Then he realized that it was merely his own excitement and extreme tension of both mind and body.

Canby was taking the train forward so gently that its sounds were drowned two hundred yards away in the swirl of wind and rain.
The men marched, each line keeping abreast of the train, but fifty yards or more to one side.

The young troops were forbidden to speak and their footsteps made no noise in the wet grass and low bushes.

Dick and Warner kept their eyes on the mountains, turning them alternately from north to south.

Nothing appeared on either ridge, and no sound came to tell of an enemy near.
Dick began to believe that they would pass through the valley and out of the trap without a combat.