For a long time he lay awake thinking of John Ball and his, strange ravings.

Who was Dolores?
What terrible tragedy had that black world under the mountains some time beheld?
Despite his better reason an indefinable sensation of uneasiness possessed him as the madman's sobbing out of the woman's name recurred to him.

He spoke nothing of this to Wabi when he relieved him, and he said nothing of it during the days that followed.

They were days of unending toil, of fierce effort to beat out death in the race to Wabinosh House.
For it seemed that the end of time was very near for John Ball.

On the fourth day his thin cheeks showed signs of fever, and on the fifth he was tossing in delirium.