“Come along!” she called to Diana. “It’s always all right when Sheshà manages anything, and he’s managing this.” Taking courage, Diana followed, and, in a moment, both children were seated. “Well done!” exclaimed their steed. “Have no fear, little maidens. You are safe. No harm shall befall you.” With the last words he began to rise from the pavement, floating slowly upwards. “Oh! we shall bump against the ceiling!” began Diana, in alarm. “No. Look! look!! There isn’t any ceiling!” cried Rachel. “It’s all melted away, and there are the stars....” In another second they were out in the open air, seated as comfortably on the back of the white horse as though they were on the schoolroom sofa, and feeling quite as safe. Below them lay the roof of the British Museum, and beyond it, stretching for miles and miles, all the crowded roofs, the spires, the domes and the lights of London. For a moment they had a glimpse of the wonderful city lying silent under the moonlit sky, and then they soared upwards so high that all sight of it was lost. “We’re going awfully fast,” whispered Rachel. “Isn’t it perfectly lovely?” And Diana sighed in perfect content. For, indeed, it was beyond all words wonderful to be rushing through soft, warm air under the moon, and to feel the gentle rocking motion of the horse’s body under them. Faster and faster they flew through the ocean of air, and the children screamed with delight when now and again their giant shadows were thrown for a second upon a white cloud as they shot past in their flight. On and on fled their magic steed, moving his limbs in the sea of air as a swimmer moves in water, his beautiful mane streaming like a white mist behind him.... Gradually the moonlight faded, and, for a time, only the stars shone in the dark blue sky. “We’re flying over the sea now. I can hear it!” whispered Rachel presently, for they had dropped lower by this time, and a deep murmur and even every now and then the gentle splash of waves could be distinctly heard. “It’s getting light,” answered Diana, in a sleepy voice. There was silence for some time, and perhaps both children fell asleep, for, almost at once as it seemed, instead of a grey gleam of dawn, they saw that the sky was all flushed with rosy light, and everything was now clearly visible. “Look! Look!! We’re quite close to the land!” cried Rachel, pointing to where rocky mountains stood up against the sky. “Oh, Diana, isn’t it beautiful?” [Illustration] By this time they were hovering above a white-roofed city, curving round a beautiful blue bay. “Where are we?” begged Rachel, leaning forward to speak to their flying steed, who was now moving slowly. “This land, O child, is Asia Minor, and the part of it you now see was called long ago, when I was young, Caria. The city just below us is Halicarnassus.” “Then the sea is the Mediterranean, I suppose?” said Rachel. “And we are not so far from Rhodes?”