straight-chain

You expect soldiers of all ranks to understand the need to respect the chain of command, regardless of personal feelings.

She sat straight up in bed, and jerked her hands to her head, and screamed long and terribly.

This wasn't at all what he meant to say, and it sounded very ridiculous; but somehow the words wouldn't come straight.

She had listened—she had listened intently, looking straight out of the window and without moving.

She stood, in her young purity, at one end of the chain of years, and Mrs. Chepstow—did she really stand at the other?

It mounted straight as a plume for a little way, until it met the cool air of evening which was beginning to fall.