ration: The Mill At Paestum.]

After the victory the travellers left Paestum on their return.

The road that turns off to Sorrento is the most beautiful in the
world. It winds along the shore with innumerable turnings, climbing
hills, descending into valleys, twining around precipices. There are
scores of the prettiest villages under the sun, ivy-covered ruins,
frowning fortresses, lofty towers, and elegant villas.

At last Sorrento smiles out from a valley which is proverbial for
beauty, where, within its shelter of hills, neither the hot blast
of midsummer nor the cold winds of winter can ever disturb its
repose. This is the valley of perpetual spring, where fruits
forever grow, and the seasons all blend together, so that the same
orchard shows trees in blossom and bearing fruit.

CHAPTER X.

ON THE WATER, WHERE BUTTONS SEES A LOST IDEA AND GIVES CHASE TO IT,
TOGETHER WITH THE HEART-SICKENING RESULTS THEREOF.

On the following morning Buttons and Dick went a little way out of
town, and down the steep cliff toward the shore.

It was a classic spot. Here was no less a place than the cave of
Polyphemus, where Homer, at least, may have stood, if Ulysses didn't.
And here is the identical stone with which the giant was wont to
block up the entrance to his cavern.

The sea rolled before. Away down to the right was Vesuvius, starting
from which the eye took in the whole wide sweep of the shore, lined
with white cities, with a background of mountains, till the land
terminated in bold promontories.

Opposite was the Isle of Capri.

Myriads of white sails flashed across the sea. One of these arrested
the attention of Buttons, and so absorbed him that he stared fixedly
at it for half an hour without moving.

At length an exclamation burst from him:

"By Jove! It is! It is!"

"What is? What is?"

"The Spaniards!"

"Where?"

"In that boat."

"Ah!" said Dick, coolly, looking at the object pointed out by
Buttons.

It was an English sail-boat, with a small cabin and an immense
sail. In the stern were a gentleman and two ladies. Buttons was
confident that they were the Spaniards.

[Illustration: The Spaniards.]

"Well," said Dick, "what's the use of getting so excited about
it?"

"Why, I'm going back to Naples by water!"

"Are you? Then I'll go too. Shall we leave the others?"

"Certainly not, if they want to come with us."

Upon inquiry they found that the others had a strong objection