return

1212 the return of the king
me how you know, and all about what happened. If you can
do it quietly.’
‘I’ll try,’ said Sam, ‘but when I think of that Stinker I get
so hot I could shout.’
There the hobbits sat under the cover of the thorny bush,
while the drear light of Mordor faded slowly into a deep and
starless night; and Sam spoke into Frodo’s ear all that he
could find words for of Gollum’s treacherous attack, the
horror of Shelob, and his own adventures with the orcs.
When he had finished, Frodo said nothing but took Sam’s
hand and pressed it. At length he stirred.
‘Well, I suppose we must be going on again,’ he said. ‘I
wonder how long it will be before we really are caught and
all the toiling and the slinking will be over, and in vain.’ He
stood up. ‘It’s dark, and we cannot use the Lady’s glass. Keep
it safe for me, Sam. I have nowhere to keep it now, except in
my hand, and I shall need both hands in the blind night. But
Sting I give to you. I have got an orc-blade, but I do not think
it will be my part to strike any blow again.’
It was difficult and dangerous moving in the night in the
pathless land; but slowly and with much stumbling the two
hobbits toiled on hour by hour northward along the eastern
edge of the stony valley. When a grey light crept back over
the western heights, long after day had opened in the lands
beyond, they went into hiding again and slept a little, turn by
turn. In his times of waking Sam was busy with thoughts of
food. At last when Frodo roused himself and spoke of eating
and making ready for yet another effort, he asked the question
that was troubling him most.
‘Begging your pardon, Mr. Frodo,’ he said, ‘but have you
any notion how far there is still to go?’
‘No, not any clear notion, Sam,’ Frodo answered. ‘In
Rivendell before I set out I was shown a map of Mordor that
was made before the Enemy came back here; but I only
remember it vaguely. I remember clearest that there was a
place in the north where the western range and the northern