"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.
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