"Suppose it's all in vain again, suppose the enemy--" began the Secretary of War, when he was interrupted by the ringing of the bell in the next room. The message ran: "Bell's Pass, Feb. 9, 12.15 a.m. Milton's division has succeeded in wresting several important positions from the enemy after a night of severe fighting. Unimportant reverses suffered by Stranger's division more than offset with the aid of reenforcements from Bell's Pass. COLONEL TARDITT." "If they can only hold Georgetown," said the Secretary of War, "our last reserves have gone there now." "God grant they may." Then they both went back to the study. The President remained standing in front of the portrait of Lincoln hanging on the wall. "He went through just such hours as these," he said quietly, "just such hours, and perhaps in this very room, when the battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ was being fought at Hampton Roads, and news was being sent to him hour by hour. Oh, Abraham Lincoln, if you were only here to-day to deliver your message over the length and breadth of our land." The Secretary of War looked hard at the President as he answered: "Yes, we have need of men, but we have men, too, some perhaps who are even greater than Lincoln." The President shook his head sadly, saying: "I don't know, we've done everything we could, we've done our duty, yet perhaps we might have made even greater efforts. I'm so nervous over the outcome of this battle; it seems to me we are facing the enemy without weapons, or at best with very blunt ones." Again the bell rang and the President moved towards the door, but stopped halfway and said: "You better go and see what it is, Harry." "Fort Bridger, Feb. 8, 11.50 p.m. From Fisher's division the report comes via Bell's Pass that two of his regiments have driven the enemy from their positions with the aid of searchlights, and that they are now in hot pursuit. MAJOR GENERAL ILLING." Without saying a word the Secretary of War moved the blocks representing Fisher's division further South. Then he remarked quietly: "It doesn't make much difference what happens at Georgetown, the decision rests right here now and the next hour may decide it all," and he put his finger on the spot in the mountains occupied by the enemy's left wing. "If an attack on the enemy's front should make a gap----" He didn't complete the sentence, for the President's hand rested heavily on his shoulder. "Yes, Harry," he said, "if--that's what we've been saying for nine months. If--and our If has always been followed by a But--the enemy's But." He threw himself into a chair and shaded his tired eyes with his hand, while the Secretary of War walked incessantly up and down, puffing on a fresh cigar.--