The cadets were all assembled on the parade ground, and the motor trucks, piled high with all of their belongings, as well as the camping paraphernalia, had already left the grounds. There was a final rattle of drums to call any cadets who might still be missing.
“Battalion attention!” commanded the young major, after he had received his orders from Captain Dale.
At once the three companies came to attention.
“Shoulder arms!” came the command a few seconds later. “Forward—march!”
Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom! went the drums, and the Colby cadets stepped off gaily, while the professors and helpers left behind at the Hall cheered loudly and waved their hands. From the big flagstaff on the campus floated a large American flag, this being run up every morning at sunrise and taken down at sunset.
Soon the drums gave a preliminary rattle, and then the shrill fifes struck up into a lively marching air, and one company after another passed out of the Hall grounds and on to the road leading to Haven Point.
“Hay foot, straw foot!” murmured Andy jokingly to Randy, who was marching by his side. “I wonder how our feet will feel after we have covered the eighteen miles we have to do to-day?”
“Oh, that will be all right, I think,” answered his twin. “I’ve done more than eighteen miles in a day, and so have you.”
It did not take long for the cadets to reach the outskirts of Haven Point. Their coming was expected, and quite a crowd of town folks were out to see the parade. Some few had put out flags, for all were proud to have such an institution as Colby Hall in that vicinity.
The moving-picture theater was decorated with flags from top to bottom, and across the street the enterprising manager had hung a big banner inscribed with the words: