Four o'clock
By that hour there would be no one in the office of the Chief of Engineers at Washington , but Loring addressed it direct to the home of the assistant , upon whose interest in the case he had reason to rely , and then returned at once to his desk . Were he not to be there it would place it in the power of a would-be oppressor to say the officer designated to receive the property had called during office hours and could not find Mr. Loring . And then , with such patience as he could command , Loring received the visitors who kept dropping in , among them the boisterous Moreland , whose Bay of Biscay voice had become almost as trying to his host as to the other occupants of the building , and during the long afternoon awaited the action of the General upon his morning 's letter and that of the War Department upon his telegram . Four o'clock came at last . Office hours were over . Neither relief nor reply had reached him . He heard the halls resounding to the footsteps of officers and clerks as they closed their doors and left the building .