Garth said, in a voice like a prayer, "Doc Willard. You're alive!"
VIII
Willard gripped his friend's hands. "Alive, yes. If you can call it that. I've been living for only one thing. I knew you'd come back, with help, if you got through. And you did!"
The cavern was spinning around Garth. He braced himself, staring at the man.
"Doc! I've been going crazy for five years. I thought I—I'd killed you."
Willard stared. "Killed me? But—"
"That altar!" The words tumbled out of Garth's mouth. "I couldn't remember much. That damned Noctoli poison—I lost my memory. But I knew I'd tried to knife you while you were stretched out on an altar—"
Sympathy showed in Willard's eyes. "Good Lord, Ed! And you could remember only that? You must have gone through hell."
"I did. I didn't know what—"