midnight
Keeping his eager lookout far ahead , he had easily hidden himself and his horse where he could watch them as they went by , and had recognized his victim , turned on his tracks , and once more trailed him back ; had lost him and followed the wrong `` buckboard '' from Fetterman , and had gone towards Rock Creek before he found out that Gleason went by way of Fort Laramie . A countryman going in to Laramie City had taken , some days previous , the note with its enclosure to Ray , -- he could not steal , he said , and at last , having recovered his horse , he returned by night to Cheyenne , easily learned of Lieutenant Gleason 's presence at Russell , and that very night rode out across the prairie , tied his gray to a post near the northeast corner of the hospital enclosure , and stole to Gleason 's back-yard . Not for an instant had he ever flinched in his purpose . He knew the lieutenant was officer of the day , and that he would be out to visit his sentries after midnight ; but it occurred to him he would have no weapon but the sabre , and he meant to offer him fair fight . A light was burning in the rear room . He peeped through the blinds and saw him undressing as though to go to bed . He could wait no longer .