towers

Chapter 10
THE CHOICES OF MASTER SAMWISE
Frodo was lying face upward on the ground and the monster
was bending over him, so intent upon her victim that she
took no heed of Sam and his cries, until he was close at hand.
As he rushed up he saw that Frodo was already bound in
cords, wound about him from ankle to shoulder, and the
monster with her great forelegs was beginning half to lift, half
to drag his body away.
On the near side of him lay, gleaming on the ground, his
elven-blade, where it had fallen useless from his grasp. Sam
did not wait to wonder what was to be done, or whether he
was brave, or loyal, or filled with rage. He sprang forward
with a yell, and seized his master’s sword in his left hand.
Then he charged. No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in
the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature
armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower
of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate.
Disturbed as if out of some gloating dream by his small
yell she turned slowly the dreadful malice of her glance upon
him. But almost before she was aware that a fury was upon
her greater than any she had known in countless years, the
shining sword bit upon her foot and shore away the claw.
Sam sprang in, inside the arches of her legs, and with a quick
upthrust of his other hand stabbed at the clustered eyes upon
her lowered head. One great eye went dark.
Now the miserable creature was right under her, for
the moment out of the reach of her sting and of her claws.
Her vast belly was above him with its putrid light, and the
stench of it almost smote him down. Still his fury held
for one more blow, and before she could sink upon him,
smothering him and all his little impudence of courage,