and you must race round that till you reach the place where it is only evening.  That will be this evening, somewhere about here, for you will have taken only a few minutes altogether.  And when you see your own home or the bald hill again, grasp the Sky Flower tightly in your hand, jump off the Cloud horse, and you will float gracefully down to the earth.  It won’t hurt you.  Then you can go home, and I hope you will not be late for dinner.”

“But,” began Neville, “I can’t understand—­”

“My time is valuable,” said the wee yellow man, as he shook hands. 
“Good-bye, and a pleasant journey.”  With that he smacked the Cloud
Horse smartly on the flank, and in a moment it was racing into the
West at a most terrific pace.

Of course, now that aeroplanes have been invented, flying is not thought so wonderful as once it was.  But loafing along through the air in a biplane or a monoplane at eighty or a hundred miles an hour is a very tame business when you compare it with racing the day round the world on a Cloud horse.  And Neville is very probably the only person who has ever done that yet.

Almost before he knew what had happened, he had left evening far behind and was riding in broad daylight.  The cloud Horse had ridden high in the air, and Neville saw the broad country, with plains and hills and forest lands, stretched far beneath him.  An instant later, and the land was no longer below him, but the wide sea, sparkling in brilliant sunlight.

Before he had time to notice very much he had reached mid-day, high over a strange foreign land, and was racing through the morning toward the dawn.  So quickly did he go that there was little chance of seeing anything clearly; but he had glimpses of many strange sights.  Many ships he saw upon the sea—­small ships and stately steamers crawling over the ocean like strange water-beetles.  Once, as the Cloud Horse drifted low, Neville saw a beautiful sailing-ship, with all sails set, and strange-looking men upon the deck.  They looked very like pirates, and perhaps they were; but Neville had no time to make sure, for the very next minute he was over a wild land where he saw a horde of black men, with spears and clubs, hunting an elephant through a clearing in a great jungle.  As he looked, the elephant turned to charge the hunters; but what happened then Neville did not see, for in a moment more he was above a great city with crowds of people in the streets—­people dressed in strange, bright-coloured clothes—­and there were bells ringing and whistles blowing.  Then a great desert spread beneath him, with no living thing in sight but a great tawny lion prowling over the sand.  Then came the sea again, and more ships; and the light began to grow dim, for he was nearly half-way round the earth, and was approaching the dawn.

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.