adopt it. Get the troops out of the train quickly but in silence and
do you, Canby, be ready with the engine."

Dick and Warner with the older officers turned to the task. The young
soldiers were out of the train in two minutes and were forming in lines
on either side, arms ready. There were many whisperings among these
boys, but none loud enough to be heard twenty yards away. All felt
intense relief when they left the train and stood upon the solid,
though decidedly damp earth.

But the cold rain sweeping upon their faces was a tonic, both mental and
physical, after the close heat of the train. They did not know why they
had disembarked, but they surmised with good reason that an attack was
threatened and they were eager to meet it.

Dick and Warner were near the head of the line on the right of the
tracks, and Sergeant Whitley was with them. The train began to puff
heavily, and in spite of every precaution some sparks flew from the
smoke-stack. Dick knew that it was bound to rumble and rattle when it
started, but he was surprised at the enormous amount of noise it made,
when the wheels really began to turn. It seemed to him that in the
silence of the night it could be heard three or four miles. Then he
realized that it was merely his own excitement and extreme tension of
both mind and body. Canby was taking the train forward so gently that
its sounds were drowned two hundred yards away in the swirl of wind and
rain.

The men marched, each line keeping abreast of the train, but fifty yards
or more to one side. The young troops were forbidden to speak and their
footsteps made no noise in the wet grass and low bushes. Dick and