[The Rifle Rangers by Captain Mayne Reid]@TWC D-Link book
The Rifle Rangers

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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Each of these, as it careered across the heavens, seemed bent upon some spiteful purpose.
An isolated fragment hung lowering above the snowy cone of Orizava, like a huge vampire suspended over his sleeping victim.
From the great "parent cloud" that rested upon the Sierra Madre, lightning-bolts shot out and forked hither and thither or sank into the detached masses--the messengers of the storm-king bearing his fiery mandates across the sky.
Away along the horizon of the east moved the yellow pillars of sand, whirled upward by the wind, like vast columnar towers leading to heaven.
The storm had not yet reached the rancho.

The leaves lay motionless under a dark and ominous calm; but the wild screams of many birds--the shrieks of the swans, the discordant notes of the frightened pea-fowl, the chattering of parrots as they sought the shelter of the thick olives in terrified flight--all betokened the speedy advent of some fearful convulsion.
The rain in large drops fell upon the broad leaves with a soft, plashing sound; and now and then a quick, short puff came snorting along, and, seizing the feathery frondage of the palms, shook them with a spiteful and ruffian energy.
The long green stripes, after oscillating a moment, would settle down again in graceful and motionless curves.
A low sound like the "sough" of the sea or the distant falling of water came from the north; while at intervals the hoarse bark of the _coyote_ and the yelling of terrified monkeys could be heard afar off in the woods.
"_Tapa la casa! tapa la casa_!" (Cover the house!) cried Don Cosme as soon as he had fairly got his head above ground.

"_Anda_!--_anda con los macates_!" (Quick with the cords!) With lightning quickness a roll of palmetto mats came down on all sides of the house, completely covering the bamboo walls, and forming a screen impervious to both wind and rain.

This was speedily fastened at all corners, and strong stays were carried out and warped around the trunks of trees.

In five minutes the change was complete.


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