Thereafter for a space was there an end of
the stony cumber, but the way betwixt the river and the cliffs
narrowed again, and the black crags grew higher, and at last so
exceeding high, and the way so narrow, that the sky overhead was to
them as though they were at the bottom of a well, and men deemed that
thence they could see the stars at noontide. For some time withal
had the way been mounting up and up, though the cliffs grew higher
over it; till at last they were but going on a narrow shelf, the
Shivering Flood swirling and rattling far below them betwixt sheer
rock-walls grown exceeding high; and above them the cliffs going up
towards the heavens as black as a moonless starless night of winter.
And as the flood thundered below, so above them roared the ceaseless
thunder of the wind of the pass, that blew exceeding fierce down that
strait place; so that the skirts of their garments were wrapped about
their knees by it, and their feet were well-nigh stayed at whiles as
they breasted the push thereof.
But as they mounted higher and higher yet, the noise of the waters
swelled into a huge roar that drowned the bellowing of the prisoned
wind, and down the pass came drifting a fine rain that fell not from
the sky, for between the clouds of that drift could folk see the
heavens bright and blue above them.
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