return

the tower of cirith ungol 1183
‘Yes! The Elf-warrior is loose!’ he cried. ‘I’m coming. Just
you show me the way up, or I’ll skin you!’
But the orc was in its own haunts, nimble and well-fed.
Sam was a stranger, hungry and weary. The stairs were high
and steep and winding. Sam’s breath began to come in gasps.
The orc had soon passed out of sight, and now only faintly
could be heard the slapping of its feet as it went on and up.
Every now and again it gave a yell, and the echo ran along
the walls. But slowly all sound of it died away.
Sam plodded on. He felt that he was on the right road, and
his spirits had risen a good deal. He thrust the Ring away
and tightened his belt. ‘Well, well!’ he said. ‘If only they all
take such a dislike to me and my Sting, this may turn out
better than I hoped. And anyway it looks as if Shagrat,
Gorbag, and company have done nearly all my job for me.
Except for that little frightened rat, I do believe there’s
nobody left alive in the place!’
And with that he stopped, brought up hard, as if he had
hit his head against the stone wall. The full meaning of what
he had said struck him like a blow. Nobody left alive! Whose
had been that horrible dying shriek? ‘Frodo, Frodo! Master!’
he cried half sobbing. ‘If they’ve killed you, what shall I do?
Well, I’m coming at last, right to the top, to see what I must.’
Up, up he went. It was dark save for an occasional torch
flaring at a turn, or beside some opening that led into the
higher levels of the Tower. Sam tried to count the steps, but
after two hundred he lost his reckoning. He was moving
quietly now; for he thought that he could hear the sound
of voices talking, still some way above. More than one rat
remained alive it seemed.
All at once, when he felt that he could pump out no more
breath, nor force his knees to bend again, the stair ended. He
stood still. The voices were now loud and near. Sam peered
about. He had climbed right to the flat roof of the third and
highest tier of the Tower: an open space, about twenty yards
across, with a low parapet. There the stair was covered by a