towers

746 the two towers
store-room that brought us out on top of the arch. It was a
squeeze to get out, as the passages had been cracked and half
blocked with fallen stone near the top. There we sat high up
above the floods and watched the drowning of Isengard. The
Ents kept on pouring in more water, till all the fires were
quenched and every cave filled. The fogs slowly gathered
together and steamed up into a huge umbrella of cloud: it
must have been a mile high. In the evening there was a great
rainbow over the eastern hills; and then the sunset was blotted
out by a thick drizzle on the mountain-sides. It all went very
quiet. A few wolves howled mournfully, far away. The Ents
stopped the inflow in the night, and sent the Isen back into
its old course. And that was the end of it all.
‘Since then the water has been sinking again. There must
be outlets somewhere from the caves underneath, I think. If
Saruman peeps out of any of his windows, it must look an
untidy, dreary mess. We felt very lonely. Not even a visible
Ent to talk to in all the ruin; and no news. We spent the night
up on top there above the arch, and it was cold and damp
and we did not sleep. We had a feeling that anything might
happen at any minute. Saruman is still in his tower. There
was a noise in the night like a wind coming up the valley. I
think the Ents and Huorns that had been away came back
then; but where they have all gone to now, I don’t know. It
was a misty, moisty morning when we climbed down and
looked round again, and nobody was about. And that is about
all there is to tell. It seems almost peaceful now after all the
turmoil. And safer too, somehow, since Gandalf came back.
I could sleep!’
They all fell silent for a while. Gimli re-filled his pipe.
‘There is one thing I wonder about,’ he said as he lit it with
his flint and tinder: ‘Wormtongue. You told Théoden he was
with Saruman. How did he get there?’
‘Oh yes, I forgot about him,’ said Pippin. ‘He did not get
here till this morning. We had just lit the fire and had some