“And here’s the burglar!” said Bilbo stepping down into the middle of
them, and slipping off the ring.
     
     Gandalf was as astonished as any of them, but probably more pleased
than all the others. He called to Balin and told him what he thought
of a look-out man who let people walk right into them like that
without warning. It is a fact that Bilbo’s
     If they had still doubted that he was really a first-class burglar, in
spite of Gandalf’s words, they doubted no longer. Balin was the most
puzzled of all; but everyone said it was a very clever bit of work.
     Indeed Bilbo was so pleased with their praise that he just chuckled
inside and said nothing whatever about the ring; and when they asked
him how he did it, he said: “O, just crept along, you know-very
carefully and quietly.”
     “Well, it is the first time that even a mouse has crept along
carefully and quietly under my very nose and not been spotted,” said
Balin, “and I take off my hood to you.” Which he did.
     “Balin at your service,” said he.
     “Your servant, Mr. Baggins,” said Bilbo.
     Then they wanted to know all about his adventures after they had lost