hobbit

was a coming and going about the Gate? Dwarves seemed to be busy removing the
wall. But all was deadly still. There was no call and no echo of a song. Sorrow seemed
to be in the air. "Victory after all, I suppose!" he said, feeling his aching head. "Well,
it seems a very gloomy business."
Suddenly he was aware of a man climbing up and coming towards him.
"Hullo there!" he called with a shaky voice. "Hullo there! What news?"
"What voice is it that speaks among the stones?" said the man halting and peering about
him not far from where Bilbo sat.
Then Bilbo remembered his ring! "Well I'm blessed!" said he. "This invisibility has its
drawbacks after all. Otherwise I suppose I might have spent a warm and comfortable
night in bed!"
"It's me, Bilbo Baggins, companion of Thorin!" he cried, hurriedly taking
off the ring.
"It is well that I have found you!" said the man striding forward. "You are needed and we
have looked for you long. You would have been numbered among the dead, who are
many, if Gandalf the wizard had not said that your voice was last heard in this place. I
have been sent to look here for the last time. Are you much hurt?"
"A nasty knock on the head, I think," said Bilbo. "But I have a helm and a hard skull. All
the same I feel sick and my legs are like straws."
"I will carry you down to the camp in the valley," said the man, and picked him lightly up.
The man was swift and sure-footed. It was not long before Bilbo was set down before a
tent in Dale; and there stood Gandalf, with his arm in a sling.
Even the wizard had not escaped without a wound; and there were few unharmed in all
the host.
When Gandalf saw Bilbo, he was delighted. "Baggins!" he exclaimed. "Well I never! Alive
after all - 1 am glad! I began to wonder if even your luck would see you through! A
terrible business, and it nearly was disastrous. But other news can wait. Come!" he said
more gravely. "You are called for;" and leading the hobbit he took him within the tent.
"Hail! Thorin," he said as he entered. "I have brought him."
There indeed lay Thorin Oakenshield, wounded with many wounds, and his rent armour
and notched axe were cast upon the floor. He looked up as Bilbo came beside him.
"Farewell, good thief," he said. "I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers,
until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all gold and silver, and go where it is of little
worth, I wish to part in friendship from you, and I would take back my words and deeds
at the Gate."
Bilbo knelt on one knee filled with sorrow. "Farewell, King under the Mountain!" he said.
"This is a bitter adventure, if it must end so; and not a mountain of gold can amend it.
Yet I am glad that I have shared in your perils - that has been more than any Baggins
deserves."
"No!" said Thorin. "There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West.
Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and
cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I
must leave it now. Farewell!"
Then Bilbo turned away, and he went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket,
and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was
hoarse. He was a kindly little soul. Indeed it was long before he had the heart to make a
joke again. "A mercy it is," he said at last to himself, "that I woke up when I did. I wish
Thorin were living, but I am glad that we parted in kindness. You are a fool, Bilbo
Baggins, and you made a great mess of that business with the stone; and there was a
battle, in spite of all your efforts to buy peace and quiet, but I suppose you can hardly be
blamed for that."