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the tower of cirith ungol 1187
and as Sam sprang at him, using the heavy bundle as both
shield and weapon, he thrust it hard into his enemy’s face.
Sam staggered, and before he could recover, Shagrat darted
past and down the stairs.
Sam ran after him, cursing, but he did not go far. Soon
the thought of Frodo returned to him, and he remembered
that the other orc had gone back into the turret. Here was
another dreadful choice, and he had no time to ponder it. If
Shagrat got away, he would soon get help and come back.
But if Sam pursued him, the other orc might do some horrible
deed up there. And anyway Sam might miss Shagrat or be
killed by him. He turned quickly and ran back up the stairs.
‘Wrong again, I expect,’ he sighed. ‘But it’s my job to go
right up to the top first, whatever happens afterwards.’
Away below Shagrat went leaping down the stairs and out
over the court and through the gate, bearing his precious
burden. If Sam could have seen him and known the grief that
his escape would bring, he might have quailed. But now his
mind was set on the last stage of his search. He came cautiously
to the turret-door and stepped inside. It opened into
darkness. But soon his staring eyes were aware of a dim light
at his right hand. It came from an opening that led to another
stairway, dark and narrow: it appeared to go winding up the
turret along the inside of its round outer wall. A torch was
glimmering from somewhere up above.
Softly Sam began to climb. He came to the guttering torch,
fixed above a door on his left that faced a window-slit looking
out westward: one of the red eyes that he and Frodo had seen
from down below by the tunnel’s mouth. Quickly Sam passed
the door and hurried on to the second storey, dreading at
any moment to be attacked and to feel throttling fingers seize
his throat from behind. He came next to a window looking
east and another torch above the door to a passage through
the middle of the turret. The door was open, the passage
dark save for the glimmer of the torch and the red glare from
outside filtering through the window-slit. But here the stair
stopped and climbed no further. Sam crept into the passage.