midnight
`` I thought I heard some one crying out here , '' he muttered , `` and supposed it was Mrs. Forrest . She 's always in tears now that the captain is up in the Indian country . But who would have thought of Miss Forrest ? '' An anxious day was that that followed the departure of Captain Terry and his `` grays '' on their midnight ride down the Platte . The river was so high and swollen that it was certain that the Indians could have forded it only among the rocks and shoals up at Bull Bend , a day 's march to the north-west , and that in getting back with their plunder to the shelter of their reservation there was only one point below Laramie where they could recross without having to swim , and that was full twenty-five miles down stream . As particulars began to come in of the fight with Blunt 's little detachment the previous day , the major waxed more and more wrathful . It would seem that there were at least fifty well-armed and perfectly-mounted warriors in the party , many of them having extra ponies with them , either to carry the spoil or to serve as change-mounts when their own chargers tired .