midnight
For some time the giant gazed at it in silence . Then he rested his forehead in his huge hand as if in meditation . It was truly a clever sketch of a surpassingly lovely scene . In the foreground was part of the island with its pearl-grey rocks , red-brown earth , and green mosses , in the midst of which lay a calm pool , like the island 's eye looking up to heaven and reflecting the bright indescribable blue of the midnight sky . Further on was a mass of cold grey rocks . Beyond lay the northern ice-pack , which extended in chaotic confusion away to the distant horizon , but the chaos was somewhat relieved by the presence of lakelets which shone here and there over its surface like shields of glittering azure and burnished gold . `` Ask him what he thinks of it , '' said Leo to Anders , a little surprised at Chingatok 's prolonged silence .