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The water flowed dark and swift and strong beneath; and at the far end
were gates before the mouth of a huge cave that ran into the side of a
steep slope covered with trees. There the great beeches came right down
to the bank, till their feet were in the stream. Across this bridge the elves
thrust their prisoners, but Bilbo hesitated in the rear. 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.
Inside the passages were lit with red torch-light, and the elf-guards
sang as they marched along the twisting, crossing, and echoing paths.
These were not like those of the goblin-cities: they were smaller, less
deep underground, and filled with a cleaner air. In a great hall with pillars
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hewn out of the living stone sat the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood.
On his head was a crown of berries and red leaves, for the autumn was
come again. In the spring he wore a crown of woodland flowers. In his
hand he held a carven staff of oak.
The prisoners were brought before him; and though he looked
grimly at them, he told his men to unbind them, for they were ragged and
weary. Besides they need no ropes in here, said he. There is no escape
from my magic doors for those who are once brought inside.
Long and searchingly he questioned the dwarves about their doings,
and where they were going to, and where they were coming from; but he
got little more news out of them than out of Thorin. They were surly and
angry and did not even pretend to be polite.
What have we done, O king? said Balin, who was the eldest left.
Is it a crime to be lost in the forest, to be hungry and thirsty, to be
trapped by spiders? Are the spiders your tame beasts or your pets, if
killing them makes you angry? 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. Do you forget that you were in my kingdom, using the road
that my people made? Did you not three times pursue and trouble my
people in the forest and rouse the spiders with your riot and clamour?
After all the disturbance you have made I have a right to know what
brings you here, and if you will not tell me now, I will keep you all in
prison until you have learned sense and manners!
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. But be did not tell them that Thorin was also a prisoner
with him. It was Bilbo who found that out.
Poor Mr. Baggins it was a weary long time that he lived in that
place all alone, and always in hiding, never daring to take off his ring,
hardly daring to sleep, even tucked away in the darkest and remotest
comers he could find. For something to do he took to wandering about
the Elven-king s palace. Magic shut the gates, but be could sometimes get
out, if he was quick. Companies of the Wood-elves, sometimes with the
king at their head, would from time to time ride out to hunt, or to other
business in the woods and in the lands to the East. Then if Bilbo was very
nimble, he could slip out just behind them; though it was a dangerous
thing to do. More than once he was nearly caught in the doors, as they
clashed together when the last elf passed; yet he did not dare to march
among them because of his shadow (altogether thin and wobbly as it was
in torch-light), or for fear of being bumped into and discovered. And
when he did go out, which was not very often, he did no good. He did not
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wish to desert the dwarves, and indeed he did not know where in the
world to go without them. He could not keep up with the hunting elves all
the time they were out, so he never discovered the ways out of the wood,
and was left to wander miserably in the forest, terrified of losing himself,
until a chance came of returning. He was hungry too outside, for he was
no hunter; but inside the caves he could pick up a living of some sort by
stealing food from store or table when no one was at hand. I am like a
burglar that can t get away, but must go on miserably burgling the same
house day after day, he thought. This is the dreariest and dullest part of
all this wretched, tiresome, uncomfortable adventure! I wish I was back
in my hobbit-hole by my own warm fireside with the lamp shining! 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.
Eventually, after a week or two of this sneaking sort of life, by
watching and following the guards and taking what chances he could, he
managed to find out where each dwarf was kept. He found all their twelve
cells in different parts of the palace, and after a time he got to know his
way about very well. What was his surprise one day to overhear some of
the guards talking and to learn that there was another dwarf in prison too,
in a specially deep dark place. He guessed at once, of course, that that
was Thorin; and after a while he found that his guess was right. At last
after many difficulties he managed to find the place when no one was
about, and to have a word with the chief of the dwarves. Thorin was too
wretched to be angry any longer at his misfortunes, and was even beginning
to think of telling the king all about his treasure and his quest (which
shows how low-spirited he had become), when he heard Bilbo s little
voice at his keyhole. He could hardly believe his ears. Soon however he
made up his mind that he could not be mistaken, and he came to the door
and had a long whispered talk with the hobbit on the other side.
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. 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.
The other dwarves quite agreed when they got the message. They
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all thought their own shares in the treasure (which they quite regarded as
theirs, in spite of their plight and the still unconquered dragon) would
suffer seriously if the Wood-elves claimed part of it, and they all trusted
Bilbo. Just what Gandalf had said would happen, you see. Perhaps that
war part of his reason for going off and leaving them.
Bilbo, however, did not feel nearly so hopeful as they did. He did
not like being depended on by everyone, and he wished he had the wizard
at hand. But that was no use: probably all the dark distance of Mirkwood
lay between them. He sat and thought and thought, until his head nearly
burst, but no bright idea would come. One invisible ring was a very fine
thing, but it was not much good among fourteen. But of course, as you
have guessed, he did rescue his friends in the end, and this is how it
happened. One day, nosing and wandering about. Bilbo discovered a very
interesting thing: the great gates were not the only entrance to the caves.
A stream flowed under part of the lowest regions of the palace, and
joined the Forest River some way further to the east, beyond the steep
slope out of which the main mouth opened. Where this underground
watercourse came forth from the hillside there was a water-gate. There
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