Page 122 - The Hobbit

At that Thorin shut his mouth and would not say another word.

"Very well!" said the king. "Take him away and keep him safe, until he feels
inclined to tell the truth, even if he waits a hundred years.'"
Then the elves put thongs on him, and shut him in one of the inmost caves with

strong wooden doors, and left him. They gave him food and drink, plenty of both,
if not very fine; for Wood-elves were not goblins, and were reasonably well-
behaved even to their worst enemies, when they captured them. The giant spiders
were the only living things that they had no mercy upon.

There in the king's dungeon poor Thorin lay; and after he had got over his
thankfulness for bread and meat and water, he began to wonder what had become
of his unfortunate friends. It was not very long before he discovered; but that

belongs to the next chapter and the beginning of another adventure in which the
hobbit again showed his usefulness.