WHHHHHHHHHHHSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHsssssssshhhhhhhhheoeoeoeoeoeoeooeroooeoeoeoeeooeoeeoeoeoeooooooooshloooop!!!!!

Hallooo?

Dark, dark, dark. Halllooooooooo???

There's husbandry in heaven, their candles are all out.....
Dark here, wherever here might be. As the seeker after the white whale remarked, Death seems the only desirable sequel for a career such as mine; but, after all, Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, the Unshored.

Hmm. If this is Death, it is taking an uncommon time about it. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, thy victory????? Limbo? Wait!! Let me feel around for that blasted medallion. Here it is -- and yes, it is bent out of shape. So at least the planned part of our charade worked. Uncommon good shot, that Gambler -- I do admit to some trepidation when he first proposed it, but. But. But I did not count -- did he, I wonder? -- on the sequel. The impact of the shot must have triggered some ethereal force, some archangelic (or demonic, soft, pat, before inwreathing thy mind) dissolution.
But where have I been transported? And where is the Gambler? And -- O horror -- what has become of Sara Belle Fontaine -- did I tell her in time? -- No. No!! I must go forward.

SMASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH(tinkle)!!!!!!
accursed darkness! I begin to see why ghosts haunt the living world -- trying to get some illumination. This darkness is worse than the hearts of a Tuesday night audience......Wait. I see something ahead, an illumination!!!

It is -- what is it? -- it is a vast white wall, shimmering vertically ahead of me....What could it be??? Strange. It seems strangely alive, and yet not. Let me strike it

*

. Again:

*

.
And now letters, reversed, reading from right to left, come into view. It seems to be some recording device. I CAN READ IT!! It says "It seems to be some recording device"!but backwards, as I speak. How palpably strange. A speaking wall, in truth. What -- or who -- is on the other side? There, it did it again. It seems to be recording and scrolling my every word. Perhaps there is a person or persons attached. HALLOOOO?? Can you help me? Are you anyone? I am Cassius de Mornay, involuntary time traveller. I seek the League of the Mudcat, desperately !!!! HALLOOOOO?