"Now!"
"Stop that cheering, men!" boomed Dick Prescott's voice, as he stepped into the corridor. "This is Georgia, and you'll wake all the sleeping babies in North Carolina."
CHAPTER X
ON BOARD THE TROOPSHIP
North to an embarkation camp, not to a pier. There passed several days of restlessness and unreality of life.
Final issues of all lacking equipment were made at last. Then, one evening, after dark, the Ninety-ninth once more fell in and marched away, the bandsmen, carrying their silent instruments, marching in headquarters company.
No send-off, no cheering, not even the playing of "The Girl I
Left Behind Me."
No relatives or friends to say good-bye! Nothing but secrecy, expectancy, an indescribable eagerness clothed in stealth.
"How do you feel, Sergeant?" Captain Prescott asked, as he and his top stood at the head of A company awaiting the final order that was to set the nearly four thousand officers and men of the Ninety-ninth in motion on the road.
"Like a burglar, sneaking out of a house he didn't realize he was in, sir," Kelly answered.