and the safety of his grandfather’s hand.
‘How old is this place?’ Jones asked in the darkness.
Heidi answered as she opened the grotto’s control panel, which was hidden behind a fake boulder. ‘It was finished in 1877. Workers installed a framework of steel girders and pillars. They covered them with cement, sometimes laid over canvas, then sculpted them into shape.’
Payne shone his flashlight to the far left. At first glance, it looked like the ground was rippling. He assumed it was an optical illusion caused by his light until he heard the dripping of water. ‘What’s out there? Is that a fountain?’
Heidi put her hand on the switch. ‘Nope. Something better.’
‘Like what?’ he wondered.
Instead of answering, she started flipping switches. One by one, lights popped on throughout the grotto. Suddenly, the stalactites and stalagmites were bathed in blue light. Then the ceiling above them turned gold. An instant later, their pathway lit up like a ramp in a movie theatre, followed by a series of recessed lights in a painted alcove. Finally, the ground to the left started to glow - blue at first and then an alien green. It took a few seconds for Payne’s eyes to adjust, but when they did, he was stunned by the sight. The entire time he had been walking in the darkness, he had been strolling beside an underground lake.
His mouth fell open. ‘Wow.’
She turned off her flashlight and walked towards them. ‘I told you it was impressive.’
Ulster nodded in agreement. ‘I’ve seen pictures of the grotto, but I never fully grasped how large it was until now. It is truly immense.’
‘Women have said the same about me,’ cracked Jones.
Heidi ignored him. ‘The Venus Grotto is the largest artificial cave in Europe. Everything you see in here - the rocks, the ceiling, everything - was made by man. The cave is 270 feet long and forty-two feet high. By comparison, the palace itself is only ninety-eight feet long.’
Payne stared at the lake. At first, he had assumed it was shallow like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World, but the longer he stared at the underwater lights, he could tell they weren’t close to the surface. ‘How deep is the water?’
‘In some places, it’s ten feet deep.’
Jones leaned against the safety railing that had been installed for tourists. He was struggling to comprehend the grotto’s technology. ‘They built this place in the nineteenth century? When did they add the lights?’
‘Believe it or not, they’ve been here since the grotto opened in 1877. Obviously we’ve upgraded the technology over the years and made some repairs, but the basic look is the same. What you see is what Ludwig saw when he lived in Linderhof.’
Payne shook his head in amazement. ‘I didn’t even know they had indoor electricity back then. I find it hard to believe they were able to do all this in the 1800s.’
‘Back then, they used arc lamps - bulbs made of charcoal rods that had been invented fifty years earlier - to light the grotto. To change the colour of the lights, they rotated a disk of coloured glass and shone the bulbs through it. Sort of like a slide projector. Ludwig was actually able to programme a sequence of lights - five sets of ten minutes each - in the order he wanted. In addition, he could shine the colours in unison, which projected a rainbow above the far alcove.’
‘How was it powered?’ Jones asked.
‘They used a primitive electromagnetic generator known as a dynamo. There were twenty-four of them in a machine shop about a hundred metres to the north. The power facility was one of the first of its kind in Europe.’
Payne whistled softly. ‘I’ll admit it, I’m impressed. This place is awesome.’
She signalled for them to wait. ‘Hang on, I’m not quite done.’
‘There’s more?’ Jones asked.
She ducked behind the fake boulder. ‘Much more. Check this out.’
With a flip of a switch, the water in the lake began to move. Slowly at first, and then more steadily. Before long, the entire lake was churning with waves. ‘Sometimes Ludwig wasn’t satisfied with calm waters, so his designers installed a wave machine. This way, when his servants rowed him around the lake, he felt he was facing the elements.’
Payne laughed in amazement. ‘Un-friggin-believable!’
She called out from the control panel. ‘I thought you’d like that, but believe me, the best part is yet to come. If you don’t mind, do me a favour and take a few steps forward on the