towers

the white rider 643
my friends,’ he said in a soft voice. ‘I wish to speak to you.
Will you come down, or shall I come up?’ Without waiting
for an answer he began to climb.
‘Now!’ cried Gimli. ‘Stop him, Legolas!’
‘Did I not say that I wished to speak to you?’ said the old
man. ‘Put away that bow, Master Elf !’
The bow and arrow fell from Legolas’ hands, and his arms
hung loose at his sides.
‘And you, Master Dwarf, pray take your hand from your
axe-haft, till I am up! You will not need such arguments.’
Gimli started and then stood still as stone, staring, while
the old man sprang up the rough steps as nimbly as a goat.
All weariness seemed to have left him. As he stepped up on
to the shelf there was a gleam, too brief for certainty, a quick
glint of white, as if some garment shrouded by the grey rags
had been for an instant revealed. The intake of Gimli’s breath
could be heard as a loud hiss in the silence.
‘Well met, I say again!’ said the old man, coming towards
them. When he was a few feet away, he stood, stooping over
his staff, with his head thrust forward, peering at them from
under his hood. ‘And what may you be doing in these parts?
An Elf, a Man, and a Dwarf, all clad in Elvish fashion. No
doubt there is a tale worth hearing behind it all. Such things
are not often seen here.’
‘You speak as one that knows Fangorn well,’ said Aragorn.
‘Is that so?’
‘Not well,’ said the old man: ‘that would be the study of
many lives. But I come here now and again.’
‘Might we know your name, and then hear what it is that
you have to say to us?’ said Aragorn. ‘The morning passes,
and we have an errand that will not wait.’
‘As for what I wished to say, I have said it: What may you
be doing, and what tale can you tell of yourselves? As for my
name!’ He broke off, laughing long and softly. Aragorn felt a
shudder run through him at the sound, a strange cold thrill;
and yet it was not fear or terror that he felt: rather it was like