midday
all recoiled , for as he grew stronger he became more stubborn and more irritable -- ` cunning egoist ' that he was ! According to the men , he was beginning to show himself in his true colours . He had threatened to knife any one who played a joke on him -- the arrogant civilian ! On the day that he was missing it appears that after the midday meal he had asked for a ' _ café natur _ ' and for some reason had been refused . Before his absence was noted it was night already , clear and dark ; all day something as of Spring had stirred in the air . The Corporal and a ` Power ' set forth down the wooded hill into the town , to scour the _ cafés _ and hang over the swift , shallow river , to see if by any chance Gray had been overtaken by another paralytic stroke and was down there on the dark sand . The sleepy gendarmes too were warned and given his description .