A Long Strange Journey

Not At Home

Those were perhaps the worst moments they had been through yet. The horrible sounds of Smaug's anger were echoing in the stony hollows far above; at any moment he might come blazing down or fly whirling round and find them there, near the cliff's edge hauling madly on the ropes. Up came Bofur, and still all was safe. Up came Bombur, puffing and blowing while the ropes creaked, and still all was safe. Up came some tools and bundles of stores, and then danger was upon them.

A whirring noise was heard. A red light touched the points of standing rocks. The dragon came.

They had barely time to fly back to the tunnel, pulling and dragging their bundles, when Smaug came hurtling from the North, licking the mountain-sides with flame, beating his great wings with noise like a roaring wind. His hot breath shriveled the grass before the door, and drove in through the crack they had left and scorched them as they lay hid. Flickering fired leaped up and the black rock-shadows danced. Then darkness fell as he passed again. The ponies screamed in terror, burst their ropes and galloped wildly off. The dragon swooped and turned to pursue them and was gone.

"That'll be the end of our poor beasts!" said Balin. "Nothing can escape Smaug once he sees it. Here we are and here we shall have to stay, unless one fancies tramping the long open miles back to the river with Smaug on the watch!"

It was not a pleasant thought! They crept further down the tunnel, and there they lay and shivered though it was warm and stuffy, until dawn came pale through the crack of the door. Every now and again through the night they could hear the roar of the flying dragon grow and then pass and fade, as he hunted round and round the mountain-sides.

Smaug guessed from the ponies, and from the traces of the camps he had discovered, that men had indeed come up with the Dwarves at some point from the river and the lake and that they had scaled the mountain-side from the valley where the ponies had been standing; but the door withstood his searching eye, and the little high-walled bay had kept out his fiercest flames. Long he hunted in vain till the dawn chilled his wrath and he went back to his golden couch to sleep—and to gather new strength. He would not forget or forgive the theft, not if a thousand years turned him to smoldering stone, but he could afford to wait. Slow and silent he crept back into his lair and half closed his eyes.

When morning came the terror of the Dwarves grew less. They realized that dangers of this kind were inevitable when dealing with such a guardian, and that it was no good giving up yet. Nor could they get away just now, as Balin had pointed out. Their ponies were lost or killed, and they would have to wait some time before Smaug relaxed his watch sufficiently for them to dare the long way on foot. Luckily they had saved enough stores to last them still for some time.

They debated long on what was to be done, but they could think of no way of getting rid of Smaug—which had always been a weak point in their plans, as Bilbo felt inclined to point out. Then as is the nature of folk that are thoroughly perplexed, they began to grumble at the hobbit, blaming him for what had at first so pleased them: for going bravely into Smaug's lair and stirring up his wrath so soon. They also lamented and criticized his decision to leave Hannah behind with the Elves, as surely the apprentice of a wizard, who must have been taught a great many of her master's enchantments and spells, could have been of some use to them in this desperate situation.

"What else do you suppose a burglar is to do?" asked Bilbo angrily. "I was not engaged to kill dragons, that is warrior's work, but to steal treasure. I made the best beginning I could. Did you expect me to trot back with the whole hoard of Thrór on my back? If there is any grumbling to be done, I think I might have a say. You ought to have brought five hundred burglars, not one. I am sure it reflects great credit on your grandfather, but you cannot pretend that you ever made the vast extent of his wealth clear to me. I should want hundreds of years to bring it all up,"—the dragon had been quite right about that part—"if I was fifty times as big, and Smaug as tame as a rabbit. And you know perfectly well why Hannah herself decided not to come with us. Shame on you for thinking to make an injured girl brave such danger!"