"Good eating place?"
"Great."
"It's a long time to wait," complained Noll, whom the mountain air was making furiously hungry. "Come along, Hal. We'll lay in a few sandwiches as a safety-valve."
"I hope they're not as bad as some we've bought along the way," Hal laughed, as they started toward the railroad restaurant. "Do you remember the sandwich we bought at Chicago that had the stamp on the under side, 'U. S. Army, 1863?'"
"No, and neither do you," grinned Noll.
"Fact," insisted Hal. "I found the stamp on the sandwich, and threw it out of the car. I'm sorry, now; I wish I had saved that sandwich for a curiosity. Father would have been proud of it."
Noll with a bag of sandwiches, Hal with a box of fruit, the two recruits turned toward the train again.
They were soon under way. After leaving Pueblo they forgot all about eating, for some time, for the train now bore them through some of the most picturesque parts of the lower Rocky Mountains. Both rookies spent their time on one of the car platforms, hanging far out at either side to get better views, as well as glimpses down steep cliffs into gullies below.
"Say, it's going to be dark, soon," remarked Noll, looking toward the western sky. "Why on earth didn't we get a train that would do the whole trip between Pueblo and Salida in daylight?"
"Because we didn't know the route well enough," sighed Hal. "However, we may think we've had plenty of Rocky Mountains before our regiment's station is changed."