return

1218 the return of the king
recognized the devices on their shields. ‘Deserting, eh?’ he
snarled. ‘Or thinking of it? All your folk should have been
inside Udûn before yesterday evening. You know that. Up
you get and fall in, or I’ll have your numbers and report you.’
They struggled to their feet, and keeping bent, limping like
footsore soldiers, they shuffled back towards the rear of the
line. ‘No, not at the rear!’ the slave-driver shouted. ‘Three
files up. And stay there, or you’ll know it, when I come down
the line!’ He sent his long whip-lash cracking over their heads;
then with another crack and a yell he started the company
off again at a brisk trot.
It was hard enough for poor Sam, tired as he was; but for
Frodo it was a torment, and soon a nightmare. He set his teeth
and tried to stop his mind from thinking, and he struggled on.
The stench of the sweating orcs about him was stifling, and
he began to gasp with thirst. On, on they went, and he bent
all his will to draw his breath and to make his legs keep going;
and yet to what evil end he toiled and endured he did not
dare to think. There was no hope of falling out unseen. Now
and again the orc-driver fell back and jeered at them.
‘There now!’ he laughed, flicking at their legs. ‘Where
there’s a whip there’s a will, my slugs. Hold up! I’d give you
a nice freshener now, only you’ll get as much lash as your
skins will carry when you come in late to your camp. Do you
good. Don’t you know we’re at war?’
They had gone some miles, and the road was at last running
down a long slope into the plain, when Frodo’s strength
began to give out and his will wavered. He lurched and
stumbled. Desperately Sam tried to help him and hold him
up, though he felt that he could himself hardly stay the pace
much longer. At any moment now he knew that the end
would come: his master would faint or fall, and all would be
discovered, and their bitter efforts be in vain. ‘I’ll have that
big slave-driving devil anyway,’ he thought.
Then just as he was putting his hand to the hilt of his
sword, there came an unexpected relief. They were out on