The youth, peering once through a sudden rift in a cloud, saw a brown mass of troops, interwoven and magnified until they appeared to be thousands.

A fierce-hued flag flashed before his vision.
Immediately, as if the uplifting of the smoke had been prearranged, the discovered troops burst into a rasping yell, and a hundred flames jetted toward the retreating band.

A rolling gray cloud again interposed as the regiment doggedly replied.

The youth had to depend again upon his misused ears, which were trembling and buzzing from the melee of musketry and yells.
The way seemed eternal.

In the clouded haze men became panicstricken with the thought that the regiment had lost its path, and was proceeding in a perilous direction.