The Hobbit / Хоббит. 10 класс - стр. 14

“What are moon-letters?” asked the hobbit full of excitement. He loved maps, and he also liked runes and letters.

“Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them,” said Elrond, “not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens.”

“What do they say?” asked Gandalf and Thorin together.

“Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks,” read Elrond, “and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole.”

“Durin, Durin!” said Thorin. “He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves, the Longbeards, and my first ancestor: I am his heir.”

“Then what is Durin’s Day?” asked Elrond.

“The first day of the dwarves’ New Year,” said Thorin, “when the last moon of autumn and the sun are in the sky together.”

Then Elrond gave the map back to Thorin; and then they went down to the water to see the elves dance and sing.

The next morning they rode away, with their hearts ready for more adventure. Now they knew the road that they had to follow over the Misty Mountains to the land beyond.

The way was long and dangerous. Once there was a terrible thunderstorm, and the dwarves found a dry cave to spend there some time.

It seemed not too large and mysterious. At one end there was room for the ponies. Oin and Gloin wanted to light a fire at the door to dry their clothes, but Gandalf didn’t let them do it. So they put their wet things on the floor, and took dry ones out of their bags; then they made their blankets comfortable, got out their pipes and blew smoke rings. They talked and talked, and forgot about the storm, and discussed what each would do with his share of the treasure; and so they fell asleep one by one. But Bilbo could not go to sleep for a long while; and when he fell asleep, he had very nasty dreams. Suddenly he woke up and saw that a crack had opened at the back of the cave, and was already a wide passage. He was just in time to see the ponies’ tails disappearing into it. Of course he gave a very loud scream.

Out jumped the goblins, great ugly-looking goblins, lots of goblins. There were six to each dwarf, at least, and two even for Bilbo; and they were all grabbed and carried through the crack. But not Gandalf. Bilbo’s scream had wakened him up at once, and when goblins came to grab him, there was a terrible flash like lightning in the cave, and several of them fell dead.

The crack closed, and Bilbo and the dwarves were on the wrong side of it! Where was Gandalf? It was very dark. The passages there were crossed in all directions, but the goblins knew their way. The goblins were very rude, and laughed in their horrible voices.