noon
Friday the fishing was superb , undreamed of ; there were seven casks , three for Rouget and four for La Queue . Coqueville was entering upon a golden age . They never did anything any more . The fishermen , working off the alcohol of the night before , slept till noon . Then they strolled down to the beach and interrogated the sea . Their sole anxiety was to know what liquor the sea was going to bring them . They waited there for hours , their eyes strained ; they raised shouts of joy when wreckage appeared .