Leaving this room we re-enter Milliner's Avenue and soon cross the
bridge from which, a few hours ago, we descended into the eighth level
by way of Castle Garden; and now the return to the surface is by the
route followed before, and we arrive there at last terribly weary, but
more than well pleased.

CHAPTER XII.

WIND CAVE CONCLUDED.

GARDEN OF EDEN, THE GLACIER, AND ICE PALACE.

There is yet another long and charming line of travel open to those who
have sufficiently steady heads and light feet to suffer no loss of
confidence or depression of spirit when mounting the steep stairway
whose limit seems lost in the dark distance above.

There being but the single entrance, a repetition of the worn and
ancient statement that all roads lead to Rome, means that many journeys
may be taken in Wind Cave, but all must have the same beginning.

In the tourist season the guides have not time during the day to bring
out specimens to supply the demand, so on this account night trips are
of frequent occurrence; and on these occasions the number of persons in
all that vast space seldom exceeds half a dozen, but their voices and
laughter, and the blows of their hammers, can be heard at greater
distances than would seem possible, and give an agreeable sense of
companionship; yet the voice does not travel by any means so far as in
other caves.

The evening we were to make the long trip just mentioned, our guide
being ready before any others had gone in, we started the advance on the
ninety-seven miles of enclosed, unoccupied space and had almost reached
the level of the Bridal Chamber when he remembered a forgotten and
necessary roll of magnesium ribbon, for which it was needful to return
to the office in the upper building. I sat down on the lowest step of
the great stairway to wait, and for a very short time was entirely alone
in the largest cavern in the world, excepting the Mammoth Cave of
Kentucky.

The unexpected experience seemed suddenly to become one of the great
events of a lifetime, and was unmarred by the disturbing apprehensions
of any possible danger. The entire absence of sound was indescribably
awe-inspiring as

"Strata overleaping strata from the center to the crust,
Rose, Alp-high, in molten silence, as the dead rise from the dust;"

but the feeling of complete isolation from the living world would not
require an unlimited time to merit the one word--horrible. Even some
peril with ample