"C Company fall in!" followed Lieutenant Greg Holmes.
These two young West Pointers had been left temporarily in command of the companies with which they served.
Some hundred and eighty men rose from their by no means soft seats on the ground along the trail and fell into single file.
Another hand signal came down the trail.
"B Company forward, route step, march!" commanded Lieutenant Prescott.
"C Company forward, route step, march," echoed Lieutenant Holmes a moment later.
Tortuously the line moved forward once more. To one well up in the air that long line might have looked like a thin serpent trailing its way up the mountain side. But it was a very real, human line.
Each private soldier carried rifle, bayonet, cartridge belt, intrenching tool, canteen, haversack and blanket roll. It was a heavy pack. In addition, men here and there carried either a pick or a shovel.
Noll was carrying an extra shovel just now. Hal Overton had no such extra pack to-day, but all the day before he had toiled along with a pick added to the rest of his equipment.
What have soldiers to do with a pick and shovel? Theoretically these two companies now engaged on field duty were marching through a hostile country. After a battle the pick and shovel may be used for the work of burying slain comrades. Such tools are also useful in the swift digging of trenches in which to fight.