'I found him, sir,' put in Nob. 'Mr. Butterbur sent me out with a lantern. I went down to West-gate, and then back up towards South-gate. Just nigh Bill Ferny's house I thought I could see something in the Road. I couldn't swear to it, but it looked to me as if two
men was stooping over something, lilting it. I gave a shout, but where I got up to the spot there was no signs of them, and only Mr.
Brandybuck lying by the roadside. He seemed to be asleep. "I thought I had fallen into deep water," he says to me, when I shook him. Very ***** he was, and as soon as I had roused him, he got up and ran back here like a hare.'
'I am afraid that's true,' said
Merry, 'though I don't know what I said. I had an ugly dream, which I can't remember. I went to pieces. I don't know what came over me.'
'I do,' said
Strider. 'The
Black Breath.