There were gates, guarded by military sentries not of the Ninety-ninth.
Through these gates and past the barbed wire filed the marching men.
Further ahead loomed the sheds of a great pier.
With the help of officers who knew the ground the Ninety-ninth found room to fall in for roll call.
"All present or accounted for!" Then battalion by battalion, a company at a time, the regiment passed on through the dimly lighted pier sheds.

On the further side towered the bulwarks of a great ship, with gangways reaching down to the pier.
In some mysterious way order reigned and speed was observed.
Line after line of uniformed men passed up the gangways and vanished.
Lights were on the ship, yet dim enough to be in keeping with the night's mystery.
Last of all the almost muffled noises of gangways being drawn down on to the piers.

Hawsers were cast off.

Stealthy tugs hauled the ocean monster out into the stream.
"Off at last!" was felt more than spoken.

Then the tugs let go and the ship, outwardly darkened save for the few necessary running lights, moved slowly down stream.
Some venturesome soldiers found their way up on deck.
Above them, on a still higher deck, the shadowy forms of officers were discernible.
The strangeness of the dark sea lay over all.