midnight
He was a master of the art now . Charlie Bent 's splendid white steed fell headlong , hurling its rider to the ground and dragging him , face downward , in the dirt . I can not paint that day 's deeds with my pen , nor ever artist lived whose brush could reproduce it . If we should lose here , it meant the turning of the clock from morning back to midnight on the Kansas plains . Between this and the safety of the prairies stood fewer than a hundred and fifty men , against a thousand warriors , led by cunning half-breeds skilled in the white man 's language and the red man 's fiendishness . If we should lose -- We did not go out there to lose . When each man does a man 's part there is no failure possible at last .