midday
And for the moment he was not thinking of the gold which they , too , sought , and which he had meant to snatch away from under their noses . He thought only of Gloria . If that crowd , in its present temper , found the way to his camp -- if , in one way or another , Gloria fell into their hands -- then could she thank God for a clean bullet and a swift end of things . _ Chapter XXIV _ The mere fact of being absolutely alone from midday to dark would have been for Gloria an experience at any time and in any environment . Of her friends in the city there were many who had never in a lifetime known what it was to spend half a dozen consecutive daytime , waking hours in perfect solitude , catching not so much as a fleeting glimpse of a servant , a policeman , a nurse , or a street-car conductor in the echoing street . Solitude rendered rippleless by an absence of any familiar sound ; neither the whisk of a maid 's broom , the clang of a telephone bell , the buzz of motors , or the slamming of doors . At those intervals when King thought of her , it was to realize that she might quite naturally find discomfort in her bleak surroundings , being denied coal-grate and upholstered chair ; it did not suggest itself to him that the chief discomfort would be a spirit-crushing , terrifying loneliness .