, and notwithstanding
the terror of the trip one feels well repaid."

We thank Mr. Powell for a charming journey without its discomfort and
danger, and resume our travels at the Waterfall.

From the foot of the Waterfall we returned again to the Auditorium, in
time to enjoy a sight such as we supposed could exist only in a
brilliant imagination; and the return at that hour was not a lucky
accident of fate, but the result of careful attention to a prearranged
design that we should not fail to witness a marvelous display never
surpassed by lavish Nature. The day outside was one of cloudless
summer sunshine.

[Illustration: Blondy's Throne Room. Page 50.]

[Illustration: Foot of Waterfall. Page 50.]

Our eyes having grown accustomed to the dim light of candles in passages
where absolute darkness, unrelieved by the stars of midnight, always
reigns, the great Auditorium appeared before us softly flooded with
daylight diffused from a broad white beam slanting down in long straight
lines from the entrance as from a rift in heavy clouds; only this rift
displayed around its edges a brilliant border of vegetation that the
rough rocks cherish with tender care.

As we stood lost in almost speechless admiration, and without the
slightest warning of treasure yet in store, the white beam was stabbed
by a narrow, gleaming shaft of yellow sunlight. The glorious, radiant
beauty of the picture presented is utterly indescribable, but it was of
short duration, and in a few seconds the golden blade was withdrawn as
suddenly as it had appeared.

If the genius of Elkins had been granted the privilege we enjoyed, the
artist-world of Europe that graciously yielded the highest honor to his
"Sunbeam on Mount Shasta," would have knelt in rapturous humility.
Speaking of his great work, as we stood before it only a few months
before his death, Mr. Elkins said quietly: "It is no great achievement;
I simply painted it exactly as it looked. Anyone could do the same."
But no one ever has.

The white beam was more enduring and by its aid we were able to view the
expanse of the great Auditorium far better than could have been done in
the momentary glare of any brilliant artificial light. Every part of the
cloud-gray walls shows a stratification as regularly horizontal as if
the laying of each course had been done with the assistance of line and
level; while in every direction are now seen hundreds of stalactites
that had not been noticed before,