"I found myself awake and walking. We had come out above the Pleasure
City, we were near the summit of Monte Solaro and looking towards the
bay. It was the late afternoon and very clear. Far away to the left
Ischia hung in a golden haze between sea. and sky, and Naples was
coldly white against the hills, and before us was Vesuvius with a
tall and slender streamer feathering at last towards the south, and
the ruins of Torre dell' Annunziata and Castellamare glittering and
near."
I interrupted suddenly: "You have been to Capri, of course?"
"Only in this dream," he said, "only in this dream. All across
the bay beyond Sorrento were the floating palaces of the Pleasure City
moored and chained. And northward were the broad floating stages
that received the aeroplanes. Aeroplanes fell out of the sky every
afternoon, each bringing its thousands of pleasure-seekers from
the uttermost parts of the earth to Capri and its delights. All
these things, I say, stretched below.
"But we noticed them only incidentally because of an unusual sight
that evening had to show. Five war aeroplanes that had long slumbered
useless in the distant arsenals of the Rhinemouth were manoeuvring
now in the eastward sky.
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