9 so , after many weeks , and hard adventuring , and darkness and despair ; after friends found and friends lost again ; after days of toil , and nights spent sleeping in damp haystacks ; after facing the demons of dark places ( not the least of which lived in the cleft of his own soul ) - after all these things , it was in this wise that the talisman came to jack sawyer : he watched it come down , and while there was no desire to flee , he had an overwhelming sense of worlds at risk , worlds in the balance .