By morning the lieutenant was as hearty as ever, although a
bit "shaky" as he expressed it.

"I won't forget you," he said, squeezing Life Knox's hand. "You're a
brick!"

Titus Lyon was even more affected. "I've lost Orly," he said, in a husky
voice, "I couldn't afford to lose Sandy, nohow. We ain't been very much
of friends in the past, Captain Knox, but I hope we will be in the
future--leas'wise, I'll be your friend, through thick and thin."

And the adjutant of the Riverlawns kept his word.

CHAPTER XXII

THE SIGNALS IN THE DARK

The Tennessee River passed, the Riverlawns, with the other cavalry,
preceded the Twentieth Army Corps to Winston's Gap, not far from Valley
Head, at the base of Lookout Mountain, and some thirty-five miles south
of Chattanooga. At the same time the other troops came over Sand and
Raccoon mountains, and through various gaps, until, on the 6th of
September, the army lay along the base of Lookout, from Valley Head,
just mentioned, northward to Wauhatchee, several miles above
Chattanooga.

The passage of Sand Mountain was a trying one, never to be forgotten by
about half of Captain Abbey's company, who were riding in advance of the
regular body of cavalry. The Engineering Corps had had the roads
repaired, but the ascent was steep, and in certain spots the trail was
but wide enough for one horseman to pass at a time. The provisions were
brought along on pack mules, and the artillery had to take a roundabout
route twelve miles longer.

Captain Abbey was at the head of his men, and several hundred feet in
advance of any other body of cavalry, when, without warning, thirty-two
of the Riverlawns were caught on a mountain trail not over six feet
broad, having on one side a wall or cliff nearly a hundred feet high,
and on the other a sheer descent of twice that number of feet into a
hollow filled with jagged rocks.

The accident which brought this condition of affairs about was in
reality as simple as it was serious. The trail wound around the mountain
in the shape of a horseshoe, and the cavalrymen were journeying slowly
along at the bottom of the curve, when some rocks and sand far above
them began to slide down. The rumble was heard in time to allow the
riders to escape the landslide, but immediately the trail before and
behind them was choked up with boulders and sand to the height, or
depth, of fifteen feet or more.

It cannot be denied that the members of the first company w