Once a man fell down, and as he reached for his rifle a comrade, unseeing, trod upon his hand.

He of the injured fingers swore bitterly and aloud.

A low, tittering laugh went among his fellows.
Presently they passed into a roadway and marched forward with easy strides.

A dark regiment moved before them, and from behind also came the tinkle of equipments on the bodies of marching men.
The rushing yellow of the developing day went on behind their backs.
When the sunrays at last struck full and mellowingly upon the earth, the youth saw that the landscape was streaked with two long, thin, black columns which disappeared on the brow of a hill in front and rearward vanished in a wood.

They were like two serpents crawling from the cavern of the night.
The river was not in view.