At 4:45 p. m. Secretary Hitchcock and Secretary Wilson arrived and passed hurriedly into the house. They would answer no questions. The anxiety of the watchers outside was abated somewhat immediately after this, however, by the appearance from the house of Mrs. Abner McKinley and her daughter, Mrs. Herman Baer. The women drove away, and, it was argued that, were the President in any immediate danger, they would not have left the house. The President’s physicians issued a bulletin at 4:50 which stated that there had been but a slight improvement since the last official bulletin was issued. This notice said the pulse and temperature were practically the same. A few minutes after the posting of this bulletin Harry Hamlin came from the house. He would not speak, and, summoning a carriage, he drove away at full speed. Though no statement was given out, the appearance of every one about the Milburn house indicated that the President’s death was expected any moment. Figures moved about swiftly but noiselessly within the house. The end seemed at hand when the physicians announced at 5:25 that the condition of the President was very bad—in fact, could not be worse. The news was flashed to the White House from an official source at Buffalo that at 5:45 the President’s condition was most grave. That his heart was responding but poorly to stimulants. Secretary Root, accompanied by Carlton Sprague, reached the Milburn residence a few minutes after five o’clock. It was said that Secretary Long would arrive at 11:40 o’clock. To those who were so anxiously waiting for Vice-President Roosevelt or knowledge of his whereabouts, word came from the train dispatcher at Saratoga that at 7:30 p. m. Mr. Roosevelt had not been found, so far as he knew, by the guides who were scouring the Adirondack woods for him. The Vice-President had not reached North Creek, fifty-nine miles north of Saratoga. At eight o’clock word came that under the influence of oxygen the President regained consciousness for a moment. Dr. McBurney arrived at the house at eight o’clock, and a moment later a guard was placed around the tent in which was located the direct wire to the White House. CHAPTER III. DEATH-BED OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY. William McKinley, twenty-fifth President of the United States, died at fifteen minutes past two o’clock on the morning of Saturday, September 14, 1901, at the age of fifty-eight years. He had lived just six and a half days after receiving his wound at the hands of Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist.