So on he went, and presently was mounting the ridge aforesaid, and,
as oft happens when one climbs a steep place, he kept his eyes on
the ground, till he felt he was on the top of the ridge. Then he
stopped to take breath, and raised his head and looked, and lo! he
was verily on the brow of the great mountain-neck, and down below
him was the hanging of the great hill-slopes, which fell down, not
slowly, as those he had been those days a-mounting, but speedily
enough, though with little of broken places or sheer cliffs. But
beyond this last of the desert there was before him a lovely land of
wooded hills, green plains, and little valleys, stretching out far
and wide, till it ended at last in great blue mountains and white
snowy peaks beyond them.

Then for very surprise of joy his spirit wavered, and he felt faint
and dizzy, so that he was fain to sit down a while and cover his
face with his hands. Presently he came to his sober mind again, and
stood up and looked forth keenly, and saw no sign of any dwelling of
man. But he said to himself that that might well be because the
good and well-grassed land was still so far off, and that he might
yet look to find men and their dwellings when he had left the
mountain wilderness quite behind him: So therewith he fell to going
his ways down the mountain, and lost little time therein, whereas he
now had his livelihood to look to.



CHAPTER IX: WALTER HAPPENETH ON THE FIRST OF THOSE THREE CREATURES