towers

796 the two towers
Anduin with hail and lightning, and casting its shadow upon
Minas Tirith with threat of war. Then, lowering in the mountains,
and gathering its great spires, it rolled on slowly over
Gondor and the skirts of Rohan, until far away the Riders on
the plain saw its black towers moving behind the sun, as they
rode into the West. But here, over the desert and the reeking
marshes the deep blue sky of evening opened once more, and
a few pallid stars appeared, like small white holes in the
canopy above the crescent moon.
‘It’s good to be able to see again,’ said Frodo, breathing
deep. ‘Do you know, I thought for a bit that I had lost my
sight? From the lightning or something else worse. I could
see nothing, nothing at all, until the grey rope came down. It
seemed to shimmer somehow.’
‘It does look sort of silver in the dark,’ said Sam. ‘Never
noticed it before, though I can’t remember as I’ve ever had
it out since I first stowed it. But if you’re so set on climbing,
Mr. Frodo, how are you going to use it? Thirty ells, or say,
about eighteen fathom: that’s no more than your guess at the
height of the cliff.’
Frodo thought for a while. ‘Make it fast to that stump,
Sam!’ he said. ‘Then I think you shall have your wish this
time and go first. I’ll lower you, and you need do no more
than use your feet and hands to fend yourself off the rock.
Though, if you put your weight on some of the ledges and
give me a rest, it will help. When you’re down, I’ll follow. I
feel quite myself again now.’
‘Very well,’ said Sam heavily. ‘If it must be, let’s get it
over!’ He took up the rope and made it fast over the stump
nearest to the brink; then the other end he tied about his own
waist. Reluctantly he turned and prepared to go over the edge
a second time.
It did not, however, turn out half as bad as he had expected.
The rope seemed to give him confidence, though he shut his
eyes more than once when he looked down between his feet.
There was one awkward spot, where there was no ledge and