midnight
On the fateful evening there duly appeared Io with a group of a dozen friends . From the first , it was a time of triumph . Laird took the lead and kept it . By midnight , the result was a certainty . In a balcony speech from his headquarters the victor had given generous recognition for his success to The Patriot , mentioning Banneker by name . When the report reached them Esther Forbes solemnly crowned the host with a wreath composed of the `` flimsy '' on which the rescript of the speech had come in . `` Skoal to Ban ! ''