noon
One night 's unbroken rest , and I should be a man again . ' Pushing the table from him while he spoke , as though he loathed the sight of food , he encountered the watch : the hands of which were almost upon noon . ` This is strange ! ' he said ; ` noon , and Noggs not here ! What drunken brawl keeps him away ? I would give something now -- something in money even after that dreadful loss -- if he had stabbed a man in a tavern scuffle , or broken into a house , or picked a pocket , or done anything that would send him abroad with an iron ring upon his leg , and rid me of him . Better still , if I could throw temptation in his way , and lure him on to rob me .