midnight
`` I do n't care what you do now that I know he is safe -- free -- and that you will never lay hands on him again . '' `` That 's where you are in error , Miss Flower , '' was the major 's calm , cold-blooded , yet rejoiceful reply . It was for this , indeed , that he had come . `` Ralph Moreau was run down by my men soon after midnight , and he 's now behind the bars . '' December and bitter cold . The river frozen stiff . The prairie sheeted in unbroken snow .