"There are a great many advantages in this over the natural article. The water can be turned off while the lights are being placed behind the sheet for illuminations, and the flow can be regulated so as to suit every taste. If the party is made up of young ladies who delight in the soft and beautiful, we can make a Minnehaha of it; if it is strong men and old maids who hunger for the grand, why, whack on more steam, and we can have a Niagara. "About a mile or so away I am going to have a castle in ruins--ruins ain't expensive where there is so much rock--and I can have any newspaper man write me a proper legend of it for ten dollars. This for the history crank. For the more devout we want the ruins of an ancient church, which was destroyed by whoever you choose. This will fetch all those who are on their way to the Holy Land. They don't spend as much money for wine as the other classes, but we can make it up in charges for board and guides. The ruins must be so built as to make a guide necessary, and so extensive that two days will be necessary to get the proper views of them, and to study their history understandingly. [Illustration: NEAR BRIENZ.] "But this speculation will not be complete without mineral springs in the valley below. This is the easiest thing of the lot. You will build a reservoir and chuck into it a few barrels of salt, and a few bushels of rusty iron filings with sulphuric acid, a ton or so of sulphur (we must be liberal with sulphur for it is cheap), and any other articles that smell--asafoetida isn't bad--get it so thundering strong that it would drive a yellow dog out of a tanyard, and have it cure anything, from original sin to corns. We want a gorgeous cure, and a corps of distinguished physicians, and an analysis of the water, and all that, and we can just rope in the money. We commence them at the falls, we deplete them at the ruined castle, and dig into them at the ruined church, and finally finish them at the medicinal springs. We want a bank at the latter place, and, if the law permits it, a faro bank. Anyhow, we can get a Swiss hotel man, and if every blessed tourist doesn't have to draw more money before he gets out, then the race has lost its cunning. "I am going to be the president of this company, with a brother-in-law I have in Wisconsin for treasurer. There's money lying around loose, and this scheme will corral all of it I shall ever want." Tibbitts talked of his joint-stock Waterfall, Ruin and Medicinal Spring Company all the way into Lucerne. CHAPTER XXXVIII. LUCERNE AND THE RIGI. The road from Brienz to Lucerne, over the Brünig Pass, follows the valley of Meiringen for a long distance, and gives some very pretty views of Lake Brienz, the River Aare, and a number of cascades in the mountains across the valley. As the ascent of the pass begins the road is frequently overshadowed by hanging rocks, which seem about to topple over every minute.