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Page 29
By this time I felt very drowsy, and suddenly dropped off into a
sleep--such a deep and dreamless sleep, to descend into which was like
flinging oneself into a river-pool by a bubbling weir on a hot and dusty
day of summer.
I awoke suddenly with a pressure on my arm, and, waking up with a sense
of renewed freshness, I saw Amroth looking at me anxiously. "Do not
say anything," he said. "Can you manage to hobble a few steps? If you
cannot, I will get some help, and we shall be all right--but there may
be an unpleasant encounter, and it is best avoided." I scrambled to my
feet, and Amroth helped me a little higher up the rocks, looking
carefully into the mist as he did so. Close behind us was a steep rock
with ledges. Amroth flung himself upon them, with an agile scramble or
two. Then he held his hand down, lying on the top; I took it, and,
stiffened as I was, I contrived to get up beside him. "That is right,"
he said in a whisper. "Now lie here quietly, don't speak a word, and
just watch."
I lay, with a sense of something evil about. Presently I heard the sound
of voices in the mist to the left of us; and in an instant there loomed
out of the mist the form of a man, who was immediately followed by three
others. They were different from all the other spirits I had yet
seen--tall, lean, dark men, very spare and strong. They looked carefully
about them, mostly glancing down the cliff, and sometimes conferred
together. They were dressed in close-fitting dark clothes, which seemed
as if made out of some kind of skin or untanned leather, and their whole
air was sinister and terrifying. They passed quite close beneath us, so
that I saw the bald head of one of them, who carried a sort of hook in
his hands.
When they got to the place where my climb had ended, they stopped and
examined the stones carefully: one of them clambered a few feet down the
cliff. Then he came back and seemed to make a brief report, after which
they appeared undecided what to do; they even looked up at the rock
where we lay; but while they did this, another man, very similar, came
hurriedly out of the mist, said something to the group, and they all
disappeared very quickly into the darkness the same way they had come.
Then there was a silence. I should have spoken, but Amroth put a finger
on his lips. Presently there came a sound of falling stones, and after
that there broke out among the rocks below a horrible crying, as of a
man in sore straits and instant fear. Amroth jumped quickly to his feet.
"This will not do," he said. "Stay here for me." And then leaping down
the rock, he disappeared, shouting words of help--"Hold on--I am
coming."
He came back some little time afterwards, and I saw that he was not
alone. He had with him an old stumbling man, evidently in the last
extremity of terror and pain, with beads of sweat on his brow and blood
running down from his hands. He seemed dazed and bewildered. And Amroth
too looked ruffled and almost weary, as I had never seen him look. I
came down the rock to meet them. But Amroth said, "Wait here for me; it
has been a troublesome business, and I must go and bestow this poor
creature in a place of safety--I will return." He led the old man away
among the rocks, and I waited a long time, wondering very heavily what
it was that I had seen.
When Amroth came back to the rock he was fresh and smiling again: he
swung himself up, and sat by me, with his hands clasped round his knees.
Then he looked at me, and said, "I daresay you are surprised? You did
not expect to see such terrors and dangers here? And it is a great
mystery."
"You must be kind," I said, "and explain to me what has happened."
"Well," said Amroth, "there is a large gang of men who infest this
place, who have got up here by their agility, and can go no further,
who make it their business to prevent all they can from coming up. I
confess that it is the hardest thing of all to understand why it is
allowed; but if you expect all to be plain sailing up here, you are
mistaken. One needs to be wary and strong. They do much harm here, and
will continue to do it."
"What would have happened if they had found us here?" I said.
"Nothing very much," said Amroth; "a good deal of talk no doubt, and
some blows perhaps. But it was well I was with you, because I could have
summoned help. They are not as strong as they look either--it is mostly
fear that aids them."
"Well, but _who_ are they?" I said.
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