“Sergeant Whitley,” he said, “in this emergency what would you do, if you were in my place?”

The sergeant saluted respectfully.

“If I were in your place, sir, which I never will be,” he replied, “I would have all the troops leave the train.  Then I would have the engineers take the train forward slowly, while the troops marched on either side of it, but at a sufficient distance to be hidden in the darkness.  Then, sir, our men could not be caught in a wreck, but with their feet on solid earth they would be ready, if need be, for a fight, which is our business.”

“Well spoken, Sergeant Whitley,” said Colonel Newcomb, while the other officers also nodded approval.  “Your plan is excellent and we will 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 Warner kept their eyes on the mountains, turning them alternately from north to south.  Nothing appeared on either ridge, and no sound came to tell of an enemy near.

Dick began to believe that they would pass through the valley and out of the trap without a combat.  But while a train may go two or three miles in a few minutes it takes troops marching in the darkness over uncertain ground a long time to cover the same distance.  They marched a full half hour and then Dick suppressed a cry.  The light, burning as intensely red as before, appeared again on the mountain to the right, but further toward the west, seeming to have moved parallel to the Northern troops.  As Dick looked it began to flash swiftly from side to side and that chill and weird feeling again ran down his spine.  He looked toward the south and there was the second signal, red and intense, replying to the first.