He guessed mebby Skyrider would aim to keep one foot on solid ground hereafter--if he didn't go clean under it.

That shore was a bad lookin' head he had on 'im.
Which brought forth questions from Mary V, and the somewhat qualified comfort of Bland's experience.
Johnny's next dream was a nightmare of pain and jolting.

He did not know where he was, but it seemed to him that something kept pounding him on the head; something very hot and very heavy--something he could not escape because his head was being held in a vice of some sort.

The pain and the jolting seemed to have no relation to this steady beating.

The dream lasted a long, long while.