"But it is obvious that we must not give them time to destroy the road ahead of us.

As for the rest, I wonder." He pulled uneasily at his short beard, and then he caught sight of Sergeant Whitley standing silently, arms folded, by the side of the engine.

Newcomb, the miner colonel, was a man of big and open mind.
A successful business man, he had the qualities which made him a good general by the time the war was in its third year.

He knew Whitley and he knew, too, that he was an old army regular, bristling with experience and shrewdness.
"Sergeant Whitley," he said, "in this emergency what would you do, if you were in my place ?" The sergeant saluted respectfully.
"If I were in your place, sir, which I never will be," he replied, "I would have all the troops leave the train.

Then I would have the engineers take the train forward slowly, while the troops marched on either side of it, but at a sufficient distance to be hidden in the darkness.