The Hobbit Tolkien Ch6-10

Gandalf answered angrily: “I brought him, and I don’t bring things
that are of no use.

All of a sudden you gave one of your
blinding flashes, and we saw the goblins running back yelping.

Just at that moment the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above,
seized him in his talons, and was gone.

When they began to go down
this, rubbish and small pebbles rolled away from their feet; soon larger
bits of split stone went clattering down and started other pieces below
them slithering and rolling; then lumps of rocks were disturbed and
bounded off, crashing down with a dust and a noise.

A fizzling torch
To light the night for our delight,
Ya hey!

“Very well then, we must just tighten our belts and trudge on - or
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we shall be made into supper, and that will be much worse than having
none ourselves.”

He could not get into any tree, and was scuttling
about from trunk to trunk, like a rabbit that has lost its hole and has a
dog after it.

The wind went on from West to East ;
all movement in the forest ceased,
but shrill and harsh across the marsh
its whistling voices were released.

Some caught
hold of the trunks and swung themselves into lower branches, some (like
the little hobbit) got behind a tree to shelter from the onslaught of the
rocks.

It did not sound like goblins; so he crept
forward carefully.

So now there was nothing left to do but to fill their water-skins at a
clear spring they found close to the forest-gate, and unpack the ponies.

There was a flat space on the top of the hill of stone and a well
worn path with many steps leading down it to the river, across which a
ford of huge flat stones led to the grass-land beyond the stream.

But in the evening when the dusk came on
and the peaks of the mountains glowered against the sunset they made a
camp and set a guard, and most of them slept uneasily with dreams in
which there came the howl of hunting wolves and the cries of goblins.

Dwalin and Balin had swarmed up a
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tall slender fir with few branches and were trying to find a place to sit in
the greenery of the topmost boughs.

The bushes,
and the long grasses, between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped
turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses
all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope
of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide.

You have
stacked some full casks here instead of the empty ones, if there is anything
in weight.”

He can be appalling when he is angry, though he is kind
enough if humoured.

In a minute there was a whole pack of them yelping all round
the tree and leaping up at the trunk, with eyes blazing and tongues
hanging out.

Before long the
whole slope above them and below them seemed on the move, and they
were sliding away, huddled all together, in a fearful confusion of slipping,
rattling, cracking slabs and stones.

At times they
were pushing through a sea of bracken with tall fronds rising right above
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the hobbit’s head; at times they were marching along quiet as quiet over
a floor of pine-needles; and all the while the forest-gloom got heavier and
the forest-silence deeper.

He
wandered on and on, till the sun began to sink westwards-behind the
mountains.

He crept still nearer, and suddenly he saw peering between two big
boulders a head with a red hood on: it was Balin doing look-out.

“If one was to sting me,” he thought, “I should swell up as big
again as I am!”

As it reached the further
bank it stumbled.

The talk was all of the trade that came and
went on the waterways and the growth of the traffic on the river, as the
roads out of the East towards Mirkwood vanished or fell into disuse; and
of the bickerings of the Lake-men and the Wood-elves about the upkeep
of the Forest River and the care of the banks.

Of course helped
by his magic ring he got on very well at first, but he was given away in the
end by his wet footsteps and the trail of drippings that he left wherever he
went or sat; and also he began to snivel, and wherever he tried to hide he
was found out by the terrific explosions of his suppressed sneezes.

They could not stand that, nor the huge bats, black as a top-hat, either;
so they gave up fires and sat at night and dozed in the enormous uncanny
darkness.

That would have been the
end of him, though he would probably have killed many of them as he
came hurtling down like a thunderbolt.

He picked up the hobbit and
laughed: “Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet I see”;
and he poked Mr. Baggins’ waistcoat most disrespectfully.

“I seem to have got right to the
other side of the Misty Mountains, right to the edge of the Land Beyond!

Indeed Bilbo was so pleased with their praise that he just chuckled
inside and said nothing whatever about the ring; and when they asked
him how he did it, he said: “O, just crept along, you know-very carefully
and quietly.”

Some caught
hold of the trunks and swung themselves into lower branches, some (like
the little hobbit) got behind a tree to shelter from the onslaught of the
rocks.

They thought
they were friends of the woodmen, and were come to spy on them, and
would take news of their plans down into the valleys, and then the goblins
and the wolves would have to fight a terrible battle instead of capturing
prisoners and devouring people waked suddenly from their sleep.

“I seem to have got right to the
other side of the Misty Mountains, right to the edge of the Land Beyond!

But in the meantime we are famished
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with hunger.”

Then he looked forward and could see before him only ridges and slopes
falling towards lowlands and plains glimpsed occasionally between the
trees.

“Help!” he shouted, and Balin was just in
time to seize the boat before it floated off down the current.

One bore a white cloth embroidered at the
edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with
bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took
and quickly laid on the trestle tables.

In the flash which killed the goblins that were grabbing him he
had nipped inside the crack, just as it snapped to.

He nibbled a bit of sorrel, and
he drank from a small mountain-stream that crossed the path, and he ate
three wild strawberries that he found on its bank, but it was not much
good.

The dwarves were inclined to grumble at this, but the wizard told
them they were fools.

When about fifty had gone off to the place
where he had stood before, he threw some more stones at these, and at
others that had stopped behind; then dancing among the trees he began
to sing a song to infuriate them and bring them all after him, and also to
let the dwarves hear his voice.

Gandalf was as astonished as any of them, but probably more
pleased than all the others.

“It is true that we were wrongfully waylaid by the Elven-king and
imprisoned without cause as we journeyed back to our own land,” answered
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Thorin.

Or
have you still got some more jacks that haven’t yet come out of their
boxes?”

Even the dwarves felt it,
who were used to tunnelling, and lived at times for long whiles without
the light of the sun; but the hobbit, who liked holes to make a house in
but not to spend summer days in, felt he was being slowly suffocated.

Occasionally a slender beam of sun
that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above,
and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted
twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them.

Hiding behind one of the largest barrels Bilbo discovered the
trapdoors and their use, and lurking there, listening to the talk of the
king’s servants, he learned how the wine and other goods came up the
rivers, or over land, to the Long Lake.

I had to walk miles before I found a place where the
river was wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then
miles back again to pick up the tracks again.

There was a growling sound outside, and a noise as of some great
animal scuffling at the door.

Fili hauled the rope back slowly, and
after a while Bilbo said:
“Carefully!

He called to Balin and told him what he
thought of a look-out man who let people walk right into them like that
without warning.

Then they wanted to know all about his adventures after they had
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lost him, and he sat down and told them everything-except about the
finding of the ring (“not just now” he thought).

Wriggling along the branch (which made all the poor
dwarves dance and dangle like ripe fruit) he reached the first bundle.

He keeps hives and hives of great fierce bees, and lives most on
cream and honey.

He crept still nearer, and suddenly he saw peering between two big
boulders a head with a red hood on: it was Balin doing look-out.

This was a wide circle of quiet water surrounded by the tall
piles on which were built the greater houses, and by long wooden quays
with many steps and ladders going down to the surface of the lake.

“Never heard of him,” growled the man, “And what’s this little fellow?”
he said, stooping down to frown at the hobbit with his bushy eyebrows.

OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE FIRE
Bilbo had escaped the goblins, but he did not know where he was.

It was wolves
howling at the moon, wolves gathering together!

Even magic rings are not much use against
wolves-especially against the evil packs that lived under the shadow of
the goblin-infested mountains, over the Edge of the Wild on the borders
of the unknown.

There was a buzzing and a
whirring and a droning in the air.

He was sitting, black in the moonlight, on the top of a lonely
pinnacle of rock at the eastern edge of the mountains.

When dinner was over they began to tell tales of
their own, but Beorn seemed to be growing drowsy and paid little heed to
them.

“That is Mr. Baggins, a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable
reputation,” said Gandalf.

Then another came and another, one in blue flames, one
in red, another in green.

Shrivel and scorch!

Now far below the goblins and the wolves were scattering far and
wide in the woods.

They slid into the
edge of a climbing wood of pines that here stood right up the mountain
slope from the deeper darker forests of the valleys below.

But Thorin would only say that he
was starving.

Occasionally a slender beam of sun
that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above,
and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted
twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them.

Yellowing
bracken, fallen branches, deep-piled pine-needles, and here and there
dead trees, were soon in flames.

He had lost hood, cloak, food, pony, his buttons and his friends.

After
blundering frantically in the gloom, falling over logs, bumping crash into
trees, and shouting and calling till they must have waked everything in
the forest for miles, at last they managed to gather themselves in a bundle
and count themselves by touch.

Also he could see the glint of the moon on goblin
spears and helmets, as long lines of the wicked folk crept down the hillsides
from their gate and wound into the wood.

They were particularly
interested in the riddle-competition, and shuddered most appreciatively
at his description of Gollum.

In the darkness
floundering in the cold water they had a difficult and very nasty job finding
which were the right barrels.

Think of the treasure at the end, and
forget the forest and the dragon, at any rate until tomorrow morning!”

Then they took off their clothes
and bathed in the river, which was shallow and clear and stony at the
ford.

The luck turned all right before long: the eddying current carried
several barrels close ashore at one point and there for a while they stuck
against some hidden root.

There was a flying sound of hooves on the
path ahead.

Smoke was in Bilbo’s eyes, he could feel the heat of
the flames; and through the reek he could see the goblins dancing
round and round in a circle like people round a midsummer bonfire.

Others waved their spears and clashed the shafts against their shields.

He waited till he had clambered off his shoulders
into the branches, and then he jumped for the branches himself.

Except for
occasional squabbles about river-tolls they were friends with the Woodelves.

That is the polite thing to say among eagles.

The bushes,
and the long grasses, between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped
turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses
all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope
of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide.

Bake and toast ‘em, fry and roast ‘em
till beards blaze, and eyes glaze;
till hair smells and skins crack,
fat melts, and bones black
in cinders lie
beneath the sky!

Bilbo tried flapping his hand in front of his nose, but he could not
see it at all.

“Up the trees quick!” cried Gandalf; and they ran to the trees at the
edge of the glade, hunting for those that had branches fairly low, or were
slender enough to swarm up.

His stomach felt all empty and loose and his
legs all wobbly, now that the excitement was over.

Bilbo was nearly tired out;
only four of the dwarves were able to stand firmly, and soon they would
all be overpowered like weary flies.

He had stumbled, thrusting the boat away from the
bank, and then toppled back into the dark water, his hands slipping off
the slimy roots at the edge, while the boat span slowly off and disappeared.

“You had better wait here,” said the wizard to the dwarves; “and
when I call or whistle begin to come after me — you will see the way I gobut
only in pairs, mind, about five minutes between each pair of you.

He
wandered on and on, till the sun began to sink westwards-behind the
mountains.

Also he had
caught a glimpse of a fire through the trees, and that appealed to him
with his dripping and ragged clothes clinging to him cold and clammy.

Wolves are afraid of fire at all times, but this was a most horrible and
uncanny fire.

Standing now in the middle of the hunting and
spinning insects Bilbo plucked up his courage and began a new song:
Lazy Lob and crazy Cob
are weaving webs to wind me.

As a matter of fact it
was well known to anybody who was acquainted with this part of the
mountains; but it took a wizard to keep his head in the tunnels and guide
them in the right direction.

Some stacked fern
and brushwood round the tree-trunks.

“You
lose track of time inside goblin-tunnels.

Then if Bilbo was very
nimble, he could slip out just behind them; though it was a dangerous
thing to do.

“The goblins,” Beorn had said, “will not dare to cross the Great
River for a hundred miles north of the Carrock nor to come near my house
— it is well protected at night!— but I should ride fast; for if they make
their raid soon they will cross the river to the south and scour all the edge
of the forest so as to cut you off, and Wargs run swifter than ponies.

Poor Mr. Baggins had never had much practice in climbing
trees, but they hoisted him up into the lowest branches of an enormous
oak that grew right out into the path, and up he had to go as best he
could.

“Save us, Galion!” cried
some, “you began your feasting early and muddled your wits!

So
cheer up Bilbo and don’t look so glum.

Horses
and ponies had been sent round by circuitous paths to meet them at their
appointed landing-place.

But their main gate used to come out on a different pass, one more easy
to travel by, so that they often caught people benighted near their gates.

Great floods and rains had swollen
the waters that flowed east; and there had been an earthquake or two
(which some were inclined to attribute to the dragon-alluding to him
chiefly with a curse and an ominous nod in the direction of the Mountain).

As theft
eyes became used to the dimness they could see a little way to either side
in a sort of darkened green glimmer.

It seemed a town of Men still throve
there, built out on bridges far into the water as a protection against enemies
of all sorts, and especially against the dragon of the Mountain.

We must be miles on before dusk.

The bushes,
and the long grasses, between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped
turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses
all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope
of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide.

Just at that moment the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above,
seized him in his talons, and was gone.

He no longer thought twice about picking up a
supper uninvited if he got the chance, he had been obliged to do it for so
long, and he knew only too well what it was to be really hungry, not
merely politely interested in the dainties of a well-filled larder.

Bilbo would have liked to say: “A warm bath and late breakfast on
the lawn afterwards;” but he thought it better to say nothing at all, and to
let go his clutch just a tiny bit.

Their
trunks were huge and gnarled, their branches twisted, their leaves were
dark and long.

The laughter was the laughter of fair voices not of goblins, and the singing
was beautiful, but it sounded eerie and strange, and they were not
comforted, rather they hurried on from those parts with what strength
they had left.

After a while, however, the river took a more southerly
course and the Mountain receded again, and at last, late in the day the
shores grew rocky, the river gathered all its wandering waters together
into a deep and rapid flood, and they swept along at great speed.

The pale peaks of the mountains were coming nearer, moonlit spikes
of rock sticking out of black shadows.

Wet straw was in his draggled beard; he was so sore and
stiff, so bruised and buffeted he could hardly stand or stumble through
the shallow water to lie groaning on the shore.

There it was moored not far from the shoreward
head of the great bridge.

The shadows swallowed it up, but they heard the sound
of hooves quickly falter and then go still.

With that he turned and found that the last space between two tall
trees had been closed with a web-but luckily not a proper web, only great
strands of double-thick spider-rope run hastily backwards and forwards
from trunk to trunk.

They passed through this dim hall, lit only
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by the fire and the hole above it, and came through another smaller door
into a sort of veranda propped on wooden posts made of single treetrunks.

“The goblins,” Beorn had said, “will not dare to cross the Great
River for a hundred miles north of the Carrock nor to come near my house
— it is well protected at night!— but I should ride fast; for if they make
their raid soon they will cross the river to the south and scour all the edge
of the forest so as to cut you off, and Wargs run swifter than ponies.

“I will give them all a surprise,” he thought, as he crawled into the
bushes at the edge of the dell.

Inside on the southward side of the great hedge were rows and
rows of hives with bell-shaped tops made of straw.

“If we have got to’ go back now into
those abominable tunnels to look for him, then drat him, I say.”

They were still standing over him, cursing their ill
luck, and Bombur’s clumsiness, and lamenting the loss of the boat which
made it impossible for them to go back and look for the hart, when they
became aware of the dim blowing of horns in the wood and the sound as
of dogs baying far off.

He scrambled down as fast as his stiff
legs would take him and managed just in time to get on to the mass of
casks without being noticed in the general bustle.

But they had not been lying long,
and Bilbo was only just getting drowsy, when Dori, whose turn it was to
watch first, said in a loud whisper:
“The lights are coming out again over there, and there are more
than ever of them.”

Probably I can help you out of your present plight, and I need a little help
myself.

He was clothed in a tunic of wool
down to his knees, and was leaning on a large axe.

The dwarves were
grumbling, and Gandalf was saying that they could not possibly go on
with their journey leaving Mr. Baggins in the hands of the goblins, without
trying to find out if he was alive or dead, and without trying to rescue
him.

The rope went taut, and Fili pulled in vain.

Also naughty little boys that play with fire get punished.”

He
often wished, too, that he could get a message for help sent to the wizard,
but that of course was quite impossible; and he soon realized that if
anything was to be done, it would have to be done by Mr. Baggins, alone
and unaided.

There, sure enough, not far away were scores
of twinkling lights, and they heard the voices and the laughter quite plainly.

But it seemed that some good magic
lingered in such spots, which the spiders did not like.

All of a sudden you gave one of your
blinding flashes, and we saw the goblins running back yelping.

He used to turn
queer if he looked over the edge of quite a little cliff; and he had never
liked ladders, let alone trees (never having had to escape from wolves
before).

They slept all closely huddled together, and took it in
turns to watch; and when it was Bilbo’s turn he would see gleams in the
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darkness round them, and sometimes pairs of yellow or red or green eyes
would stare at him from a little distance, and then slowly fade and disappear
and slowly shine out again in another place.

If the elfking
had a weakness it was for treasure, especially for silver and white
gems; and though his hoard was rich, he was ever eager for more, since
he had not yet as great a treasure as other elf-lords of old.

The
other seized Dori in his claws and flew away with him into the night
leaving Bilbo all alone.

Thorin looked and walked as if his kingdom was already
regained and Smaug chopped up into little pieces.

As soon as Gandalf had heard Bilbo’s yell he realized what had
happened.

He had had it described to him often enough in tales.

We
are already deeply obliged to you.

Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and
ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came.

He did not at all like
the look of the cavern-mouth and he only made up his mind not to desert
his friends just in time to scuttle over at the heels of the fast elves, before
the great gates of the king closed behind them with a clang.

Some of the verses were like this, but there were
many more, and their singing went on for a long while:
The wind was on the withered heath,
but in the forest stirred no leaf:
there shadows lay by night and day,
and dark things silent crept beneath.

A few leaves came rustling down to remind them that
outside autumn was coming on.

“I daresay,” grumbled Bombur; “but they won’t find it difficult to
send stones bouncing down on our heads.”

Then he ordered the dwarves each to be put in a separate cell and
to be given food and drink, but not to be allowed to pass the doors of
their little prisons, until one at least of them was willing to tell him all he
wanted to know.

“Insect eyes” he thought, “not animal eyes, only they are much too
big.”

Not that they mind the moon much, but it will give
us a little light to steer by.”

Bombur slept on with a smile on his fat
face, as if he no longer cared for all the troubles that vexed them.

Evidently people had given up going that way, and the goblins must have
opened their new entrance at the top of the pass the dwarves had taken,
quite recently, because it had been found quite safe up to now.

That only reminded them that they were also parchingly thirsty,
without doing anything to relieve them: you cannot quench a terrible
thirst by standing under giant oaks and waiting for a chance drip to fall on
your tongue.

Later when the night must have been getting old, Kili who was
watching then, came and roused them all again, saying:
“There’s a regular blaze of light begun not far away — hundreds of
torches and many fires must have been lit suddenly and by magic.

Some caught
hold of the trunks and swung themselves into lower branches, some (like
the little hobbit) got behind a tree to shelter from the onslaught of the
rocks.

The
Elvenking was very powerful in those parts and the Master wished for no
enmity with him, nor did he think much of old songs, giving his mind to
trade and tolls, to cargoes and gold, to which habit he owed his position.

They thanked him, of course, with many bows and sweepings of
their hoods and with many an “at your service, O master of the wide
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wooden halls!”

Today’s Thursday, and it was
Monday night or Tuesday morning that we were captured.

But we are not at the
point to which our pass would have brought us; we are too far to the
North, and have some awkward country ahead.

Pressing forward
before the Master’s table they cried:
“These are prisoners of our king that have escaped, wandering
vagabond dwarves that could not give any good account of themselves,
sneaking through the woods and molesting our people!”

The entrance to the path was like a sort
of arch leading into a gloomy tunnel made by two great trees that leant
together, too old and strangled with ivy and hung with lichen to bear
more than a few blackened leaves.

If it had been difficult
collecting themselves before, it was far worse this time.

It was not built on the shore,
though there were a few huts and buildings there, but right out on the
surface of the lake, protected from the swirl of the entering river by a
promontory of rock which formed a calm bay.

The dwarves were inclined to grumble at this, but the wizard told
them they were fools.

You must all be
very polite when I introduce you.

He had just made up his mind that it was his duty, that he
must turn back-and very miserable he felt about it-when he heard voices.

Very soon
all about the glade wolves were rolling over and over to put out the sparks
on their backs, while those that were burning were running about howling
and setting others alight, till their own friends chased them away and they
fled off down the slopes crying and yammering and looking for water.

They were surly and
angry and did not even pretend to be polite.

Down the dwarves scrambled or jumped or dropped, eleven all in a
heap, most of them very shaky and little use on their legs.

He still wandered on, out of the little high valley, over its edge, and
down the slopes beyond; but all the while a very uncomfortable thought
was growing inside him.

But Beorn had
warned them that that way was now often used by the goblins, while the
forest-road itself, he bad heard, was overgrown and disused at the eastern
end and led to impassable marshes where the paths had long been lost.

Gallon was
not at all pleased at being shaken or wakened, and still less at being
laughed at.

The dwarves listened and shook their beards, for they knew that
they must soon venture into that forest and that after the mountains it
was the worst of the perils they had to pass before they came to the
dragon’s stronghold.

They left guards at the foot of the
tree in which Dori and Bilbo were, and then went sniffling about till they
had smelt out every tree that had anyone in it.

When they began to go down
this, rubbish and small pebbles rolled away from their feet; soon larger
bits of split stone went clattering down and started other pieces below
them slithering and rolling; then lumps of rocks were disturbed and
bounded off, crashing down with a dust and a noise.

The fires in the middle of the
hall were built with fresh logs and the torches were put out, and still they
sat in the light of the dancing flames with the pillars of the house standing
tall behind them, arid dark at the top like trees of the forest.

Then he looked forward and could see before him only ridges and slopes
falling towards lowlands and plains glimpsed occasionally between the
trees.

For Thorin
had taken heart again hearing how the hobbit had rescued his companions
from the spiders, and was determined once more not to ransom himself
with promises to the king of a share in the treasure, until all hope of
escaping in any other way had disappeared; until in fact the remarkable
Mr. Invisible Baggins (of whom he began to have a very high opinion
indeed) had altogether failed to think of something clever.

They each shouldered the heavy pack and the water-skin which
was their share, and turned from the light that lay on the lands outside
and plunged into the forest.

Then they often got the Wargs to help and shared the
plunder with them.

“Very well!” said Bilbo very downcast, and also rather annoyed.

Before they could shout in praise of the shot, however, a dreadful
wail from Bilbo put all thoughts of venison out of their minds.

Poor old
Bombur was so exhausted-he was the fattest and had been constantly
pinched and poked-that he just rolled off the branch and fell plop on to
the ground, fortunately on to leaves, and lay there.

Balin was the most puzzled of all; but everyone said it was a very
clever bit of work.

And far away, its dark head in a torn cloud, there loomed the
Mountain!

So it was that Bilbo was able to take secretly Thorin’s message to
each of the other imprisoned dwarves, telling them that Thorin their chief
was also in prison close at hand, and that no one was to reveal their
errand to the long, not yet, not before Thorin gave the word.

The barrels now all lashed
together creaked and fretted..

Especially there was clover, waving
patches of cockscomb clover, and purple clover, and wide stretches of
short white sweet honey-smelling clover.

Some horses, very sleek
and well-groomed, trotted up across the grass and looked at them intently
with very intelligent faces; then off they galloped to the buildings.

“Good heavens!” he exclaimed.

They dwelt most often by the edges of the
woods, from which they could escape at times to hunt, or to ride and run
over the open lands by moonlight or starlight; and after the coming of
Men they took ever more and more to the gloaming and the dusk.

And then he sat down in the entrance, and I could not get by.

After that there was a deal of commotion in the spider-colony, and they
forgot the dwarves for a bit, I can tell you.

His crown shall be upholden,
His harp shall be restrung,
His halls shall echo golden
To songs of yore re-sung.

Fili and Kili
were at the top of a tall larch like an enormous Christmas tree.

“Well! that has got us on a bit,” said Gandalf; “and even goblins
tracking us will have a job to come down here quietly.”

Then he looked forward and could see before him only ridges and slopes
falling towards lowlands and plains glimpsed occasionally between the
trees.

So you see ‘prisoners’ had meant ‘prisoners
rescued from the goblins’ only, and not captives of the eagles.

Sometimes they
rested under the trees, and then Bilbo felt so hungry that he would have
eaten acorns, if any had been ripe enough yet to have fallen to the ground.

You must either go through or give up your quest.

At the best of times heights made Bilbo giddy.

I should say there were little
bears, large bears, ordinary bears, and gigantic big bears, all dancing
outside from dark to nearly dawn.

The eagle only sharpened his beak on a stone and trimmed his
feathers and took no notice.

“This is the dreariest and dullest part of
all this wretched, tiresome, uncomfortable adventure!

Maddened
and angry they were leaping and howling round the trunks, and cursing
the dwarves in their horrible language, with their tongues hanging
out, and their eyes shining as red and fierce as the flames.

“Help!” he shouted, and Balin was just in
time to seize the boat before it floated off down the current.

They burst on the ground in the middle of the
circle and went off in coloured sparks and smoke.

So the
Wargs had no intention of going away and letting the people up the trees
escape, at any rate not until morning.

They thought
they were friends of the woodmen, and were come to spy on them, and
would take news of their plans down into the valleys, and then the goblins
and the wolves would have to fight a terrible battle instead of capturing
prisoners and devouring people waked suddenly from their sleep.

In spite of the dangers of this far land bold men had of late been
making their way back into it from the South, cutting down trees, and
building themselves places to live in among the more pleasant woods in
the valleys and along the river-shores.

When he heard this Bilbo was all in a flutter, for he saw that luck
was with him and he had a chance at once to try his desperate plan.

Beyond the edge of the forest I cannot help you much; you must depend
on your luck and your courage and the food I send with you.

Before they could shout in praise of the shot, however, a dreadful
wail from Bilbo put all thoughts of venison out of their minds.

Then they knew that Gandalf was going to leave them at the very
edge of Mirkwood, and they were in despair.

“To tell you the truth, we have lost our luggage and nearly lost our
way, and are rather in need of help, or at least advice.

Soon after midday
they ate with Beorn for the last time, and after the meal they mounted the
steeds he was lending them, and bidding him many farewells they rode
off through his gate at a good pace.

He had still got the ring
on, for fear of meeting something unexpected and unpleasant, and he
saw that Balin was looking straight at him without noticing him.

Then they shouted with surprise and
delight.

The rest of the night he had to pass wet as
he was and far from a fire, but the bottle helped him to do that, and he
actually dozed a little on some dry leaves, even though the year was
getting late and the air was chilly.

He pushed his way through the tangled twigs with many a slap in
the eye; he was greened and grimed from the old bark of the greater
boughs; more than once he slipped and caught himself just in time; and
at last, after a dreadful struggle in a difficult place where there seemed to
be no convenient branches at all, he got near the top.

Such a question of course made the king
angrier than ever, and he answered: “It is a crime to wander in my realm
without leave.

The nastiest things they saw were the
cobwebs: dark dense cobwebs with threads extraordinarily thick, often
stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either
side of them.

There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and
lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented
their magic and their cunning craft, in the making of beautiful and
marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World.

The rotting piles of a greater town
could still be seen along the shores when the waters sank in a drought.

“Farewell!” they cried, “wherever you fare, till your eyries receive
you at the journey’s end!”

In the end,
of course, they had to do just what Bilbo suggested, because it was
obviously impossible for them to try and find their way into the upper
halls, or to fight their way out of gates that closed by magic; and it was no
good grumbling in the passages until they were caught again.

They
limped along now as fast as they were able down the gentle slopes of a
pine forest in a slanting path leading steadily southwards.

But cropping out of the ground, right in
the path of the stream which looped itself about it, was a great rock,
almost a hill of stone, like a last outpost of the distant mountains, or a
huge piece cast miles into the plain by some giant among giants.

The bushes,
and the long grasses, between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped
turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses
all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope
of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide.

The
king had ordered them to make haste.

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He could hear the goblins beginning a horrible song:
Fifteen birds in five firtrees,
their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze!

Though their magic was strong,
even in those days they were wary.

The
Elvenking was very powerful in those parts and the Master wished for no
enmity with him, nor did he think much of old songs, giving his mind to
trade and tolls, to cargoes and gold, to which habit he owed his position.

There was no path down on to
it save by flying; and no path down off it except by jumping over a precipice.

Goblins do not usually venture very far from their mountains, unless they
are driven out and are looking for new homes, or are marching to war
(which I am glad to say has not happened for a long while).

They still throve
on the trade that came up the great river from the South and was carted
past the falls to their town; but in the great days of old, when Dale in the
North was rich and prosperous, they had been wealthy and powerful, and
there had been fleets of boats on the waters, and some were filled with
gold and some with warriors in armour, and there had been wars and
deeds which were now only a legend.

He had stumbled, thrusting the boat away from the
bank, and then toppled back into the dark water, his hands slipping off
the slimy roots at the edge, while the boat span slowly off and disappeared.

This was a wide circle of quiet water surrounded by the tall
piles on which were built the greater houses, and by long wooden quays
with many steps and ladders going down to the surface of the lake.

Even magic rings are not much use against
wolves-especially against the evil packs that lived under the shadow of
the goblin-infested mountains, over the Edge of the Wild on the borders
of the unknown.

One bore a white cloth embroidered at the
edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with
bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took
and quickly laid on the trestle tables.

I shouldn’t think above twelve yards.”

They soon came to a wooden gate, high and broad, beyond which
they could see gardens and a cluster of low wooden buildings, some
thatched and made of unshaped logs; barns, stables, sheds, and a long
low wooden house.

As
it was, he had a desperate fight before he got free.

Of course helped
by his magic ring he got on very well at first, but he was given away in the
end by his wet footsteps and the trail of drippings that he left wherever he
went or sat; and also he began to snivel, and wherever he tried to hide he
was found out by the terrific explosions of his suppressed sneezes.

There were many of them, and
they were brave and well-armed, and even the Wargs dared not attack
them if there were many together, or in the bright day.

So they rode
now for two more days, and all the while they saw nothing save grass and
flowers and birds and scattered trees, and occasionally small herds of red
deer browsing or sitting at noon in the shade.

But he soon made
up his mind that it was no good trying to do anything till day came with
some little light, and quite useless to go blundering about tiring himself
out with no hope of any breakfast to revive him.

Some horses, very sleek
and well-groomed, trotted up across the grass and looked at them intently
with very intelligent faces; then off they galloped to the buildings.

It was difficult to think of pursuing
goblins behind, and when they had put many miles between them and
Beorn’s house they began to talk and to sing again and to forget the dark
- 96 -
forest-path that lay in front.

The
other ponies came in rolling round drum-shaped sections of logs, smoothed
and polished, and low enough even for Bilbo; so soon they were all seated
at Beorn’s table, and the hall had not seen such a gathering for many a
year.

As for Bilbo he could easily have trotted through his legs without
ducking his head to miss the fringe of the man’s brown tunic.

He managed by leaning over to cut most of the
strong sticky threads that bound him round, and then, sure enough, with
a kick and a struggle most of Fili emerged.

“Then all the more reason for taking us to him,” burst in Fili, who
was getting impatient at these solemnities.

They distributed the packages as fairly as they could, though Bilbo thought
his lot was wearisomely heavy, and did not at all like the idea of trudging
for miles and miles with all that on his back.

“My toes are all
bruised and bent, and my legs ache, and my stomach is wagging like an
empty sack.”

This great
cave, from which countless smaller ones opened out on every side, wound
far underground and had many passages and wide halls; but it was lighter
and more wholesome than any goblin-dwelling, and neither so deep nor
so dangerous.

They circled up in the
sky and looked down upon the ring of the Wargs, a tiny spot far far below.

Are the goblins at mischief in the woods?”

Tonight the Lord of the Eagles was filled with curiosity to know
what was afoot; so he summoned many other eagles to him, and they
flew away from the mountains, and slowly circling ever round and round
they came down, down, down towards the ring of the wolves and the
meeting-place of the goblins.

CHAPTER 6.

He got to the bottom again at last scratched, hot, and miserable, and he
could not see anything in the gloom below when he got there.

No doubt we shall feel
properly grateful, when we are fed and recovered.

Horses
and ponies had been sent round by circuitous paths to meet them at their
appointed landing-place.

“Very comforting you are to be sure,” growled Thorin.

Bake and toast ‘em, fry and roast ‘em
till beards blaze, and eyes glaze;
till hair smells and skins crack,
fat melts, and bones black
in cinders lie
beneath the sky!

Then he galloped away and was soon lost to sight.

The forest was grim and silent, but
obviously he had first of all to look for his friends, who were not likely to
be very far off, unless they had been made prisoners by the elves (or
worse things).

Great floods and rains had swollen
the waters that flowed east; and there had been an earthquake or two
(which some were inclined to attribute to the dragon-alluding to him
chiefly with a curse and an ominous nod in the direction of the Mountain).

“Well, yes, there seem to be a couple more here now — Fili and
Kili, I believe,” said Gandalf, as these two now appeared and stood smiling
- 88 -
and bowing.

But the portcullis was often open, for
a good deal of traffic went out and in by the water-gate.

When they began to go down
this, rubbish and small pebbles rolled away from their feet; soon larger
bits of split stone went clattering down and started other pieces below
them slithering and rolling; then lumps of rocks were disturbed and
bounded off, crashing down with a dust and a noise.

Soon they had a ring of smoke and flame all
round the dwarves, a ring which they kept from spreading outwards;
but it closed slowly in, till the running fire was licking the fuel piled
under the trees.

Standing now in the middle of the hunting and
spinning insects Bilbo plucked up his courage and began a new song:
Lazy Lob and crazy Cob
are weaving webs to wind me.

In a minute there was a whole pack of them yelping all round
the tree and leaping up at the trunk, with eyes blazing and tongues
hanging out.

Fili took this in his hand, balanced it for a moment, and then
flung it across the stream.

Then it went mad and leaped and danced and flung out
its legs in horrible jerks, until he killed it with another stroke; and then he
fell down and remembered nothing more for a long while.

One of his elder cousins (on the Took side), who had been a great traveller,
used to imitate it to frighten him.

Great floods and rains had swollen
the waters that flowed east; and there had been an earthquake or two
(which some were inclined to attribute to the dragon-alluding to him
chiefly with a curse and an ominous nod in the direction of the Mountain).

Did you not three times pursue and trouble my
people in the forest and ‘ rouse the spiders with your riot and clamour?