enough to think what to do about it. As for your share, Mr. Baggins, I
assure you we are more than grateful and you shall choose you own
fourteenth, as soon as we have anything to divide, am sorry if you are
worried about transport, and I admit the difficulties are great-the
lands have not become less wild with the passing of time, rather the
reverse-but we will do whatever we can for you, and take our share of
the cost when the time comes. Believe me or not as you like!”
     From that the talk turned to the great hoard itself and to the things
that Thorin and Balin remembered. They wondered if they were still
lying there .unharmed in the hall below: the spears that were made for
the armies of the great King Bladorthin (long since dead), each had a
thrice-forged head and their shafts were inlaid with cunning gold, but
they were never delivered or paid for; shields made for warriors long
dead; the great golden cup of Thror, two-handed, hammered and carven
with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels; coats of
mail gilded and silvered and impenetrable; the necklace of Girion,
Lord of Dale, made of five hundred emeralds green as grass, which he
gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf-linked rings
the like of which had never been made before, for it was wrought of
pure silver to the power and strength of triple steel. But fairest of