So they went on their ways, and fared very warily when they were
gotten beyond those parts of the wood which they knew well. By this
time they were strung out in a long line; and they noted their road
carefully, blazing the trees on either side when there were trees,
and piling up little stone-heaps where the trees failed them. For
Stone-face said that oft it befell men amidst the thicket and the
waste to be misled by wights that begrudged men their lives, so that
they went round and round in a ring which they might not depart from
till they died; and no man doubted his word herein.
All day they went, and met no foe, nay, no man at all; nought but the
wild things of the wood; and that day the wood changed little about
them from mile to mile. There were many thickets across their road
which they had to go round about; so that to the crow flying over the
tree-tops the journey had not been long to the place where night came
upon them, and where they had to make the wood their bedchamber.
That night they lighted no fire, but ate such cold victual as they
might carry with them; nor had they shot any venison, since they had
with them more than enough; they made little noise or stir therefore
and fell asleep when they had set the watch.
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