AskanceAskanceadverb: with suspicion or disapproval adverb: with suspicion or disapproval

““Men and dogs looked askance at Bâtard Men and dogs looked askance at Bâtard when he drifted into their camps and when he drifted into their camps and

posts.”posts.”

Atone

(v) makes amend for

On the other hand, there was nothing to atone for Black Leclere.

(v.) establish as genuine

Her treachery alone could be relied on, and her wild amours attested her general depravity.

Attest

Belie

(v.) to falsely represent or to lie about (to slander)

“also he felt that there was a vigilance or alertness to every hair that belied

unshackling sleep”

Congenital

Adj. present at birth but not necessarily hereditary; trait acquired during fetal

development

He never got the chance: Leclère but confirmed him in his congenital iniquity.

Glassy eye

Contrive

(v.) put or send forth

Yelping shrilly from the pain of lash and club, he none the less contrived always to throw in the defiant snarl

(adj.) Returning to health after illness or debility.

Convalescent

And by the time Leclere finally convalescent, sallow and shaky…

Depravity

(noun) moral perversion; an impairment of virtue and moral principles.

“Her treachery alone could be relied upon, and her wildwood amours attested

her general depravity...”

Distend

(verb) to become wider

“And then, nostrils distended, eyes dilated, hair bristling in helpless rage, arose the long wolf

howl”

Elemental

(Adjective)Of or being the essential or basic part

“An open space in a dark forest, a ring of grinning wolf-dogs, and in the centre two beasts, locked in combat, snapping

and snarling, raging madly about, panting, sobbing, cursing, straining, wild with passion, in a fury of murder,

ripping and tearing and clawing in elemental brutishness.”

Equals 70% of the

Grovel

(verb) Lie or move abjectly on the ground.

Batard would crowd himself in the smallest possible space, groveling close to the

floor…

Hale

(v.) To draw heavily or slowly

So the men of Sunrise put an antiseptic dressing gown on his shoulder and haled him before Judge

Lynch.

Implacable

(adj.) Incapable of being placated.

“He answered curse with snarl, and blow with snap, grinning the while

his implacable hatred…”

Impotence

(Noun)

The quality of lacking strength or power; being weak and feeble

"A-a-ah! A-a-ah!" he screamed, incapable of speech, shaking his fist, through sheer

impotence of throat and larynx.

InfiniteInfinite

(adj.) having no limits or boundaries in time, space, extent or magnitude. Never

ending

“The Frenchman's shoulders went up in the racial shrug that means all

things from total ignorance to infinite understanding.”

Inscrutable(adj.) Of a hard to perceive nature

“Rather did he grow more grim and taciturn, biding his time with an

inscrutable patience that began to puzzle and weigh upon Leclère.”

Ken(n.) range of what one can know or

understand.

“And Leclère, with fiendish ken, seemed to divine each particular nerve and heartstring, and with

long wails and tremblings and sobbing minors to make it yield up its last shred of grief.”

Knavery

(noun) lack of dishonesty, acts of lying or cheating or stealing

…till it became a big bristling beast, acute in knavery, overspilling with hate sinister, malignant, diabolical.

Levity

(n.) A manner of lacking seriousness

“Bâtard retreated, for twenty feet or so, with a fiendish levity in his bearing that Leclère could not

mistake.….”

Lugubrious

Adj. Excessively mournful

"Dere is somet'ing dere," he affirmed, when the rhythmed vagaries of his mind touched the secret chords of Bâtard's being and brought forth the long lugubrious howl.

Oblong

(adj.) deviating from a square or circle or sphere by being elongated in

one direction

he took to his bed, said "bless me" several times, and departed to his final accounting in a rough-hewn,

oblong box.

Ominous Ominous (adj.) Threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic

developments.

“Whereat the man was determined to have his life, only Black Leclère, with ominous eyes and naked

hunting-knife, stepped in between.”

Pendulum

(n)An apparatus consisting of an object mounted so that is swings

freely under the influence of gravity

“ Fifteen minutes later, Slackwater charley and Webster Shaw, returning,

caught a glimpse of a ghostly pendulum swinging back and fourth

in the dim light.”

PerditionPerditionnoun: (Christianity) the abode of Satan and noun: (Christianity) the abode of Satan and forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal

punishment. punishment.

Father Gunther, a worthy priest, once reproved Father Gunther, a worthy priest, once reproved him with instances of concrete perdition. him with instances of concrete perdition.

Preternatural

(adj.) surpassing the ordinary or normal

He flourished under misfortune, grew fat with famine, and out of his terrible struggle

for life developed a preternatural intelligence

Prodigious(adj.) far beyond what is usual in

magnitude or degree

“The slaver dripped down his fangs and slid off his tongue at the sight, and in that moment he remembered his drooping ear, his uncounted

blows and prodigious wrongs…”

Progenitor

(Noun) A direct ancestor or blood relative

“Bâtard's progenitors, and, bone and flesh of their bone and flesh, he had inherited it all”

Protrude

(verb) Bulge outward; extend or project in space.

“…and his jaws slowly loosened, and his tongue protruded black and

swollen”

Pulsate(verb) expand and contract rhythmically; beat

rhythmically“And then came Black Leclère, to lay his heavy hand on the bit

of pulsating puppy life, to press and prod and mould it till it became a big bristling beast, acute in knavery, overspilling with

hate, sinister, malignant, diabolical.”

Reprove

(verb) admonish; take to task.

“Father Gautier, a worthy priest, once reproved him with instances of

concrete perdition.”

Sallow

(adj.)unhealthy looking

“And by the time Leclere, finally convalescent , sallow, and shaky, took the sun by the cabin door,

Batard had reasserted his supremacy among his kind, and brought not only his team-mates but the missionary’s

dogs into subjection. ”

Sardonically

(adv.) In a sarcastic manner.

“Ah see my feenish,” The man said, and laughed sardonically aloud.”

Squaw

(n.) an American Indian woman

When the squaws became preoccupied with cooking beans and keeping the fire going for the wifeless

miners…

Taciturn

(Adj) Habitually reserved and uncommunicative.

“His puppy yelps passed with his lanky legs, so that he became grim and taciturn, quick to strike, slow to warn.”

Taut

(adj) pulled or drawn tight

There was no settling of the body, for the taut rope forced him to stand rigidly still.

Tenacious(adj.) stubbornly unyielding

“But his was his tenacious mother’s grip on life…”

Vindictive(adj.) To seek revenge or intended for

revenge.

“…he none the less contrived always to throw in the defiant snarl, the bitter

vindictive menace of his soul…”

Writhe

(verb) a twisting, squirming movement.

He lay there in a helpless welter, his lip feebly lifting and writhing to the snarl he

had not the strength to utter.