Part 3

On recovering strength enough to enable him to make his way to an Incline Station, Mr Hunt returns to Satan’s office to express his thanks for the privilege of being permitted to explore and inspect his vast domain.

The Arch-Fiend receives him courteously and tells him that he is much interested in the result of his labors, assuring him that he is appreciative of his desire to offset the tendency of modern thinkers to dispense entirely with future punishment. He prevails on Mr. Hunt to remain in the region till after the Annual Parade of Sinners. Mr. Hunt agrees to do so--and accepts the Chief’s invitation to be his guest while he reviews the procession.

_CANTO LXV._

After the annual parade Hiprah Hunt is given a farewell banquet at Satan’s palace on the Styx.

As guest of honor he sits at one end of a long table and Satan sits at the other. He describes the magnificence of the scene and his meeting with the members of the Hell Common Council.

Charming women from the female department wait on the table.

When in response to a toast Mr. Hunt tells the Demons that a great majority of the civilized world think Hell only a bugaboo dream, they are convulsed with laughter.

The banquet over, Hiprah Hunt bids farewell to Satan and his colleagues. The Arch-Fiend asks him to come again, and Mr. Hunt promises to do so if he recovers from the exploration just ended.

Taking an ascending car back to the American entrance he climbs out into the upper world, through the same wild forest he had passed six weeks before. Under a star-lit sky he makes his way home with proofs that Hell really is; that Dante was right, and that Hiprah Hunt is his legitimate successor.

In conclusion, Mr. Hunt adds the following verse, the wisdom of which no reader will deny who has followed the explorer’s journey below, or better still followed his own life, noting the penalties that resulted from folly and disobedience of laws of right living here on earth:

“Good people all, who deal with the Devil, Be warned now by what I say! His credit’s long, and his tongue is civil, But you’ll have the Devil to pay.”

End of Project Gutenberg's Through Hell with Hiprah Hunt, by Arthur Young