midnight
For which piece of impudence the veteran went straightway to Sudsville in close arrest . Corporal Bolt was ordered to take over his keys and the charge of the stables until the return of Captain Wren , also this order -- that no government horse should be sent to Lieutenant Blakely hereafter until the lieutenant was declared by the post surgeon fit for duty . There were left at the post , of each of the two cavalry troops , about a dozen men to care for the stables , the barracks , and property . Seven of these had gone with the convoy to Prescott , and , when Cutler ordered half a dozen horsemen out at midnight to follow Blakely 's trail and try to find him , they had to draw on both troop stables , and one of the designated men was the wretch Downs , -- and Downs was not in his bunk , -- not anywhere about the quarters or corrals . It was nearly one by the time the party started down the sandy road to the south , Hart and his buckboard and a sturdy brace of mules joining them as they passed the store . `` We may need to bring him back in this , '' said he , to Corporal Quirk . `` An ' what did ye fetch to bring him _ to _ wid ? ''