After that his improvement was slow but sure, and each day added strength to his emaciated body and a new light to his eyes.

At the end of the second week there was no question but that he was slowly returning to sanity.
Gradually he came to know those who sat beside his bed, and whenever Rod visited him he insisted on holding the youth's hand.

At first the sight of Minnetaki or her mother, or of Mrs.Drew, had a startling effect on him and in their presence he would moan ceaselessly the name Rod first heard in the cavern.

A little at a time the language of those about him came back to the old man, and bit by bit those who waited and listened and watched learned the story of John Ball.
Midsummer came before he could gather the scattered threads of his life in his memory, and even then there were breaks in this story which seemed but trivial things to John Ball, but which to the others meant the passing of forgotten years.
In fact, years played but a small part in the strange story that fell from the old man's lips.

"In time," said the Post physician, "he will remember everything.