laborious task of cutting down the huge tree.他们接受了伐大树的艰苦工作。
• Ants and bees are laborious insects.蚂蚁与蜜蜂是勤劳的昆虫。

189 perspiring   

v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He had been working hard and was perspiring profusely. 他一直在努力干活，身上大汗淋漓的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• So they "went it lively," panting and perspiring with the work. 于是他们就“痛痛快快地比一比”了，结果比得两个人气喘吁吁、汗流浃背。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

190 exertion   

n.尽力，努力

参考例句：

• We were sweating profusely from the exertion of moving the furniture.我们搬动家具大费气力，累得大汗淋漓。
• She was hot and breathless from the exertion of cycling uphill.由于用力骑车爬坡，她浑身发热。

191 protruded   

v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The child protruded his tongue. 那小孩伸出舌头。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The creature's face seemed to be protruded, because of its bent carriage. 那人的脑袋似乎向前突出，那是因为身子佝偻的缘故。 来自英汉文学

192 excavation   

n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地

参考例句：

• The bad weather has hung up the work of excavation.天气不好耽误了挖掘工作。
• The excavation exposed some ancient ruins.这次挖掘暴露出一些古遗迹。

193 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

194 overdid   

v.做得过分( overdo的过去式 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度

参考例句：

• We overdid the meat and it didn't taste good. 我们把肉煮得太久，结果味道不好了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He overdid and became extremely tired. 他用力过猛，感到筋疲力尽。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

195 disarming   

adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• He flashed her a disarming smile. 他朝她笑了一下，让她消消气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We will agree to disarming troops and leaving their weapons at military positions. 我们将同意解除军队的武装并把武器留在军事阵地。 来自辞典例句

196 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

197 plunder   

vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠

参考例句：

• The thieves hid their plunder in the cave.贼把赃物藏在山洞里。
• Trade should not serve as a means of economic plunder.贸易不应当成为经济掠夺的手段。

198 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

199 jotting   

n.简短的笔记，略记v.匆忙记下( jot的现在分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下

参考例句：

• All the time I was talking he was jotting down. 每次我在讲话时，他就会记录下来。 来自互联网
• The student considers jotting down the number of the businessman's American Express card. 这论理学生打算快迅速地记录下来下这位商贾的美国运通卡的金额。 来自互联网

200 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

201 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

202 mischievous   

adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的

参考例句：

• He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
• A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。

203 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

204 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。

205 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

206 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

207 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。

208 bristling   

a.竖立的

参考例句：

• "Don't you question Miz Wilkes' word,'said Archie, his beard bristling. "威尔克斯太太的话，你就不必怀疑了。 "阿尔奇说。他的胡子也翘了起来。
• You were bristling just now. 你刚才在发毛。

209 toiling   

长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉

参考例句：

• The fiery orator contrasted the idle rich with the toiling working classes. 这位激昂的演说家把无所事事的富人同终日辛劳的工人阶级进行了对比。
• She felt like a beetle toiling in the dust. She was filled with repulsion. 她觉得自己像只甲虫在地里挣扎，心中涌满愤恨。

210 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

211 preoccupied   

adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式)

参考例句：

• He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice anything wrong. 他只顾想着心事，没注意到有什么不对。
• The question of going to the Mount Tai preoccupied his mind. 去游泰山的问题盘踞在他心头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

212 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

213 demolition   

n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹

参考例句：

• The church has been threatened with demolition for years. 这座教堂多年来一直面临拆毀的威胁。
• The project required the total demolition of the old bridge. 该项目要求将老桥完全拆毁。

214 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

215 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

216 oratorical   

adj.演说的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The award for the oratorical contest was made by a jury of nine professors. 演讲比赛的裁决由九位教授组成的评判委员会作出。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His oratorical efforts evoked no response in his audience. 他的雄辩在听众中不起反响。 来自辞典例句

217 gust   

n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发

参考例句：

• A gust of wind blew the front door shut.一阵大风吹来，把前门关上了。
• A gust of happiness swept through her.一股幸福的暖流流遍她的全身。

218 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

219 cartridges   

子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头

参考例句：

• computer consumables such as disks and printer cartridges 如磁盘、打印机墨盒之类的电脑耗材
• My new video game player came with three game cartridges included. 我的新电子游戏机附有三盘游戏带。

220 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

221 envious   

adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的

参考例句：

• I don't think I'm envious of your success.我想我并不嫉妒你的成功。
• She is envious of Jane's good looks and covetous of her car.她既忌妒简的美貌又垂涎她的汽车。

222 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。

223 clattered   

发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He dropped the knife and it clattered on the stone floor. 他一失手，刀子当啷一声掉到石头地面上。
• His hand went limp and the knife clattered to the ground. 他的手一软，刀子当啷一声掉到地上。

224 spouted   

adj.装有嘴的v.（指液体）喷出( spout的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水

参考例句：

• The broken pipe spouted water all over the room. 破裂的水管喷了一屋子的水。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The lecturer spouted for hours. 讲师滔滔不绝地讲了几个小时。 来自《简明英汉词典》

225 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

226 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

227 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

228 asunder   

adj.分离的，化为碎片

参考例句：

• The curtains had been drawn asunder.窗帘被拉向两边。
• Your conscience,conviction,integrity,and loyalties were torn asunder.你的良心、信念、正直和忠诚都被扯得粉碎了。

229 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

230 reverberated   

回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射

参考例句：

• Her voice reverberated around the hall. 她的声音在大厅里回荡。
• The roar of guns reverberated in the valley. 炮声响彻山谷。

231 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。

232 sentry   

n.哨兵，警卫

参考例句：

• They often stood sentry on snowy nights.他们常常在雪夜放哨。
• The sentry challenged anyone approaching the tent.哨兵查问任一接近帐篷的人。

233 cavalry   

n.骑兵；轻装甲部队

参考例句：

• We were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry. 我们翼侧受到一队骑兵的袭击。
• The enemy cavalry rode our men down. 敌人的骑兵撞倒了我们的人。

234 mare   

n.母马，母驴

参考例句：

• The mare has just thrown a foal in the stable.那匹母马刚刚在马厩里产下了一只小马驹。
• The mare foundered under the heavy load and collapsed in the road.那母马因负载过重而倒在路上。

235 pranced   

v.（马）腾跃( prance的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their horses pranced and whinnied. 他们的马奔腾着、嘶鸣着。 来自辞典例句
• The little girl pranced about the room in her new clothes. 小女孩穿着新衣在屋里雀跃。 来自辞典例句

236 bridle   

n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒

参考例句：

• He learned to bridle his temper.他学会了控制脾气。
• I told my wife to put a bridle on her tongue.我告诉妻子说话要谨慎。

237 nostrils   

鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Her nostrils flared with anger. 她气得两个鼻孔都鼓了起来。
• The horse dilated its nostrils. 马张大鼻孔。

238 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

239 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

240 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

241 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

242 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

243 malevolent   

adj.有恶意的，恶毒的

参考例句：

• Why are they so malevolent to me?他们为什么对我如此恶毒？
• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。

244 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

245 puffed   

adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟，狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了，便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

246 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

247 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

248 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。

249 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

250 scowled   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
• The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。

251 countersigned   

v.连署，副署，会签 （文件）( countersign的过去式 )

参考例句：

• "Behold your papers, Jarvis Lorry, countersigned." “看看你们的证件吧！贾维斯 - 罗瑞，已经签过字了。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• The payment has to countersigned by the mortgagor. 该付款必须有抵押人的会签。 来自口语例句

252 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

253 ragged   

adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的

参考例句：

• A ragged shout went up from the small crowd.这一小群人发出了刺耳的喊叫。
• Ragged clothing infers poverty.破衣烂衫意味着贫穷。

254 insolence   

n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度

参考例句：

• I've had enough of your insolence, and I'm having no more. 我受够了你的侮辱，不能再容忍了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• How can you suffer such insolence? 你怎么能容忍这种蛮横的态度？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

255 hoarsely   

adv.嘶哑地

参考例句：

• "Excuse me," he said hoarsely. “对不起。”他用嘶哑的嗓子说。
• Jerry hoarsely professed himself at Miss Pross's service. 杰瑞嘶声嘶气地表示愿为普洛丝小姐效劳。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

256 curtly   

adv.简短地

参考例句：

• He nodded curtly and walked away. 他匆忙点了一下头就走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The request was curtly refused. 这个请求被毫不客气地拒绝了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

257 trudging   

vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• There was a stream of refugees trudging up the valley towards the border. 一队难民步履艰难地爬上山谷向着边境走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two mules well laden with packs were trudging along. 两头骡子驮着沉重的背包，吃力地往前走。 来自辞典例句

258 hoisted   

把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He hoisted himself onto a high stool. 他抬身坐上了一张高凳子。
• The sailors hoisted the cargo onto the deck. 水手们把货物吊到甲板上。

259 reek   

v.发出臭气；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• Where there's reek,there's heat.哪里有恶臭，哪里必发热。
• That reek is from the fox.那股恶臭是狐狸发出的。

260 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

261 outstripped   

v.做得比…更好，（在赛跑等中）超过( outstrip的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• That manufacturer outstripped all his competitors in sales last year. 那个制造商家去年的销售量超过了所有竞争对手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth. 母亲和她自己的想象力远远超过了事实。 来自辞典例句

262 spurted   

（液体，火焰等）喷出，（使）涌出( spurt的过去式和过去分词 )； （短暂地）加速前进，冲刺

参考例句：

• Water spurted out of the hole. 水从小孔中喷出来。
• Their guns spurted fire. 他们的枪喷射出火焰。

263 nonchalance   

n.冷淡，漠不关心

参考例句：

• She took her situation with much nonchalance.她对这个处境毫不介意。
• He conceals his worries behind a mask of nonchalance.他装作若无其事，借以掩饰内心的不安。

264 Forsaken   

adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词

参考例句：

• He was forsaken by his friends. 他被朋友们背弃了。
• He has forsaken his wife and children. 他遗弃了他的妻子和孩子。

265 tempo   

n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度

参考例句：

• The boss is unsatisfied with the tardy tempo.老板不满于这种缓慢的进度。
• They waltz to the tempo of the music.他们跟着音乐的节奏跳华尔兹舞。

266 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

267 marvelled   

v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I marvelled that he suddenly left college. 我对他突然离开大学感到惊奇。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I marvelled at your boldness. 我对你的大胆感到惊奇。 来自《简明英汉词典》

268 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

269 hesitation   

n.犹豫，踌躇

参考例句：

• After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天，他终于直说了。
• There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。

270 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

271 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

272 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

273 buffers   

起缓冲作用的人（或物）( buffer的名词复数 )； 缓冲器； 减震器； 愚蠢老头

参考例句：

• To allocate and schedule the use of buffers. 分配和计划缓冲器的使用。
• Number of times the stream has paused due to insufficient stream buffers. 由于流缓冲区不足导致流程暂停的次数。

274 rumour   

n.谣言，谣传，传闻

参考例句：

• I should like to know who put that rumour about.我想知道是谁散布了那谣言。
• There has been a rumour mill on him for years.几年来，一直有谣言产生，对他进行中伤。

275 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

276 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

277 mustering   

v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的现在分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发

参考例句：

• He paused again, mustering his strength and thoughts. 他又停下来，集中力量，聚精会神。 来自辞典例句
• The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war. 这是万军之耶和华点齐军队，预备打仗。 来自互联网

278 feverish   

adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的

参考例句：

• He is too feverish to rest.他兴奋得安静不下来。
• They worked with feverish haste to finish the job.为了完成此事他们以狂热的速度工作着。

279 chattered   

（人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤

参考例句：

• They chattered away happily for a while. 他们高兴地闲扯了一会儿。
• We chattered like two teenagers. 我们聊着天，像两个十多岁的孩子。

280 blurred   

v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离

参考例句：

• She suffered from dizziness and blurred vision. 她饱受头晕目眩之苦。
• Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears. 他们那种慢吞吞、含糊不清的声音在他听起来却很悦耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

281 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。

282 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

283 ulcers   

n.溃疡( ulcer的名词复数 )；腐烂物；道德败坏；腐败

参考例句：

• Detachment of the dead cells produces erosions and ulcers. 死亡细胞的脱落，产生糜烂和溃疡。 来自辞典例句
• 75% of postbulbar ulcers occur proximal to the duodenal papilla. 75％的球后溃疡发生在十二指肠乳头近侧。 来自辞典例句

284 entrusted   

v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He entrusted the task to his nephew. 他把这任务托付给了他的侄儿。
• She was entrusted with the direction of the project. 她受委托负责这项计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》

285 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

286 battering   

n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The film took a battering from critics in the US. 该影片在美国遭遇到批评家的猛烈抨击。
• He kept battering away at the door. 他接连不断地砸门。 来自《简明英汉词典》

287 junction   

n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站

参考例句：

• There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
• You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。

288 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。