"Hollins still missing; believed to have followed you to Washington. Use every effort to secure arrest. "PUTNAM." VII. There is an air of unusual excitement about the War Department this bright October day. It is only a month since the whole army seemed tramping through the streets on its way to the field of the Antietam; only three weeks since the news was received that Lee was beaten back across the Potomac, and every one expected that McClellan would be hot on his trail, eager to pursue and punish before the daring Southerners could receive accessions. But though two corps managed to reoccupy Harper's Ferry and there go into camp, the bulk of the army has remained where Lee left it when he slipped from its grasp, and McClellan's cry is for reinforcements. Three weeks of precious time slip by, and then--back come those daredevils of Stuart's, riding with laugh and taunt and jeer all around the Union forces; and there is the mischief to pay here in Washington, for if he should take a notion to pay the capital a visit on his homeward trip, what would the consequences be? Of course there are troops--lots of them--all around in the fortifications. The trouble is, that we have so few cavalry, and, after all, the greatest trouble is the old one--those fellows, Stuart and Jackson, have such a consummate faculty of making a very little go a great way. All that is known of Stuart's present move is, that he is somewhere up the Cumberland Valley; that telegraphic communication beyond McClellan's headquarters is broken, and that it is more than likely he will come hitherwards when he chooses to make his next start. [Illustration: "_Back come those daredevils of Stuart's._"] Going to the War Department to make inquiries for the provost-marshal, and show him Putnam's telegram, Major Abbot finds that official too busy to see him, "unless it be something urgent," says the subaltern, who seems to be an aide-de-camp of some kind. "I have come to show him a despatch received last night--late--from Point of Rocks." "You are Major Abbot, formerly--th Massachusetts, I believe, and your despatch is about the missing quartermaster, is it not?" "Yes," replies Abbot, in surprise. "We have the duplicate of the despatch here," says the young officer, smiling. "You would know Hollins at once, would you not?" "Yes, anywhere, I think." "One of the secret-service men will come in to see you this morning if you will kindly remain at your room until eleven or twelve o'clock. Pardon me, major, you saw this Doctor Warren at Frederick, did you not?" "Yes. The evening he came out to the field hospital." "Did he impress you as a man who told a perfectly straight story, and properly accounted for himself?" "Why--You put it in a way that never occurred to me before," says the major, in bewilderment. "Do you mean that there was anything wrong about him?"