"Dragon’s Gate" by Laurence Yep, Chapters 20–30 : Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

This time when the lash struck, I had no strength in my legs, and its force sent me sprawling on my face.

However, the ointment had begun to cool the lacerated flesh, and I kept a sullen silence as Honker bound me up in bandages.

coherent

I lay there for a long time, unable to sleep because of the pain and yet unable to collect my thoughts into a coherent pattern.

scrounge

When we started to run out of fuel, we began wearing spare shirts and coats or whatever we could scrounge.

tentatively

Encouraged by the rest of the crew, Doggy tried a song. As he had implied, his voice was a little on the thin side; and he sang so softly and tentatively that it was difficult to hear him.

helter-skelter

With all the other headmen also shouting orders, we were like ants scurrying around helter-skelter after water had been poured down their colony.

eloquent

He gazed at me with new interest, as if surprised at my intuition; and the man who could be so eloquent about American machines struggled to find the right words.

humility

Despite his earlier show of humility, he hadn't given up. The pride was burning so fiercely in him that it almost could have warmed my hands.

intrepid

Sean had brought two pickaxes as well, and he handed one to each of us. “Just the thing for the intrepid tamer of mountains.”

deftly

"Excuse me. May I borrow that?” Sean asked, and deftly lifted a pickax from one of the work crew that had been trying to keep the tunnel mouth clear.

jaunt

“Though I’ll miss our jaunts together, I’ll see you off the mountain and free of that devil.”

gale

When we were ready, Sean began to forge on ahead, tilting forward against the force of the wind with his face almost touching the glass of the compass. Then a regular gale whipped the snow all around, and he became no more than a shadow.

crevasse

Sean must have fallen into some crevasse.

brunt

I had my arms wrapped around myself and I bent my head slightly so that my hat took the brunt of the wind, rather than my face.

contrite

As the sun filled my body and limbs with warmth and I began to thaw, I felt contrite. "You really are a hero.”

cleft

He pointed toward the wall. Opposite the mound was a cleft. The rocks there were worn down by some stream.

gingerly

Shuffling gingerly to the edge, he tested the surface of the pond.

tourniquet

I tied a length of rope as a tourniquet around his leg.

diminutive

The next terrace was smaller than the last. The diminutive pond was almost hidden by snow except for a curving sliver as bright as a diamond smile.

bearing

Then, shading my eyes, I squinted up at the sun and took a bearing. Facing in the right direction, I started to high-step through the snow carefully, hardly daring to breathe.

nuance

You play over their conversations many times in your head, looking for nuances and shadings of feelings.

surly

It made up for the fact that Kilroy wouldn't give us any official time to look because we were still behind schedule. In fact, he was downright surly about it, as if he thought I was asking for an unusual favor.

residual

Curly lost two toes when his pickax struck a rock that still had some residual oil on it.

default

If you keep silent, then you lose by default.

placard

Back home, important news was put on a placard and posted in some prominent place.

poignant

The melody alone was enough to make the tears flow in any guest, but the lyrics were so sad and poignant that it was impossible not to cry.

lilting

“At night I dream you’re holding me,” he sang in a sweet, lilting voice.

caterwaul

“Quit that caterwauling. Save your breath for digging,” Kilroy said mechanically.

embellish

Each member of the crew had an elaborate menu planned for his welcome-home banquet—as if he had reflected upon the topic and embellished it for years.

fare

The dishes ranged from the exotic to favorite but ordinary fare.

bolster

It didn't take much more talking to screw up their courage. By the time I left, they were shouting, “Strike! Strike!"
With arguments like that, the crew and I bolstered the others.

subsidize

We wanted five dollars a month more (which still wouldn't bring us up to the westerners' subsidized wages, but it would help).

bluster

Strobridge's hoodlums tried to bluster and threaten; but no one left the camp.

skulk

I thought the westerners might next try to take a couple of men and make examples of them as Kilroy had of me; but I think for the first time they realized that there were three thousand of us and only a few dozen of them. Cursing and swearing, they skulked away.

harangue

Later the westerners themselves came to the edge of our camp to harangue our headmen, but they didn't try to come inside.

delegation

When even that failed, a delegation of bosses led by Strobridge sat down to negotiate with our strike committee.

heady

The next five days were heady times. During the first week of a revolution, everything seems possible.

sustain

But I had sensed a strength that could sweep across oceans and achieve all of Father and Uncle's dreams, if I could learn how to sustain it.

magistrate

The local magistrate had even started a subscription to build a memorial gate eventually as a testament to her virtue.

cynical

There's even a cynical little song—done to the tune of 'How Blessed We Are'—making the rounds of the village that says that perhaps more Manchus should meet with 'accidents.'

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"Dragon’s Gate" by Laurence Yep, Chapters 20–30

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