Word: pathless
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...army. Hill 317 is a hopeless position in a strategy never understood. The landscape flickers back and forth between realism and surrealism. The road along which the regiment marches "was not a marching straight into autumn . . . Under our marching boots the grass withered and faded." Through sucking mud and pathless rain, the soldiers march to Hill 317. They fight, joke, brawl, complain and die on the hill, forgotten by headquarters. Brooding over them is the gaunt figure of the Gravedigger Captain in his draggling coat, explaining to Adam Ember that he took the job because he wanted...
...shirked it. On first arriving in China, he uttered this prayer: "Lord, make us the doorstep by which the multitudes may come to worship Thee, and if ... we are ground underfoot and spat upon and worn out, at least we ... shall have become the King's Highway in pathless China." In 20 years Francis Ford increased his flock from 9,000 to 20,000, built schools, hostels and churches. When World War II came, he stuck by his post, aiding Chinese guerrillas, helping downed Allied airmen escape, relieving war refugees in distress...
...withers, it dies in the head. It suffocates in the dust and the pathless mud. It runs off in barbaric downpours of rain or becomes embarrassed in the face of blood or a comrade's grave. There are also moments and hours when the smile completely freezes, because this country, under a curse, suddenly leers at us with frosty demonism...
Most memorable was the case of Pilot Arthur Rigney and his passenger, I. J. Escalante, who elected to take a short cut across the pathless swamps south of Lake Okeechobee on their way to the races, instead of following the established airway from Tampa. The throttle rod of their Bird biplane broke; down the ship slanted, gently but permanently, into the 6-ft. swamp grass and ooze. Next noonday another pilot who was imprudent enough to fly the short-cut spotted the stranded plane, hurried on to Miami whence an autogiro and two Goodyear blimps were sent to the rescue...
...thrill of exploring a country which is practically unmapped, which the tourist has not invaded, is itself tremendous; but when, in following the bases of fantastically weathered slopes, such as those of Western Head, or ascending pathless mountain-ides by working one's way (always in the face of rock-slides) up the precipitous walls, as at Tucker's Head on Bonne Bay, one comes suddenly upon a plant occupying an area of only a few square rods and never before known to botanists, the excitement is intense...