midday
As they marched , the captain spoke through the dragoman upon the virtues of his men , announcing with other news the fact that his first sergeant was the bravest man in the world . A number of columns were moving across the plain parallel to their line of march , and the whole force seemed to have orders to halt when they reached a long ditch about four hundred yards from where the shore of the plain arose to the luxuriant groves with the cupola of the big white house sticking above them . The soldiers lay along the ditch , and the bravest man in the world spread his blanket on the ground for the captain , Coleman and himself . During a long pause Coleman tried to elucidate the question of why the Greek soldiers wore heavy overcoats , even in the bitter heat of midday , but he could only learn that the dews , when they came , were very destructive to the lungs , Further , he convinced himself anew that talking through an interpreter to the minds of other men was as satisfactory as looking at landscape through a stained glass window . After a time there was , in front , a stir near where a curious hedge of dry brambles seemed to outline some sort of a garden patch . Many of the soldiers exclaimed and raised their guns . But there seemed to come a general understanding to the line that it was wrong to fire .