The Hobbit

hobbit
     came to the opening unexpectedly, put his hand on air, stumbled forward, and rolled headlong into the hall!
    There he lay face downwards on the floor and did not dare to get up, or hardly even to breathe. But nothing moved. There was
     not a gleam of light—unless, as it seemed to him, when at last he slowly raised his head, there was a pale white glint, above
     him and far off in the gloom. But certainly it was not a spark of dragon-fire, though the worm-stench was heavy in the place,
     and the taste of vapour was on his tongue.
    At length Mr. Baggins could bear it no longer. “Confound you, Smaug, you worm!” he squeaked aloud. “Stop playing hide-and-seek!
     Give me a light, and then eat me, if you can catch me!”
    Faint echoes ran round the unseen hall, but there was no answer.
    Bilbo got up, and found that he did not know in what direction to turn.
    “Now I wonder what on earth Smaug is playing at,” he said. “He is not at home today (or tonight, or whatever it is), I do
     believe. If Oin and Gloin have not lost their tinder-boxes, perhaps we can make a little light, and have a look round before
     the luck turns.”
    “Light!” he cried. “Can anybody make a light?”
    The dwarves, of course, were very alarmed when Bilbo fell forward down the step with a bump into the hall, and they sat huddled
     just where he had left them at the end of the tunnel.
    “Sh! sh!” they hissed, when they heard his voice; and though that helped the hobbit to find out where they were, it was some
     time before he could get anything else out of them. But in the end, when Bilbo actually began to stamp on the floor, and screamed
     out “light!” at the top of his shrill voice, Thorin gave way, and Oin and Gloin were sent back to their bundles at the top
     of the tunnel.
    After a while a twinkling gleam showed them returning, Oin with a small pine-torch alight in his hand, and Gloin with a bundle of others under his arm. Quickly Bilbo
     trotted to the door and took the torch; but he could not persuade the dwarves to light the others or to come and join him
     yet. As Thorin carefully explained, Mr. Baggins was still officially their expert burglar and investigator. If he liked to
     risk a light, that was his affair. They would wait in the tunnel for his report. So they sat near the door and watched.
    They saw the little dark shape of the hobbit start across the floor holding his tiny light aloft. Every now and again, while
     he was still near enough, they caught a glint and a tinkle as he stumbled on some golden thing. The light grew smaller as
     he wandered away into the vast hall; then it began to rise dancing into the air. Bilbo was climbing the great mound of treasure.
     Soon he stood upon the top, and still went on. Then they saw him halt and stoop for a moment; but they did not know the reason.
    It was the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain. So Bilbo guessed from Thorin’s description; but indeed there could not be
     two such gems, even in so marvellous a hoard, even in all the world. Ever as he climbed, the same white gleam had shone before
     him and drawn his feet towards it. Slowly it grew to a little globe of pallid light. Now as he came near, it was tinged with
     a flickering sparkle of many colours at the surface, reflected and splintered from the wavering light of his torch. At last
     he looked down upon it, and he caught his breath. The great jewel shone before his feet of its own inner light, and yet, cut
     and fashioned by the dwarves, who had dug it from the heart of the mountain long ago, it took all light that fell upon it and changed it into ten thousand sparks of white radiance shot with
     glints of the rainbow.
    Suddenly Bilbo’s arm went towards it drawn by its enchantment. His small hand would not close about it, for it was a large
     and heavy gem; but he lifted it, shut his eyes, and put it in his deepest pocket.
    “Now I am a burglar indeed!” thought he. “But I suppose I must tell the dwarves about it—some time. They did say I could pick
     and choose my own share; and I think I would choose this, if they took all the rest!” All the same he had an uncomfortable
     feeling that the picking and choosing had not really been meant to include this marvellous gem, and that trouble would yet
     come of it.
    Now he went on again. Down the other side of the great mound he climbed, and the spark of his torch vanished from the sight
     of the watching dwarves. But soon they saw it far away