There were spaces darkened, mercifully shutting me in; there were others of light, where I burned and burned in my heated blood.

Sally, like the wraith she had become in my mind, passed in and out; Diane watched and helped in those hours when sight was clear.

But always the Ranger was with me.

Sometimes I seemed to feel his spirit grappling with mine, drawing me back from the verge.

Sometimes, in strange dreams, I saw him there between me and a dark, cold, sinister shape.
The fever passed, and with the first nourishing drink given me I seemed to find my tongue, to gain something.
"Hello, old man," I whispered to Steele.
"Oh, Lord, Russ, to think you would double-cross me the way you did!" That was his first speech to me after I had appeared to face round from the grave.