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.On his head was a crown of berries and redleaves, for the autumn was come again.In the spring he wore a crown ofwoodland flowers.In his hand he held a carven staff of oak.The prisoners were brought before him; and though he looked grimly at them,he told his men to unbind them, for they were ragged and weary."Besides theyneed no ropes in here," said he."There is no escape from my magic doors for thosewho are once brought inside."Long and searchingly he questioned the dwarves about their doings, and wherethey were going to, and where they were coming from; but he got little more newsout of them than out of Thorin.They were surly and angry and did not evenpretend to be polite."What have we done, O king?" said Balin, who was the eldest left."Is it acrime to be lost in the forest, to be hungry and thirsty, to be trapped by spiders?Are the spiders your tame beasts or your pets, if killing them makes you angry?"Such a question of course made the king angrier than ever, and he answered: "It isa crime to wander in my realm without leave.Do you forget that you were in mykingdom, using the road that my people made? Did you not three times pursueand trouble my people in the forest and ' rouse the spiders with your riot andclamour? After all the disturbance you have made I have a right to know whatbrings you here, and if you will not tell me now, I will keep you all in prison untilyou have learned sense and manners!"Then he ordered the dwarves each to be put in a separate cell and to be givenfood and drink, but not to be allowed to pass the doors of their little prisons, untilone at least of them was willing to tell him all he wanted to know.But be did nottell them that Thorin was also a prisoner with him.It was Bilbo who found thatout.Poor Mr.Baggins it was a weary long time that he lived in that place allalone, and always in hiding, never daring to take off his ring, hardly daring tosleep, even tucked away in the darkest and remotest comers he could find.Forsomething to do he took to wandering about the Elven-king's palace.Magic shutthe gates, but be could sometimes get out, if he was quick.Companies of theWood-elves, sometimes with the king at their head, would from time to time rideout to hunt, or to other business in the woods and in the lands to the East.Then ifBilbo was very nimble, he could slip out just behind them; though it was a dangerous thing to do.More than once he was nearly caught in the doors, as theyclashed together when the last elf passed; yet he did not dare to march amongthem because of his shadow (altogether thin and wobbly as it was in torch-light),or for fear of being bumped into and discovered.And when he did go out, whichwas not very often, he did no good.He did not wish to desert the dwarves, andindeed he did not know where in the world to go without them.He could not keepup with the hunting elves all the time they were out, so he never discovered theways out of the wood, and was left to wander miserably in the forest, terrified oflosing himself, until a chance came of returning.He was hungry too outside, forhe was no hunter; but inside the caves he could pick up a living of some sort bystealing food from store or table when no one was at hand."I am like a burglarthat can't get away, but must go on miserably burgling the same house day afterday," he thought."This is the dreariest and dullest part of all this wretched,tiresome, uncomfortable adventure! I wish I was back in my hobbit-hole by myown warm fireside with the lamp shining!" He often wished, too, that he could geta message for help sent to the wizard, but that of course was quite impossible; andhe soon realized that if anything was to be done, it would have to be done by Mr.Baggins, alone and unaided.Eventually, after a week or two of this sneaking sort of life, by watching andfollowing the guards and taking what chances he could, he managed to find outwhere each dwarf was kept.He found all their twelve cells in different parts of thepalace, and after a time he got to know his way about very well.What was hissurprise one day to overhear some of the guards talking and to learn that there wasanother dwarf in prison too, in a specially deep dark place.He guessed at once, ofcourse, that that was Thorin; and after a while he found that his guess was right.At last after many difficulties he managed to find the place when no one wasabout, and to have a word with the chief of the dwarves.Thorin was too wretchedto be angry any longer at his misfortunes, and was even beginning to think oftelling the king all about his treasure and his quest (which shows how low-spiritedhe had become), when he heard Bilbo's little voice at his keyhole.He could hardlybelieve his ears.Soon however he made up his mind that he could not bemistaken, and he came to the door and had a long whispered talk with the hobbiton the other side.So it was that Bilbo was able to take secretly Thorin's message to each of theother imprisoned dwarves, telling them that Thorin their chief was also in prisonclose at hand, and that no one was to reveal their errand to the long, not yet, notbefore Thorin gave the word.For Thorin had taken heart again hearing how the hobbit had rescued his companions from the spiders, and was determined oncemore not to ransom himself with promises to the king of a share in the treasure,until all hope of escaping in any other way had disappeared; until in fact theremarkable Mr.Invisible Baggins (of whom he began to have a very high opinionindeed) had altogether failed to think of something clever.The other dwarves quite agreed when they got the message.They all thoughttheir own shares in the treasure (which they quite regarded as theirs, in spite oftheir plight and the still unconquered dragon) would suffer seriously if the Wood-elves claimed part of it, and they all trusted Bilbo.Just what Gandalf had saidwould happen, you see.Perhaps that war part of his reason for going off andleaving them.Bilbo, however, did not feel nearly so hopeful as they did.He did not likebeing depended on by everyone, and he wished he had the wizard at hand.But thatwas no use: probably all the dark distance of Mirkwood lay between them.He satand thought and thought, until his head nearly burst, but no bright idea wouldcome.One invisible ring was a very fine thing, but it was not much good amongfourteen.But of course, as you have guessed, he did rescue his friends in the end,and this is how it happened.One day, nosing and wandering about.Bilbodiscovered a very interesting thing: the great gates were not the only entrance tothe caves.A stream flowed under part of the lowest regions of the palace, andjoined the Forest River some way further to the east, beyond the steep slope out ofwhich the main mouth opened.Where this underground watercourse came forthfrom the hillside there was a water-gate.There the rocky roof came down close tothe surface of the stream, and from it a portcullis could be dropped right to the bedof the river to prevent anyone coming in or out that way.But the portcullis wasoften open, for a good deal of traffic went out and in by the water-gate
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