So the vanward of
the host tarried not, and the captains left word with the men from
under House-stone that the rest of the Host should fare on after them
speedily, and that they should give this word to each company, as men
came up from out the gap. Then they fared speedily up the hillside,
and in an hour's wearing had come to the crest thereof, and to where
the ground fell steadily toward the north, and hereabout the
scattered stones ceased, and on the other side of the crest the heath
began to be soft and boggy, and at last so soft, that if they had not
been wisely led, they had been bemired oftentimes. At last they came
to where the flows that trickled through the mires drew together into
a stream, so that men could see it running; and thereon some of the
Woodlanders cried out joyously that the waters were running north;
and then all knew that they were drawing nigh to Silver-dale.
No man they met on the road, nor did they of Shadowy Vale look to
meet any; because the Dusky Men were not great hunters for the more
part, except it were of men, and especially of women; and, moreover,
these hill-slopes of the mountain-necks led no-whither and were
utterly waste and dreary, and there was nought to be seen there but
snipes and bitterns and whimbrel and plover, and here and there a
hill-fox, or the great erne hanging over the heath on his way to the
mountain.
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