things; and
oft did we make pause and hark, and had a great care as we did go by the
dull fire-holes and fire-pits, that we should make no showing of
ourselves in the light.

And sudden, as we did go by a great pit that burned very deep and red, I
reached back and caught Mine Own by the arm, and I set her gaze unto
the right side of the Gorge, which was beyond the fire. And the Maid
went very still, as she did see the thing that was there; for in verity
it was utter monstrous, and did shine very wet-looking in the light of
the fire. And truly it moved a little with the head, this way and that,
stretching through the dark and the shadows, as you shall see a slug to
move, and with no speed or sound, and nowise seeming heedful of aught.
But yet did I fear that it smelled us, if this might be; and this, as
you shall think, to be a very natural fear.

And alway, as I do mind, it seemed to go blindly somewise, or to have
that slow and strange moving that doth make one to think of a blindness;
but whether it did be truly blind, how shall I say; only that it was an
utter Monstrous Brute, so great as the black hull of a ship, and very
dreadful unto our hearts.

And we moved not for a while, save that I pulled Mine Own down into the
hiding of the boulders of that part; and she to put her hand very
anxious unto me; yet not to be comforted, as I did half to think, but to
persuade me, lest that I go to some adventuring that should set me in a
surer danger. And this I perceived in a little moment, and loved her for
her care.

But, indeed, I had no mind to aught, save that we come clear of that
place; and I watched the Monster, through places between the boulders;
and surely, in a little while, it swayed the great head very slow and
quiet unto the cliff that did make that side of the Gorge; and the Brute
set unto the Cliff, and began that it went upward with a strange moving
of muscles that did go wavewise under the wet and horrid-gleaming hide.

And so, in a little time, it was gone quiet against the cliff, and the
head-part did be upward in the darkness above, so that it did be from
our sight. But the monster body did be plain for a great way, and was
seeming clung to the cliff, and to come downward out of the dark, as
that it did be a great black ridge of soft and dreadful life upon the
face of the cliff; and the tail was something less bulked, and to taper,
and did trail outward into the Gorge upon the boulders.

And surel