return

1182 the return of the king
He advanced down the passage, but slowly now, each step
more reluctant. Terror was beginning to grip him again.
There was no sound save the rap of his feet, which seemed
to grow to an echoing noise, like the slapping of great hands
upon the stones. The dead bodies; the emptiness; the dank
black walls that in the torchlight seemed to drip with blood;
the fear of sudden death lurking in doorway or shadow; and
behind all his mind the waiting watchful malice at the gate:
it was almost more than he could screw himself to face. He
would have welcomed a fight – with not too many enemies
at a time – rather than this hideous brooding uncertainty. He
forced himself to think of Frodo, lying bound or in pain or
dead somewhere in this dreadful place. He went on.
He had passed beyond the torchlight, almost to a great
arched door at the end of the passage, the inner side of the
under-gate, as he rightly guessed, when there came from high
above a dreadful choking shriek. He stopped short. Then he
heard feet coming. Someone was running in great haste down
an echoing stairway overhead.
His will was too weak and slow to restrain his hand. It
dragged at the chain and clutched the Ring. But Sam did not
put it on; for even as he clasped it to his breast, an orc came
clattering down. Leaping out of a dark opening at the right,
it ran towards him. It was no more than six paces from him
when, lifting its head, it saw him; and Sam could hear its
gasping breath and see the glare in its bloodshot eyes. It
stopped short aghast. For what it saw was not a small frightened
hobbit trying to hold a steady sword: it saw a great
silent shape, cloaked in a grey shadow, looming against the
wavering light behind; in one hand it held a sword, the very
light of which was a bitter pain, the other was clutched at its
breast, but held concealed some nameless menace of power
and doom.
For a moment the orc crouched, and then with a hideous
yelp of fear it turned and fled back as it had come. Never
was any dog more heartened when its enemy turned tail than
Sam at this unexpected flight. With a shout he gave chase.