"What's that human calamity behind you howling about?" demanded Private Overton. "He's intimating that the truth isn't in us because we claim to like field duty." "Hyman always was a bake-house soldier," laughed Hal cheerily. "What's that kid saying about me?" demanded Hyman. "Overton says," reported Noll, not very accurately, "that he can't understand why you're in the Army at all. He says that one of your temperament could find a job in civil life that would suit you much better." "What job is that?" asked Hyman. "Nurse girl," grinned Terry. "For that," threatened Hyman, "I'll put salt in that kid's coffee to-night." The conversation was carried on in a low tone of course. Troops in the field, marching at route step, are allowed to carry on quiet conversations when not supposed to be near the enemy. "You want to look out for Hyman, Hal," Noll passed word forward. "Why?" "He says you stole his bacon from his haversack this morning and he's going to set a steel trap in his haversack to-night." "Hyman doesn't know the truth when he halts it on sentry post," Overton retorted. "Hyman hasn't had any bacon in his haversack since we started from Fort Clowdry." "How do you know?" demanded Private Hyman, who happened to overhear this statement. "Because I've gotten up every night and looked through your haversack for bacon," declared Private Overton unblushingly. "I heard to-day why you joined the Army," grunted Hyman. "Yes?" grinned Hal. "Sure! You had some trouble with the sheriff at home over stealing the flowers from the cemetery and selling them to get cigarette money. You're a nice one, Overton, to be entrusted with government property!" "Oh, come, now, Hyman," Hal laughed back. "That wasn't so bad as your case. You enlisted because the judge said you'd either have to go to jail for robbing the Salvation Army's Christmas boxes, or else turn soldier." Half a dozen men in the long line were laughing now. "I'll fix you for that when you're asleep to-night," growled Hyman. "Yes; I notice you never do anything to a fellow when he's awake," jeered Private Hal. The two men were not on bad terms, nor in any danger of becoming so. This was merely an instance of the way soldiers "josh" one another. The sun was now disappearing behind the western hill tops. It would be daylight, however, for more than two hours to come. Fifty minutes after this last start Lieutenant Prescott again received a hand signal from the officers on ahead. "B Company halt; fall out," ordered the young West Pointer. Holmes repeated the command to C Company. The head of the line had halted near a grove through which a brook bubbled along on its way to the stream down in the canyon to the right of the trail. "The officers are going to inspect the grove as a site for camp," was the word that passed back along the line. "A soldier's first duty," quoth Hal, as he sank upon the ground, "is to make himself as comfortable as he can."