An hour later all excepting the young officer had left the tent. Stopping only to light a candle as it grew too dark to see, he wrote steadily on until his work was finished and the papers lay folded on the table. He arranged them ready for inspection, then rose and walked back and forth across the narrow limits of the tent to stretch his tired muscles. At last, with an impatient sigh, he seated himself again and after waiting a moment drew from his pocket a long narrow book. It fell apart, as if accustomed to being opened at one particular page, and the light from the candle shone over a thick, long curl of fair hair, which might have been cut from the head bending over it, so exactly the same was the color. At the sound of approaching footsteps and voices outside the tent he hastily returned the book to his pocket. Some one was asking for General Foster. The next moment a man dressed like a teamster entered. His clothes were ragged and dirty. One arm was wrapped around with a piece of blood stained cloth and hung limp and useless at his side. His face was pale under the wide brim of his torn hat, and the blood had trickled down one side from a fresh wound in his forehead, making a wide mark along his cheek. The man showed his utter exhaustion in every movement, and staggered from side to side as he went across the tent and dropped half fainting onto a stool. Captain Guilfoyle took a flask from off the bed and held it to the man's lips, eyeing him closely, until recovering somewhat, he straightened up and removed the hat which partly shaded his face. As he did so the Captain recognized him as one of the scouts whose return they were anxiously hoping would bring them the sorely needed intelligence and whose report General Foster had ordered him to receive if he got in during his absence. "Yes, I'm here at last," replied the man to Captain Guilfoyle's hurried interrogation, "and I've nothing to report but a total lack of success." "I left poor Dedrick and Allison over there, and barely succeeded in getting back myself. You know what they were,--the best scouts in the whole army. We did all men could do, but luck was against us. We have learned nothing except that the enemy are across the Potomac, something any straggler can tell. I have been four days getting back," said the new comer, going on to give a full account of what he and his companions had tried to do. "I tell you," he added wearily, "I doubt if any one can find out what they mean to do until they do it, for I don't believe they know themselves. They are----." There the low voice stopped abruptly and the speaker's head sank until it touched the table. Calling in an orderly waiting outside, the officer applied restoratives, and as soon as consciousness returned the sufferer was helped away to a place where his wounds could receive much-needed attention.