The Gatto Fritto 117
one o’clock in the morning, and then we were to go to
a certain drinking place, the Fauno Ebbrio, and as
soon as the coast was clear he would pick us up and
take us along to the Gatto Fritto, and we would know
for the first time what life was really like.
‘Well, I call that a perfectly straight, decent, sensible
programme. It’s the duty of every Englishman to
learn as much of foreign affairs as he can without inter-
fering with his business. That sort of knowledge will
always come in useful in case of another European
War. It was knowing that sort of thing that had put
Feccles where he was in the Secret Service, the trusted
confident of those mysterious intelligences that watch
over the welfare of our beloved country.
Thank you, that will conclude the evening’s entertain-
ment.
I will say this for Feccles. He always understood
instinctively when he wasn’t wanted. So immedi-
ately the arrangements were made, he excused himself
hastily, because he had to go down to the Villa where
his victim was staying, and fix a dictaphone in the
room where he was going to have dinner.
So I had Lou all to myself until he came with the
disguises the next day in the afternoon. And I wasn’t
going to waste a minute.
- J admit I was pretty sick about the way the white
cloud let me down. I’d have gone after the silly old
sun myself if: I hadn’t been a married man.
- However, there we were alone, alone for ever, Lou
and I in Capri, it was all much too good to be true!
Sunlight and moonlight and starlight! They were
all in her eyes. And she handed out the cocaine with
such a provocative gesture! I knew what it was to
be insane. I could understand perfectly well why the
silly fools that aren’t insane are afraid of being insane.
I'd been that way myself when I didn’t know any
better. : :
This rotten little race of men measures the world by
Its own standard. It is lost in the vastness of' the