Chapter 10 of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan is here in full — 409 sentences across 82 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter X
Chapter 10 of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan is here in full — 409 sentences across 82 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
And now the moment was crucial. One arm was already along the floor above the edge. Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom. Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation. The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
Chapter 10 of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan is here in full — 409 sentences across 82 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/81 · 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.
destruction by annihilating something
From this reading “Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.”
bring into balance or equilibrium
From this reading “Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.”
of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
From this reading “And now the moment was crucial.”
join tongue and groove, in carpentry
From this reading “The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.”
a state of partial or total darkness
From this reading “Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.”
intense and profound fear
From this reading “Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.”
superlative of “mere” — being nothing more than specified
From this reading “The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.”
an ordered reference standard
From this reading “The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.”
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.
In this reading “The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.”
In this reading “Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.”
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.
higher than, or over, something
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
(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 Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
following the length of something from one end toward the other
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
prior to a specified or implied time
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading And now the moment was crucial.
destruction by annihilating something
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
a human limb; technically the part of the superior limb between the shoulder and the elbow but commonly used to refer to the whole superior limb
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
bring into balance or equilibrium
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
Directly under; in or to a lower position than.
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
From this reading And now the moment was crucial.
absence of light or illumination
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
the event of dying or departure from life
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
the boundary of a surface
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
one or the other of two
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
join tongue and groove, in carpentry
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
the inside lower horizontal surface (as of a room, hallway, tent, or other structure)
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
a state of partial or total darkness
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
the male already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
intense and profound fear
From this reading Beneath him all black darkness, death, horror, annihilation.
inflected form of “hang” — be suspended or hanging
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
superlative of “mere” — being nothing more than specified
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
a particular point in time
From this reading And now the moment was crucial.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
From this reading And now the moment was crucial.
used to mean any person in general, including the speaker
From this reading One arm was already along the floor above the edge.
of the blackest black; similar to the color of jet or coal
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
an ordered reference standard
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading And now the moment was crucial.
in or at that place or location
From this reading Campian's fate hung in the balance there in the pitchy gloom.
change orientation or direction, also in the abstract sense
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading And now the moment was crucial.
how something is done or how it happens
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
the vertical force exerted by a mass as a result of gravity
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
used for something imagined, polite, or habitual in the past
From this reading The merest feather weight either way would turn the scale.
Chapter 10 of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan by Bertram Mitford holds 409 sentences, grouped into 82 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 10 holds 409 sentences of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan, unabridged, divided into 82 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 10 of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan by Bertram Mitford exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 409 sentences, grouped into 82 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 82 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 82 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 10 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 The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan by Bertram Mitford on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 4465 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #36606 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #36606, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 372 minutes of reading across 893 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 11 chapters of The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan 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 The Ruby Sword: A Romance of Baluchistan, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
