Page 123 - The Hobbit

Chapter 9

Barrels Out of Bond

The day after the battle with the spiders Bilbo and the dwarves made one last

despairing effort to find a way out before they died of hunger and thirst. They got
up and staggered on in the direction which eight out of the thirteen of them
guessed to be the one in which the path lay; but they never found out if they were

right. Such day as there ever was in the forest was fading once more into the
blackness of night, when suddenly out sprang the light of many torches all round
them, like hundreds of red stars. Out leaped Wood-elves with their bows and
spears and called the dwarves to halt.

There was no thought of a fight. Even if the dwarves had not been in such a
state that they were actually glad to be captured, their small knives, the only
weapons they had, would have been of no use against the arrows of the elves that

could hit a bird's eye in the dark. So they simply stopped dead and sat down and
waited-all except Bilbo, who popped on his ring and slipped quickly to one side.
That is why, when the elves bound the dwarves in a long line, one behind the
other, and counted them, they never found or counted the hobbit. Nor did they

hear or feel him trotting along well behind their torch-light as they led off their
prisoners into the forest. Each dwarf was blindfold, but that did not make much
difference, for even Bilbo with the use of his eyes could not see where they were
going, and neither he nor the others knew where they had started from anyway.

Bilbo had all he could do to keep up with the torches, for the elves were making
the dwarves go as fast as ever they could, sick and weary as they were. The king
had ordered them to make haste. Suddenly the torches stopped, and the hobbit had
just time to catch them up before they began to cross the bridge. This was the

bridge that led across the river to the king's doors. 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