Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTEB in CYMBALS CRASH HE sun was crawling up the farther side of the cordillera which ran like a lizard's crest the length of the green island of Buglas. Shafts of light as delicate as the heliotrope and as pink as the bloom of the oleander formed the crown of the great volcano. Already the reflection of this crown was lightening the cool shadows under the palms of Natunga. Off-shore, grounded in the shallow water, two new strange craft of unusual length and strength lay waiting. From them men were silently disembarking and silently creeping over the sand and into the shadows where Natunga slept. These brown men wore bright-colored breeches as snug as acrobats' pantaloons, and gay tight-fitting waistcoats and turbans. Here a gleaming kris caught the pink of the sky and transformed itself into a rosy wriggling serpent; there a slash of heliotrope sky mirrored itself in the blade of a campilan or in a silver-inlaid barong. A two-handed sword. fA short sword. A shriek awoke Margarita and Guimo. In the darkness of her tightly closed house Margarita jumped to her feet and snatched the bolo from her sleeping-mat. Far down the street arose more shrieks of terror and pain. Guimo stood clinging to his mother's hand. " What is the matter, nanai? Why do you tremble T " " K-s-s-s-s-s-h! " warned Margarita. " They have come! " She heard the swift creaking of her stairway and saw the sharp point of a barong tear an ugly gash from top to bottom of her palm-covered doorway. " Nanai," wailed Guimo. Like a flash, Margarita drew the bar of the door. The instant the door swung open, she brought her bolo down on the skull of the intruder. Without a moan, the man toppled backward down the stairway. " Who, nanai? " " Heposl the Moros have attacked Natunga,...