“Here (здесь), ” said Balin, “in the old days (в былые времена: «в старые дни») we used always to keep watchmen (у нас всегда были наблюдатели/караульные;
spur [spǝ: ] guard-room [ˈɡɑ: dru (:) m] prosperity [prɔˈsperɪtɪ]
After that they went on again; and now the road struck westwards and left the river, and the great shoulder of the south-pointing mountain-spur drew ever nearer. At length they reached the hill path. It scrambled steeply up, and they plodded slowly one behind the other, till at last in the late afternoon they came to the top of the ridge and saw the wintry sun going downwards to the West.
Here they found a flat place without a wall on three sides, but backed to the North by a rocky face in which there was an opening like a door. From that door there was a wide view East and South and West. “Here, ” said Balin, “in the old days we used always to keep watchmen, and that door behind leads into a rock-hewn chamber that was made here as a guardroom. There were several places like it round the Mountain. But there seemed small need for watching in the days of our prosperity, and the guards were made over comfortable, perhaps — otherwise we might have had longer warnings of the coming of the dragon, and things might have been different. Still, “here we can now lie hid and sheltered for a while, and can see much without being seen. ”
“Not much use (не особо много пользы), if we have been seen (если нас видели) coming here (идущими сюда), ” said Dori, who was always looking up towards the Mountain’s peak (который все время посматривал вверх, на вершину Горы), as if he expected to see Smaug (словно он ожидал увидеть Смауга) perched there (усевшегося там) like a bird on a steeple (словно птица на колокольне).
“We must take our chance of that (мы должны воспользоваться этим шансом), ” said Thorin. “We can go no further to-day (дальше мы сегодня не сможем пойти). ”