Dimmer grew the light, and dimmer yet, just as though evening were
coming--and before him, Neville saw the dawn like a silvery gateway in
the sky. Straight toward it the Cloud Horse rushed, and stopped so
suddenly that Neville almost fell off.

"What's all this? What's all this?" cried a small voice; and Neville
saw beside the silver gateway, a little man dressed from top to toe in
silver grey. It was the Porter of the Dawn, sometimes called the First
Sunbeam.

Before Neville could answer, the little grey man had caught sight of
the Sky Flower.

"Ah, you have the talisman," said he. "Pass in! and don't stop to
gossip, because I'm very busy this morning. A pleasant journey," he
added as he smacked the cloud horse on the shoulder; and in an instant
Neville had passed through the dawn and plunged into the night.

It was a dark night, with no moon, for the sky was overcast with dense
clouds. Above these the Cloud horse flew, and overhead Neville saw the
rushing stars, and below only the blackness of heavy clouds. But more
often the Cloud horse flew low, and then there was little to be seen.
By the lights of moving ships Neville knew that sometimes he was above
the sea. Sometimes twinkling lights in towns or solitary farms, or the
sudden blaze of a great city told him that the land was beneath him.
Once, through the blackness, he saw a great forest fire upon an
island, and the light of it lit up the sea, and showed the natives
crowded upon the beach and in the shallows, and some making off in
canoes.