Chapter 5 of Crooked Trails and Straight is here in full — 289 sentences across 58 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter V
Chapter 5 of Crooked Trails and Straight is here in full — 289 sentences across 58 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt. "How about bail?" Maloney asked. The sheriff smiled. He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
Chapter 5 of Crooked Trails and Straight is here in full — 289 sentences across 58 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/57 · 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.
release after a security has been paid
From this reading “"How about bail?"”
a discharge of lightning accompanied by thunder
From this reading “LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.”
(of hair) having curls or waves
From this reading “LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.”
full of or characterized by humor
From this reading “He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.”
a bank check that has been fraudulently altered to increase its face value
From this reading “LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.”
past form of “radiate” — send out rays or waves
From this reading “He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.”
the principal law-enforcement officer in a county
From this reading “LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.”
plural of “wrinkle” — a slight depression or fold in the smoothness of a surface
From this reading “He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.”
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.
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 He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
on the subject of; concerning
From this reading "How about bail?"
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
past form of “ask” — make a request or demand for something to somebody
From this reading Maloney asked.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
release after a security has been paid
From this reading "How about bail?"
a discharge of lightning accompanied by thunder
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
(of hair) having curls or waves
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
opinion or judgment
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
characteristic of or befitting a friend
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
showing where something starts, or who sent it
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading "How about bail?"
full of or characterized by humor
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
a bank check that has been fraudulently altered to increase its face value
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
to incline or bend from a vertical position
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
the capital and largest city of England; located on the Thames in southeastern England; financial and industrial and cultural center
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
above and across; more than
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
past form of “radiate” — send out rays or waves
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
the principal law-enforcement officer in a county
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
past form of “smile” — change one's facial expression by spreading the lips, often to signal pleasure
From this reading The sheriff smiled.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The sheriff smiled.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
inflected form of “take” — carry out
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
moved around an axis or center
From this reading LAURA LONDON Kite Bonfils and Maloney took Curly back to Saguache and turned him over to Sheriff Bolt.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
used to introduce a clause giving more about a thing just mentioned
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
in the company of; together with
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
plural of “wrinkle” — a slight depression or fold in the smoothness of a surface
From this reading He was a long lean leather-faced man with friendly eyes from which humorous wrinkles radiated.
Chapter 5 of Crooked Trails and Straight by William MacLeod Raine holds 289 sentences, grouped into 58 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 5 holds 289 sentences of Crooked Trails and Straight, unabridged, divided into 58 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 5 of Crooked Trails and Straight by William MacLeod Raine exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 289 sentences, grouped into 58 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 58 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 58 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 5 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 Crooked Trails and Straight by William MacLeod Raine on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 6287 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #26911 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #26911, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 523 minutes of reading across 1258 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Crooked Trails and Straight section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 30 chapters of Crooked Trails and Straight 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 Crooked Trails and Straight, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
