“There aren’t any oars. How are you going to push the boat back to the far bank?” asked the hobbit.

“Give me another rope and another hook,” said Fili. Then he threw the rope into the darkness ahead and as high as he could. The hook got stuck in the branches. “One of you,” said Fili, “should pull on the rope that is stuck in a tree on the other side. One of the others must hold the hook that we used at first, and when we are safe on the other side he can hook it on, and you can draw the boat back.”

In this way they were all soon on the far bank safe across the enchanted stream. But then something bad happened. Out of the gloom a deer ran into the dwarves and bowled them over. Then it prepared for a leap. High it jumped. But Thorin was quick: he shot into the leaping beast. They heard how the deer fell down. Just then Bilbo cried: “Bombur is drowning!”. It was only too true.[54] Bombur had only one foot on the land when the deer sprang over him. He stumbled and fell into the water.

They could still see his hood above the water when they ran to the bank.

Quickly they threw a rope with a hook to him. His hand caught it, and they pulled him to the shore. He was wet from hair to boots, of course, but that was not the worst. When they laid him on the bank he was already fast asleep; and fast asleep he remained in spite of all they could do.

Suddenly on the path ahead appeared some white deer. Before Thorin could cry out three of the dwarves had leaped to their feet and loosed off arrows from their bows. None found their mark.[55] The deer turned and vanished in the trees, and in vain the dwarves shot their arrows after them.

“Stop! Stop!” shouted Thorin; but it was too late, the excited dwarves had wasted their last arrows, and now the bows that Beorn had given them were useless.

They were a gloomy party that night, and the gloom gathered still deeper on them in the following days. They were carrying the heavy body of Bombur. In a few days there was practically nothing to eat or to drink.

Two days later they came to a valley filled with oaks. “Is there no end to this damned forest?” said Thorin. “Somebody must climb a tree and have a look round.”

Of course “somebody” was Bilbo, because he was the lightest. Poor Mr Baggins had never had much practice in climbing trees, but they lifted him up into the lowest branches of a huge oak, and he had to climb up.

In the end Bilbo got to the top. His eyes were almost blinded by the light. He saw all round him a sea of dark green; and there were everywhere hundreds of butterflies. But he could see no end to the trees and the leaves in any direction.

He climbed down full of despair. His report soon made the others as miserable as he was.

“The forest goes on for ever and ever and ever in all directions! What shall we do?” they cried.

That night they ate their last crumbs of food; and the next morning when they woke it was raining. The only good thing was that Bombur woke up suddenly. He had forgotten everything that had happened since they started their journey long ago. The last thing that he remembered was the party at the hobbit’s house.

When he heard that there was nothing to eat, he sat down and wept, for he felt very weak. “Why ever did I wake up!” he cried. “I was having such beautiful dreams. I dreamed I was walking in a forest rather like this one, only with torches on the trees; and there was a great feast going on.”

There was nothing now to be done but to tighten the belts round their empty stomachs, and go on. So they walked all that day very slowly.

Suddenly Balin, who was a little way ahead, called out: “What was that? I thought I saw a twinkle of light in the forest.” They all looked, and they saw a red twinkle in the dark. So they hurried along then. The light was in front of them and to the left of the path, and at last they saw torches and fires burning under the trees, but a good way off their track.

“It looks as if my dreams were coming true,” gasped Bombur. He wanted to rush into the wood after the lights. But the others remembered the warnings of the wizard and of Beorn. “A feast will be no good, if we never get back alive from it,” said Thorin. “But without a feast we won’t remain alive much longer anyway,” said Bombur, and Bilbo completely agreed with him. So they decided to leave the path and go into the forest together. They crawled quietly and peered round the trunks. They saw many people there, who looked like elves, all dressed in green and brown. The people were sitting in a great circle. There was a fire in the middle and there were torches fastened to some of the trees; but best sight of all: they were eating and drinking and laughing.

The smell of the meal was so delicious that all the dwarves got up and went into the ring to beg for some food. But as soon as the first stepped into the clearing, all the lights went out as if by magic.

They were lost in complete darkness and they could not even find one another. At last they managed to get together and count themselves by touch.[56] They didn’t think of the food because they were really afraid to lose each other again. By that time they had forgotten where the path was.

Then Dori said in a loud whisper:

“I can see the lights are again over there.”

Up they all jumped. They heard the voices and the laughter quite clearly. When they got near the lights, Thorin said: “Don’t rush forward this time! I will send Mr Baggins alone first to talk to them. They won’t be frightened of him, and I hope they won’t do anything bad to him.” When they got to the edge of the circle of lights they pushed Bilbo suddenly from behind. Before he had time to slip on his ring, he stumbled forward into the full blaze of the fire and torches. It was no good. Out went all the lights again and complete darkness fell. But it was worse this time. They simply could not find the hobbit. They shouted and called: “Bilbo Baggins! Hobbit! Where are you?” but there was no answer.

Suddenly Dori stumbled across Bilbo. The hobbit was fast asleep. When he was awake he was not pleased at all.

“I was having such a lovely dream,” Bilbo grumbled, “about a most gorgeous dinner.”

“Good heavens! He is like Bombur now,” they said. “Don’t tell us about dreams.”

Soon Kili came and roused them all again, saying:

“There are hundreds of torches and many fires over there!”

Up they got again; it was the same again and this time the result was disastrous. Thorin stepped into the centre of the circle.

Out went all light. Bilbo was running round and round and calling:

“Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Fili, Kili, Bombur, Bifur, Bofur, Dwalin, Balin, Thorin Oakenshield.” Soon he was alone in complete silence and darkness. That was one of his most miserable moments. But he decided to sit down with his back to a tree and stay there until morning. Bilbo was dreaming about food when he felt something touch him. Something like a strong sticky string was against his left hand, and when he tried to move he found that his legs were already wrapped, so that when he got up he fell over.

Then the great spider came from behind him and attacked him. Bilbo had a desperate fight. He beat the creature off with his hands until he remembered his sword and drew it out. Bilbo cut the string around his legs and then he struck the spider with his sword and killed it.

The spider lay dead beside him. Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr Baggins. He felt a different person, and much bolder in spite of an empty stomach.

“I will give you a name,” he said to the sword, “and I will call you Sting.” After that he went to look around. The forest was gloomy and silent, but Bilbo had to look for his friends.