e leapt to his feet, and went down to
the stream and drank of its waters, and washed the night off him in a
pool thereof, and then set forth on his way again. When he had gone some
three hours, the road, which had been going up all the way, but somewhat
gently, grew steeper, and the bent on either side lowered, and lowered,
till it sank at last altogether, and then was he on a rough mountain-neck
with little grass, and no water; save that now and again was a soft place
with a flow amidst of it, and such places he must needs fetch a compass
about, lest he be mired. He gave himself but little rest, eating what he
needs must as he went. The day was bright and calm, so that the sun was
never hidden, and he steered by it due south. All that day he went, and
found no more change in that huge neck, save that whiles it was more and
whiles less steep. A little before nightfall he happened on a shallow
pool some twenty yards over; and he deemed it good to rest there, since
there was water for his avail, though he might have made somewhat more
out of the tail end of the day.

When dawn came again he awoke and arose, nor spent much time over his
breakfast; but pressed on all he might; and now he said to himself, that
whatsoever other peril were athwart his way, he was out of the danger of
the chase of his own folk.

All this while he had seen no four-footed beast, save now and again a
hill-fox, and once some outlandish kind of hare; and of fowl but very
few: a crow or two, a long-winged hawk, and twice an eagle high up aloft.

Again, the third night, he slept in the stony wilderness, which still led
him up and up. Only toward the end of the day, himseemed that it had
been less steep for a long while: otherwise nought was changed, on all
sides it was nought but the endless neck, wherefrom nought could be seen,
but some other part of itself. This fourth night withal he found no
water whereby he might rest, so that he awoke parched, and longing to
drink just when the dawn was at its coldest.

But on the fifth morrow the ground rose but little, and at last, when he
had been going wearily a long while, and now, hard on noontide, his
thirst grieved him sorely, he came on a spring welling out from under a
high rock, the water wherefrom trickled feebly away. So eager was he to
drink, that at first he heeded nought else; but when his thirst was fully
quenched his eyes caught sight of the stream which flowed from the well,
and he