midnight sharp
`` Stanton tells off four of his savages an ' lines out with them for the Red Cloud agency ; Bloojacket bein ' one . From the Rawhide Buttes to the Red Cloud agency is one hundred even miles as a bullet travels . What makes it more impressive , them one hundred miles is across a trailless country , the same bein ' as rocky as Red Dog whiskey an ' rough as the life story of a mule . Which Stanton , Bloojacket an ' the others makes her in twelve hours even , an ' comes up , a crust of dust an ' sweat , to the Red Cloud agency at midnight sharp . The Cheyennes has already been gone eight hours over the Great Northern trail . `` Stanton , who 's a big body of a man an ' nacherally tharfore some road-weary , camps down the moment he 's free of the stirrups an ' writes a letter on the agency steps by the light of a lantern . He tells Merritt to push on to the War Bonnet an ' he 'll head the Cheyennes off .