from the mountain-wall to the head of the fall over which the stream
went towards Dale. Approach to the Gate was now only possible, without
swimming, along a narrow ledge of the cliff, to the right as one
looked outwards from the wall. The ponies they had brought only to the
head of the steps above the old bridge, and unloading them there had
bidden them return to their masters and sent them back riderless to
the
     There came a night when suddenly there were many lights as of fires
and torches away south in Dale before them.
     “They have come!” called Balin. “And their camp is very great. They
must have come into the valley under the cover of dusk along both
banks of the river.”
     That night the dwarves slept little. The morning was still pale when
they saw a company approaching. From behind their wall they watched
them come up to the valley’s head and climb slowly up. Before long
they could see that both men of the lake armed as if for war and
elvish bowmen were among them. At length the foremost of these climbed
the tumbled rocks and appeared at the top of the falls; and very great
was their surprise to see the pool before them and the Gate blocked
with a wall of new-hewn stone.