As for Khiva himself, we buried what remained of him in an ant-bear hole, together with an assegai to protect himself with on his journey to a better world. On the third day we marched again, hoping that we might live to return to dig up our buried ivory, and in due course, after a long and wearisome tramp, and many adventures which I have not space to detail, we reached Sitanda’s Kraal, near the Lukanga River, the real starting-point of our expedition. Very well do I recollect5 our arrival at that place. To the right was a scattered6 native settlement with a few stone cattle kraals and some cultivated lands down by the water, where these savages8 grew their scanty9 supply of grain, and beyond it stretched great tracts10 of waving “veld” covered with tall grass, over which herds12 of the smaller game were wandering. To the left lay the vast desert. This spot appears to be the outpost of the fertile country, and it would be difficult to say to what natural causes such an abrupt14 change in the character of the soil is due. But so it is.
Just below our encampment flowed a little stream, on the farther side of which is a stony15 slope, the same down which, twenty years before, I had seen poor Silvestre creeping back after his attempt to reach Solomon’s Mines, and beyond that slope begins the waterless desert, covered with a species of karoo shrub16.
It was evening when we pitched our camp, and the great ball of the sun was sinking into the desert, sending glorious rays of many-coloured light flying all over its vast expanse. Leaving Good to superintend the arrangement of our little camp, I took Sir Henry with me, and walking to the top of the slope opposite, we gazed across the desert. The air was very clear, and far, far away I could distinguish the faint blue outlines, here and there capped with white, of the Suliman Berg.
“There,” I said, “there is the wall round Solomon’s Mines, but God knows if we shall ever climb it.”
“My brother should be there, and if he is, I shall reach him somehow,” said Sir Henry, in that tone of quiet confidence which marked the man.
“I hope so,” I answered, and turned to go back to the camp, when I saw that we were not alone. Behind us, also gazing earnestly towards the far-off mountains, stood the great Kafir Umbopa.
The Zulu spoke17 when he saw that I had observed him, addressing Sir Henry, to whom he had attached himself.
“Is it to that land that thou wouldst journey, Incubu?” (a native word meaning, I believe, an elephant, and the name given to Sir Henry by the Kafirs), he said, pointing towards the mountain with his broad assegai.
I asked him sharply what he meant by addressing his master in that familiar way. It is very well for natives to have a name for one among themselves, but it is not decent that they should call a white man by their heathenish appellations18 to his face. The Zulu laughed a quiet little laugh which angered me.
“How dost thou know that I am not the equal of the Inkosi whom I serve?” he said. “He is of a royal house, no doubt; one can see it in his size and by his mien19; so, mayhap, am I. At least, I am as great a man. Be my mouth, O Macumazahn, and say my words to the Inkoos Incubu, my master, for I would speak to him and to thee.”
I was angry with the man, for I am not accustomed to be talked to in that way by Kafirs, but somehow he impressed me, and besides I was curious to know what he had to say. So I translated, expressing my opinion at the same time that he was an impudent20 fellow, and that his swagger was outrageous21.
“Yes, Umbopa,” answered Sir Henry, “I would journey there.”
“The desert is wide and there is no water in it, the mountains are high and covered with snow, and man cannot say what lies beyond them behind the place where the sun sets; how shalt thou come thither22, Incubu, and wherefore dost thou go?”
I translated again.
“Tell him,” answered Sir Henry, “that I go because I believe that a man of my blood, my brother, has gone there before me, and I journey to seek him.”
“That is so, Incubu; a Hottentot I met on the road told me that a white man went out into the desert two years ago towards those mountains with one servant, a hunter. They never came back.”
“How do you know it was my brother?” asked Sir Henry.
“Nay, I know not. But the Hottentot, when I asked what the white man was like, said that he had thine eyes and a black beard. He said, too, that the name of the hunter with him was Jim; that he was a Bechuana hunter and wore clothes.”
“There is no doubt about it,” said I; “I knew Jim well.”
Sir Henry nodded. “I was sure of it,” he said. “If George set his mind upon a thing he generally did it. It was always so from his boyhood. If he meant to cross the Suliman Berg he has crossed it, unless some accident overtook him, and we must look for him on the other side.”
Umbopa understood English, though he rarely spoke it.
“It is a far journey, Incubu,” he put in, and I translated his remark.
“Yes,” answered Sir Henry, “it is far. But there is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it. There is nothing, Umbopa, that he cannot do, there are no mountains he may not climb, there are no deserts he cannot cross, save a mountain and a desert of which you are spared the knowledge, if love leads him and he holds his life in his hands counting it as nothing, ready to keep it or lose it as Heaven above may order.”
I translated.
“Great words, my father,” answered the Zulu — I always called him a Zulu, though he was not really one —“great swelling23 words fit to fill the mouth of a man. Thou art right, my father Incubu. Listen! what is life? It is a feather, it is the seed of the grass, blown hither and thither, sometimes multiplying itself and dying in the act, sometimes carried away into the heavens. But if that seed be good and heavy it may perchance travel a little way on the road it wills. It is well to try and journey one’s road and to fight with the air. Man must die. At the worst he can but die a little sooner. I will go with thee across the desert and over the mountains, unless perchance I fall to the ground on the way, my father.”
He paused awhile, and then went on with one of those strange bursts of rhetorical eloquence24 that Zulus sometimes indulge in, which to my mind, full though they are of vain repetitions, show that the race is by no means devoid25 of poetic26 instinct and of intellectual power.
“What is life? Tell me, O white men, who are wise, who know the secrets of the world, and of the world of stars, and the world that lies above and around the stars; who flash your words from afar without a voice; tell me, white men, the secret of our life — whither it goes and whence it comes!
“You cannot answer me; you know not. Listen, I will answer. Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go. Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of the Nowhere; for a moment our wings are seen in the light of the fire, and, lo! we are gone again into the Nowhere. Life is nothing. Life is all. It is the Hand with which we hold off Death. It is the glow-worm that shines in the night-time and is black in the morning; it is the white breath of the oxen in winter; it is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.”
“You are a strange man,” said Sir Henry, when he had ceased.
Umbopa laughed. “It seems to me that we are much alike, Incubu. Perhaps I seek a brother over the mountains.”
I looked at him suspiciously. “What dost thou mean?” I asked; “what dost thou know of those mountains?”
“A little; a very little. There is a strange land yonder, a land of witchcraft27 and beautiful things; a land of brave people, and of trees, and streams, and snowy peaks, and of a great white road. I have heard of it. But what is the good of talking? It grows dark. Those who live to see will see.”
Again I looked at him doubtfully. The man knew too much.
“You need not fear me, Macumazahn,” he said, interpreting my look. “I dig no holes for you to fall in. I make no plots. If ever we cross those mountains behind the sun I will tell what I know. But Death sits upon them. Be wise and turn back. Go and hunt elephants, my masters. I have spoken.”
And without another word he lifted his spear in salutation, and returned towards the camp, where shortly afterwards we found him cleaning a gun like any other Kafir.
“That is an odd man,” said Sir Henry.
“Yes,” answered I, “too odd by half. I don’t like his little ways. He knows something, and will not speak out. But I suppose it is no use quarrelling with him. We are in for a curious trip, and a mysterious Zulu won’t make much difference one way or another.”
Next day we made our arrangements for starting. Of course it was impossible to drag our heavy elephant rifles and other kit28 with us across the desert, so, dismissing our bearers, we made an arrangement with an old native who had a kraal close by to take care of them till we returned. It went to my heart to leave such things as those sweet tools to the tender mercies of an old thief of a savage7 whose greedy eyes I could see gloating over them. But I took some precautions.
First of all I loaded all the rifles, placing them at full cock, and informed him that if he touched them they would go off. He tried the experiment instantly with my eight-bore, and it did go off, and blew a hole right through one of his oxen, which were just then being driven up to the kraal, to say nothing of knocking him head over heels with the recoil29. He got up considerably30 startled, and not at all pleased at the loss of the ox, which he had the impudence31 to ask me to pay for, and nothing would induce him to touch the guns again.
“Put the live devils out of the way up there in the thatch,” he said, “or they will murder us all.”
Then I told him that, when we came back, if one of those things was missing I would kill him and his people by witchcraft; and if we died and he tried to steal the rifles I would come and haunt him and turn his cattle mad and his milk sour till life was a weariness, and would make the devils in the guns come out and talk to him in a way he did not like, and generally gave him a good idea of judgment32 to come. After that he promised to look after them as though they were his father’s spirit. He was a very superstitious33 old Kafir and a great villain34.
Having thus disposed of our superfluous35 gear we arranged the kit we five — Sir Henry, Good, myself, Umbopa, and the Hottentot Ventv?gel — were to take with us on our journey. It was small enough, but do what we would we could not get its weight down under about forty pounds a man. This is what it consisted of:—
The three express rifles and two hundred rounds of ammunition36.
The two Winchester repeating rifles (for Umbopa and Ventv?gel), with two hundred rounds of cartridge37.
Five Cochrane’s water-bottles, each holding four pints39.
Five blankets.
Twenty-five pounds’ weight of biltong — i.e. sun-dried game flesh.
Ten pounds’ weight of best mixed beads40 for gifts.
A selection of medicine, including an ounce of quinine, and one or two small surgical41 instruments.
Our knives, a few sundries, such as a compass, matches, a pocket filter, tobacco, a trowel, a bottle of brandy, and the clothes we stood in.
This was our total equipment, a small one indeed for such a venture, but we dared not attempt to carry more. Indeed, that load was a heavy one per man with which to travel across the burning desert, for in such places every additional ounce tells. But we could not see our way to reducing the weight. There was nothing taken but what was absolutely necessary.
With great difficulty, and by the promise of a present of a good hunting-knife each, I succeeded in persuading three wretched natives from the village to come with us for the first stage, twenty miles, and to carry a large gourd42 holding a gallon of water apiece. My object was to enable us to refill our water-bottles after the first night’s march, for we determined43 to start in the cool of the evening. I gave out to these natives that we were going to shoot ostriches44, with which the desert abounded45. They jabbered46 and shrugged47 their shoulders, saying that we were mad and should perish of thirst, which I must say seemed probable; but being desirous of obtaining the knives, which were almost unknown treasures up there, they consented to come, having probably reflected that, after all, our subsequent extinction48 would be no affair of theirs.
All next day we rested and slept, and at sunset ate a hearty49 meal of fresh beef washed down with tea, the last, as Good remarked sadly, we were likely to drink for many a long day. Then, having made our final preparations, we lay down and waited for the moon to rise. At last, about nine o’clock, up she came in all her glory, flooding the wild country with light, and throwing a silver sheen on the expanse of rolling desert before us, which looked as solemn and quiet and as alien to man as the star-studded firmament50 above. We rose up, and in a few minutes were ready, and yet we hesitated a little, as human nature is prone51 to hesitate on the threshold of an irrevocable step. We three white men stood by ourselves. Umbopa, assegai in hand and a rifle across his shoulders, looked out fixedly53 across the desert a few paces ahead of us; while the hired natives, with the gourds54 of water, and Ventv?gel, were gathered in a little knot behind.
“Gentlemen,” said Sir Henry presently, in his deep voice, “we are going on about as strange a journey as men can make in this world. It is very doubtful if we can succeed in it. But we are three men who will stand together for good or for evil to the last. Now before we start let us for a moment pray to the Power who shapes the destinies of men, and who ages since has marked out our paths, that it may please Him to direct our steps in accordance with His will.”
Taking off his hat, for the space of a minute or so, he covered his face with his hands, and Good and I did likewise.
I do not say that I am a first-rate praying man, few hunters are, and as for Sir Henry, I never heard him speak like that before, and only once since, though deep down in his heart I believe that he is very religious. Good too is pious55, though apt to swear. Anyhow I do not remember, excepting on one single occasion, ever putting up a better prayer in my life than I did during that minute, and somehow I felt the happier for it. Our future was so completely unknown, and I think that the unknown and the awful always bring a man nearer to his Maker56.
“And now,” said Sir Henry, “trek!”
So we started.
We had nothing to guide ourselves by except the distant mountains and old José da Silvestre’s chart, which, considering that it was drawn57 by a dying and half-distraught man on a fragment of linen58 three centuries ago, was not a very satisfactory sort of thing with work with. Still, our sole hope of success depended upon it, such as it was. If we failed in finding that pool of bad water which the old Dom marked as being situated59 in the middle of the desert, about sixty miles from our starting-point, and as far from the mountains, in all probability we must perish miserably60 of thirst. But to my mind the chances of our finding it in that great sea of sand and karoo scrub seemed almost infinitesimal. Even supposing that da Silvestra had marked the pool correctly, what was there to prevent its having been dried up by the sun generations ago, or trampled61 in by game, or filled with the drifting sand?
On we tramped silently as shades through the night and in the heavy sand. The karoo bushes caught our feet and retarded62 us, and the sand worked into our veldtschoons and Good’s shooting-boots, so that every few miles we had to stop and empty them; but still the night kept fairly cool, though the atmosphere was thick and heavy, giving a sort of creamy feel to the air, and we made fair progress. It was very silent and lonely there in the desert, oppressively so indeed. Good felt this, and once began to whistle “The Girl I left behind me,” but the notes sounded lugubrious63 in that vast place, and he gave it up.
Shortly afterwards a little incident occurred which, though it startled us at the time, gave rise to a laugh. Good was leading, as the holder64 of the compass, which, being a sailor, of course he understood thoroughly65, and we were toiling66 along in single file behind him, when suddenly we heard the sound of an exclamation67, and he vanished. Next second there arose all around us a most extraordinary hubbub68, snorts, groans69, and wild sounds of rushing feet. In the faint light, too, we could descry70 dim galloping71 forms half hidden by wreaths of sand. The natives threw down their loads and prepared to bolt, but remembering that there was nowhere to run to, they cast themselves upon the ground and howled out that it was ghosts. As for Sir Henry and myself, we stood amazed; nor was our amazement72 lessened73 when we perceived the form of Good careering off in the direction of the mountains, apparently74 mounted on the back of a horse and halloaing wildly. In another second he threw up his arms, and we heard him come to the earth with a thud.
Then I saw what had happened; we had stumbled upon a herd11 of sleeping quagga, on to the back of one of which Good actually had fallen, and the brute75 naturally enough got up and made off with him. Calling out to the others that it was all right, I ran towards Good, much afraid lest he should be hurt, but to my great relief I found him sitting in the sand, his eye-glass still fixed52 firmly in his eye, rather shaken and very much frightened, but not in any way injured.
After this we travelled on without any further misadventure till about one o’clock, when we called a halt, and having drunk a little water, not much, for water was precious, and rested for half an hour, we started again.
On, on we went, till at last the east began to blush like the cheek of a girl. Then there came faint rays of primrose76 light, that changed presently to golden bars, through which the dawn glided77 out across the desert. The stars grew pale and paler still, till at last they vanished; the golden moon waxed wan13, and her mountain ridges78 stood out against her sickly face like the bones on the cheek of a dying man. Then came spear upon spear of light flashing far away across the boundless79 wilderness80, piercing and firing the veils of mist, till the desert was draped in a tremulous golden glow, and it was day.
Still we did not halt, though by this time we should have been glad enough to do so, for we knew that when once the sun was fully3 up it would be almost impossible for us to travel. At length, about an hour later, we spied a little pile of boulders81 rising out of the plain, and to this we dragged ourselves. As luck would have it, here we found an overhanging slab82 of rock carpeted beneath with smooth sand, which afforded a most grateful shelter from the heat. Underneath83 this we crept, and each of us having drunk some water and eaten a bit of biltong, we lay down and soon were sound asleep.
It was three o’clock in the afternoon before we woke, to find our bearers preparing to return. They had seen enough of the desert already, and no number of knives would have tempted84 them to come a step farther. So we took a hearty drink, and having emptied our water-bottles, filled them up again from the gourds that they had brought with them, and then watched them depart on their twenty miles’ tramp home.
At half-past four we also started. It was lonely and desolate85 work, for with the exception of a few ostriches there was not a single living creature to be seen on all the vast expanse of sandy plain. Evidently it was too dry for game, and with the exception of a deadly-looking cobra or two we saw no reptiles86. One insect, however, we found abundant, and that was the common or house fly. There they came, “not as single spies, but in battalions,” as I think the Old Testament6 says somewhere. He is an extraordinary insect is the house fly. Go where you will you find him, and so it must have been always. I have seen him enclosed in amber87, which is, I was told, quite half a million years old, looking exactly like his descendant of today, and I have little doubt but that when the last man lies dying on the earth he will be buzzing round — if this event happens to occur in summer — watching for an opportunity to settle on his nose.
At sunset we halted, waiting for the moon to rise. At last she came up, beautiful and serene88 as ever, and, with one halt about two o’clock in the morning, we trudged89 on wearily through the night, till at last the welcome sun put a period to our labours. We drank a little and flung ourselves down on the sand, thoroughly tired out, and soon were all asleep. There was no need to set a watch, for we had nothing to fear from anybody or anything in that vast untenanted plain. Our only enemies were heat, thirst, and flies, but far rather would I have faced any danger from man or beast than that awful trinity. This time we were not so lucky as to find a sheltering rock to guard us from the glare of the sun, with the result that about seven o’clock we woke up experiencing the exact sensations one would attribute to a beefsteak on a gridiron. We were literally90 being baked through and through. The burning sun seemed to be sucking our very blood out of us. We sat up and gasped91.
“Phew,” said I, grabbing at the halo of flies which buzzed cheerfully round my head. The heat did not affect them.
“My word!” said Sir Henry.
“It is hot!” echoed Good.
It was hot, indeed, and there was not a bit of shelter to be found. Look where we would there was no rock or tree, nothing but an unending glare, rendered dazzling by the heated air that danced over the surface of the desert as it dances over a red-hot stove.
“What is to be done?” asked Sir Henry; “we can’t stand this for long.”
We looked at each other blankly.
“I have it,” said Good, “we must dig a hole, get in it, and cover ourselves with the karoo bushes.”
It did not seem a very promising92 suggestion, but at least it was better than nothing, so we set to work, and, with the trowel we had brought with us and the help of our hands, in about an hour we succeeded in delving93 out a patch of ground some ten feet long by twelve wide to the depth of two feet. Then we cut a quantity of low scrub with our hunting-knives, and creeping into the hole, pulled it over us all, with the exception of Ventv?gel, on whom, being a Hottentot, the heat had no particular effect. This gave us some slight shelter from the burning rays of the sun, but the atmosphere in that amateur grave can be better imagined than described. The Black Hole of Calcutta must have been a fool to it; indeed, to this moment I do not know how we lived through the day. There we lay panting, and every now and again moistening our lips from our scanty supply of water. Had we followed our inclinations94 we should have finished all we possessed95 in the first two hours, but we were forced to exercise the most rigid96 care, for if our water failed us we knew that very soon we must perish miserably.
But everything has an end, if only you live long enough to see it, and somehow that miserable97 day wore on towards evening. About three o’clock in the afternoon we determined that we could bear it no longer. It would be better to die walking that to be killed slowly by heat and thirst in this dreadful hole. So taking each of us a little drink from our fast diminishing supply of water, now warmed to about the same temperature as a man’s blood, we staggered forward.
We had then covered some fifty miles of wilderness. If the reader will refer to the rough copy and translation of old da Silvestra’s map, he will see that the desert is marked as measuring forty leagues across, and the “pan bad water” is set down as being about in the middle of it. Now forty leagues is one hundred and twenty miles, consequently we ought at the most to be within twelve or fifteen miles of the water if any should really exist.
Through the afternoon we crept slowly and painfully along, scarcely doing more than a mile and a half in an hour. At sunset we rested again, waiting for the moon, and after drinking a little managed to get some sleep.
Before we lay down, Umbopa pointed98 out to us a slight and indistinct hillock on the flat surface of the plain about eight miles away. At the distance it looked like an ant-hill, and as I was dropping off to sleep I fell to wondering what it could be.
With the moon we marched again, feeling dreadfully exhausted99, and suffering tortures from thirst and prickly heat. Nobody who has not felt it can know what we went through. We walked no longer, we staggered, now and again falling from exhaustion100, and being obliged to call a halt every hour or so. We had scarcely energy left in us to speak. Up to this Good had chatted and joked, for he is a merry fellow; but now he had not a joke in him.
At last, about two o’clock, utterly101 worn out in body and mind, we came to the foot of the queer hill, or sand koppie, which at first sight resembled a gigantic ant-heap about a hundred feet high, and covering at the base nearly two acres of ground.
Here we halted, and driven to it by our desperate thirst, sucked down our last drops of water. We had but half a pint38 a head, and each of us could have drunk a gallon.
Then we lay down. Just as I was dropping off to sleep I heard Umbopa remark to himself in Zulu —
“If we cannot find water we shall all be dead before the moon rises tomorrow.”
I shuddered102, hot as it was. The near prospect103 of such an awful death is not pleasant, but even the thought of it could not keep me from sleeping.
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1
tusks
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| n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头 | |
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tusk
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| n.獠牙，长牙，象牙 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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shrub
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| n.灌木，灌木丛 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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appellations
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| n.名称，称号( appellation的名词复数 ) | |
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mien
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| n.风采；态度 | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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35
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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36
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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pint
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| n.品脱 | |
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pints
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| n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒 | |
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beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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42
gourd
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| n.葫芦 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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ostriches
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| n.鸵鸟( ostrich的名词复数 )；逃避现实的人，不愿正视现实者 | |
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abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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jabbered
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的过去式和过去分词 )；急促兴奋地说话 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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gourds
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| n.葫芦( gourd的名词复数 ) | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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retarded
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| a.智力迟钝的，智力发育迟缓的 | |
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lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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descry
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| v.远远看到；发现；责备 | |
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galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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primrose
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| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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84
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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86
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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88
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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89
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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92
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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93
delving
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| v.深入探究，钻研( delve的现在分词 ) | |
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inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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97
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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98
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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99
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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101
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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102
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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