, towels, brushes and combs,
and hurried to the wash-room at the rear of barracks. Then back
again, the final touches being administered. Outside a bugle
blew, calling the men to first formation. Then mess-call caused
two hundred and fifty hungry soldiers to file into the mess-room,
kits in hand, and line up at the further end for food and hot drink.

At 7.46 Dick Prescott stepped briskly into the company office.

"Sergeant Kelly, have each man carry out his mattress to the incinerator
and empty out the straw. Detail men to burn the straw. Have
the cots piled at the end of each squad room. At 8.25 turn the
company out with barracks bags and dismiss after the bags have
been placed. At 8.40 turn out the company in full marching order,
with arms and pack, for inspection. As soon as practicable thereafter
the men will be turned out again for issue of razors."

"Yes, sir," Kelly replied with a quiver. "Of course you know what
it means, Sergeant?"

"The regiment is moving, sir."

"Moving by rail to the point of embarkation, Sergeant. We're---at
last we're going over!"

There must have been an eavesdropper outside the office door,
for instantly, so it seemed, the news flashed through the building.

"Orders have come!"

"We're going over!"

"_Now_!"

"Stop that cheering, men!" boomed Dick Prescott's voice, as he
stepped into the corridor. "This is Georgia, and you'll wake
all the sleeping babies in North Carolina."

CHAPTER X

ON BOARD THE TROOPSHIP

North to an embarkation camp, not to a pier. There passed several
days of restlessness and unreality of life.

Final issues of all lacking equipment were made at last. Then,
one evening, after dark, the Ninety-ninth once more fell in and
marched away, the bandsmen, carrying their silent instruments,
marching in headquarters company.

No send-off, no cheering, not even the playing of "The Girl I
Left Behind Me."

No relatives or friends to say good-bye! Nothing but secrecy,
expectancy, an indescribable eagerness clothed in stealth.

"How do you feel, Sergeant?" Captain Prescott asked, as he and
his top stood at the head of A company awaiting the final order
that was to set the nearly four thousand officers and men of the
Ninety-ninth in motion on the road.

"Like a burglar, sneaking out of a house he didn't realize he
was in, sir," Kelly answered.

First Lieutenant Noll Terry shivered; it was impatient
uncertainty---nothing else.