return

1204 the return of the king
journey. So now they crossed the stony bed and took to the
orc-path, and for some time they marched along it. The cliffs
at their left were overhung, and they could not be seen from
above; but the path made many bends, and at each bend they
gripped their sword-hilts and went forward cautiously.
The light grew no stronger, for Orodruin was still belching
forth a great fume that, beaten upwards by the opposing airs,
mounted higher and higher, until it reached a region above
the wind and spread in an immeasurable roof, whose central
pillar rose out of the shadows beyond their view. They had
trudged for more than an hour when they heard a sound
that brought them to a halt. Unbelievable, but unmistakable.
Water trickling. Out of a gully on the left, so sharp and narrow
that it looked as if the black cliff had been cloven by some
huge axe, water came dripping down: the last remains, maybe,
of some sweet rain gathered from sunlit seas, but ill-fated
to fall at last upon the walls of the Black Land and wander fruitless
down into the dust. Here it came out of the rock in a
little falling streamlet, and flowed across the path, and turning
south ran away swiftly to be lost among the dead stones.
Sam sprang towards it. ‘If ever I see the Lady again, I will
tell her!’ he cried. ‘Light and now water!’ Then he stopped.
‘Let me drink first, Mr. Frodo,’ he said.
‘All right, but there’s room enough for two.’
‘I didn’t mean that,’ said Sam. ‘I mean: if it’s poisonous,
or something that will show its badness quick, well, better me
than you, master, if you understand me.’
‘I do. But I think we’ll trust our luck together, Sam; or our
blessing. Still, be careful now, if it’s very cold!’
The water was cool but not icy, and it had an unpleasant
taste, at once bitter and oily, or so they would have said at
home. Here it seemed beyond all praise, and beyond fear or
prudence. They drank their fill, and Sam replenished his
water-bottle. After that Frodo felt easier, and they went on
for several miles, until the broadening of the road and the
beginnings of a rough wall along its edge warned them that
they were drawing near to another orc-hold.