towers

flotsam and jetsam 733
before you leave here. You must form your own ideas.’
‘Now, now!’ said Gimli. ‘We are beginning the story in the
middle. I should like a tale in the right order, starting with
that strange day when our fellowship was broken.’
‘You shall have it, if there is time,’ said Merry. ‘But first –
if you have finished eating – you shall fill your pipes and light
up. And then for a little while we can pretend that we are all
back safe at Bree again, or in Rivendell.’
He produced a small leather bag full of tobacco. ‘We have
heaps of it,’ he said; ‘and you can all pack as much as you
wish, when we go. We did some salvage-work this morning,
Pippin and I. There are lots of things floating about. It was
Pippin who found two small barrels, washed up out of some
cellar or store-house, I suppose. When we opened them, we
found they were filled with this: as fine a pipe-weed as you
could wish for, and quite unspoilt.’
Gimli took some and rubbed it in his palms and sniffed it.
‘It feels good, and it smells good,’ he said.
‘It is good!’ said Merry. ‘My dear Gimli, it is Longbottom
Leaf ! There were the Hornblower brandmarks on the barrels,
as plain as plain. How it came here, I can’t imagine. For
Saruman’s private use, I fancy. I never knew that it went so
far abroad. But it comes in handy now!’
‘It would,’ said Gimli, ‘if I had a pipe to go with it. Alas, I
lost mine in Moria, or before. Is there no pipe in all your
plunder?’
‘No, I am afraid not,’ said Merry. ‘We have not found any,
not even here in the guardrooms. Saruman kept this dainty
to himself, it seems. And I don’t think it would be any use
knocking on the doors of Orthanc to beg a pipe of him! We
shall have to share pipes, as good friends must at a pinch.’
‘Half a moment!’ said Pippin. Putting his hand inside the
breast of his jacket he pulled out a little soft wallet on a string.
‘I keep a treasure or two near my skin, as precious as Rings
to me. Here’s one: my old wooden pipe. And here’s another:
an unused one. I have carried it a long way, though I don’t
know why. I never really expected to find any pipe-weed on