It reminded him of the illimitable prairie of which he had read in books of adventure.
'I suppose I'm dreaming,' said Philip, 'though I don't see how I can have gone to sleep just while I was turning the door handle.
However----' He stood still expecting that something would happen.

In dreams something always does happen, if it's only that the dream comes to an end.

But nothing happened now--Philip just stood there quite quietly and felt the warm soft grass round his ankles.
Then, as his eyes became used to the darkness of the plain, he saw some way off a very steep bridge leading up to a dark height on whose summit the moon shone whitely.

He walked towards it, and as he approached he saw that it was less like a bridge than a sort of ladder, and that it rose to a giddy height above him.

It seemed to rest on a rock far up against dark sky, and the inside of the rock seemed hollowed out in one vast dark cave.
[Illustration: Beyond it he could see dim piles that looked like churches and houses.] And now he was close to the foot of the ladder.