yet more thoroughly made.

First of all, it was necessary to send into Bantoc and recall Lieutenant
Holmes and the guard stationed there. With the removal of the troops the
lives of the white people residing in Bantoc would be in immediate
danger. So the twenty-five or thirty white residents were obliged to
accompany the guard out to Fort Benjamin Franklin, where they were to be
provided with temporary quarters.

Ten minutes before the time named by Captain Freeman all had been
accomplished. The column was ready and started.

B Company's detachment marched first. Behind this came the transport
wagons and the Gatling gun. The C Company detachment, under Lieutenant
Greg Holmes, brought up the rear.

Taking into account those who had lately been killed and wounded, and
also the guard under Sergeant Dinsmore, left out at the Seaforth
plantation, Captain Cortland had remaining as a garrison about sixty
effective soldiers. These must preserve the safety of the post and the
order of Bantoc through the twenty-four hours of each day.

No soldier in the marching column deluded himself with the belief that
he was starting on a brief expedition. Every man knew that it would be
weeks before they were likely to set eyes again on Fort Franklin. It
was, moreover, wholly probable that some of the soldiers now marching
would never see the fort again.

Yet officers and men tramped away unconcernedly. All acted, and felt,
very much as though this had been merely a practice march through a
peaceful country.

Noll Terry was jubilant. Hal had seen active service on this island, and
now his chum was about to do the same thing. The first taste of real
service is always dear to the heart of a good soldier.

Night brought the command within three or four miles of the foot of the
mountains. The next morning was still young when the column wound its
way up into the lower portion of the mountains.

Captain Freeman was not marching blindly. He was provided with military
maps of the mountains. Then, again, not all the Moros were hostile to
the Americans. There were many friendly natives, and some of them had
slyly brought word to the post of the location of Datto Hakkut and his
forces at the last report.

As to the number of men with the datto, the statements of the natives
had varied. They had estimated the datto's force at all the way from
fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred fighting men. Captains Cortland
and Freeman, with their know