When Dick came back to the head of the column he merely heard the tread of feet and the rustling of uniforms against the bushes behind them.
The sergeant led on with unerring skill and instinct.

They were rising fast on the slope, and the great forest received and hid them as if they were its wild children returned to their home.

The foliage was so dense that Dick caught only flitting glimpses of the camp below, although many fires were yet burning there.
The wisdom of putting the regiment into the hands of the sergeant was now shown.

Rising to the trust, he called up all his reserves of wilderness lore.

He listened attentively to the voice of every night bird, because it might not be real, but instead the imitation call of man to man.