midnight, morning
`` God rest his soul ! '' murmured the good man , gently laying down the head , and drawing the body as closely as he could to the gunwale , where it would be out of the way . As from the first , the missionary exposed himself with the utmost recklessness , and , where the bullets were hurtling all about him , the wonder was that he had not already been struck ; but the life of Rev. J. B. Finley was one of sacrifice , peril , suffering and hardship , in which his last thought was for himself . He was ready for the call of the dark angel , whether he came at midnight , morning , or high noon , and the angel did not come until after the lapse of many years , when the scenes such as we are describing had long passed away . A strange and for a time wholly unaccountable occurrence took place near the stem of the flatboat , only a moment before Jim Deane was mortally smitten . Simon Kenton had just withdrawn his attention from Jethro Juggens and his canoe , and was looking toward the bank at his elbow , when he uttered an exclamation , the meaning of which no one caught , or , if he did , failed to notice it in the tumult and hullabaloo . At the same moment the ranger gathered his muscles into one mighty effort , and made a leap toward shore .