"Oh, come, now, Hyman," Hal laughed back. "That wasn't so bad as your case. You enlisted because the judge said you'd either have to go to jail for robbing the Salvation Army's Christmas boxes, or else turn soldier."
Half a dozen men in the long line were laughing now.
"I'll fix you for that when you're asleep to-night," growled Hyman.
"Yes; I notice you never do anything to a fellow when he's awake," jeered Private Hal.
The two men were not on bad terms, nor in any danger of becoming so. This was merely an instance of the way soldiers "josh" one another.
The sun was now disappearing behind the western hill tops. It would be daylight, however, for more than two hours to come.
Fifty minutes after this last start Lieutenant Prescott again received a hand signal from the officers on ahead.
"B Company halt; fall out," ordered the young West Pointer.
Holmes repeated the command to C Company.
The head of the line had halted near a grove through which a brook bubbled along on its way to the stream down in the canyon to the right of the trail.