midnight
But Bones was superior to sarcasm . There was a creature of Lieutenant Tibbetts a solemn , brown man , who possessed , in addition to a vocabulary borrowed from a departed professor of bacteriology , a rough working knowledge of the classics . This man 's name was , as I have already explained , Abid Ali or Ali Abid , and in him Bones discovered a treasure beyond price . Bones had recently built himself a large square hut near the seashore -- that is to say , he had , with the expenditure of a great amount of midnight oil , a pair of compasses , a box of paints , and a T-square , evolved a somewhat complicated plan whereon certain blue oblongs stood for windows , and certain red cones indicated doors . To this he had added an elevation in the severe Georgian style . With his plan beautifully drawn to scale , with sectional diagrams and side elevations embellishing its margin , he had summoned Mojeri of the Lower Isisi , famous throughout the land as a builder of great houses , and to him he had entrusted the execution of his design . `` This you shall build for me , Mojeri , '' said Bones , sucking the end of his pencil and gazing lovingly at the plan outspread before him , `` and you shall be famous all through the world .