Chapter 25 of Captain Fly-by-Night is here in full — 60 sentences across 12 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XXV
Chapter 25 of Captain Fly-by-Night is here in full — 60 sentences across 12 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later. They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established. The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away. Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead. In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
Chapter 25 of Captain Fly-by-Night is here in full — 60 sentences across 12 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/12 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
concealing something under the ground
From this reading “Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.”
past form of “drift” — be in motion due to some air or water current
From this reading “The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.”
a public square with room for pedestrians
From this reading “They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.”
plural of “preparation” — the activity of putting or setting in order in advance of some act or purpose
From this reading “Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.”
a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
From this reading “THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.”
plural of “sleep” — a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended
From this reading “THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.”
not permanent; not lasting
From this reading “They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.”
plural of “trooper” — a soldier in a motorized army unit
From this reading “In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
lose personal contact over time
In this reading “The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.”
In this reading “In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
anew
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
the form of “a” used before a word that begins with a vowel sound
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
the process whereby a person concentrates on some features of the environment to the (relative) exclusion of others
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.
the past participle of “be”
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
the -ing form of “be”
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
concealing something under the ground
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
inflected form of “cry” — utter a sudden loud cry
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
separate with or as if with an instrument
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
plural of “direction” — a line leading to a place or point
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
past form of “drift” — be in motion due to some air or water current
From this reading The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.
brought about or set up or accepted; especially long established
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
make plain and comprehensible
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
plural of “fire” — the event of something burning (often destructive)
From this reading The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
the head of a state government
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
consisting of one of two equivalent parts in value or quantity
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
a period of time equal to 1/24th of a day
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
happening at a time subsequent to a reference time
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
not allowed to continue to bat or run
From this reading The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.
a public square with room for pedestrians
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
plural of “preparation” — the activity of putting or setting in order in advance of some act or purpose
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
a person who is being chased
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
conforming to the established language usage of educated native speakers
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
any of several noncommissioned officer ranks in the Army or Air Force or Marines ranking above a corporal
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
plural of “sleep” — a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
a cloud of fine particles suspended in a gas
From this reading The fires were out, the smoke had drifted away.
not permanent; not lasting
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading THE SERGEANT SLEEPS AGAIN “Explain, rogue!” cried the Governor half an hour later.
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
the people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
plural of “trooper” — a soldier in a motorized army unit
From this reading In all directions troopers pursued hostiles and cut them down.
the past form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
in or at the place that
From this reading They were in the plaza, where a temporary camp had been established.
people who are wounded
From this reading Wounded had received attention, and preparations were being made for burying the dead.
Chapter 25 of Captain Fly-by-Night by Johnston McCulley holds 60 sentences, grouped into 12 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 25 holds 60 sentences of Captain Fly-by-Night, unabridged, divided into 12 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 25 of Captain Fly-by-Night by Johnston McCulley exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 60 sentences, grouped into 12 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 12 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 12 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 25 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Captain Fly-by-Night by Johnston McCulley on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4941 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #72893 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #72893, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 411 minutes of reading across 989 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Captain Fly-by-Night section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 25 chapters of Captain Fly-by-Night to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Captain Fly-by-Night, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
