return

1328 the return of the king
all night, came riding in about ten o’clock. ‘There’s a big
band about four miles away,’ he said. ‘They’re coming along
the road from Waymeet, but a good many stray ruffians have
joined up with them. There must be close on a hundred of
them; and they’re fire-raising as they come. Curse them!’
‘Ah! This lot won’t stay to talk, they’ll kill, if they can,’ said
Farmer Cotton. ‘If Tooks don’t come sooner, we’d best get
behind cover and shoot without arguing. There’s got to be
some fighting before this is settled, Mr. Frodo.’
The Tooks did come sooner. Before long they marched
in, a hundred strong, from Tuckborough and the Green Hills
with Pippin at their head. Merry now had enough sturdy
hobbitry to deal with the ruffians. Scouts reported that they
were keeping close together. They knew that the countryside
had risen against them, and plainly meant to deal with the
rebellion ruthlessly, at its centre in Bywater. But however
grim they might be, they seemed to have no leader among
them who understood warfare. They came on without any
precautions. Merry laid his plans quickly.
The ruffians came tramping along the East Road, and
without halting turned up the Bywater Road, which ran for
some way sloping up between high banks with low hedges
on top. Round a bend, about a furlong from the main road,
they met a stout barrier of old farm-carts upturned. That
halted them. At the same moment they became aware that
the hedges on both sides, just above their heads, were all
lined with hobbits. Behind them other hobbits now pushed
out some more waggons that had been hidden in a field,
and so blocked the way back. A voice spoke to them from
above.
‘Well, you have walked into a trap,’ said Merry. ‘Your
fellows from Hobbiton did the same, and one is dead and the
rest are prisoners. Lay down your weapons! Then go back
twenty paces and sit down. Any who try to break out will be
shot.’
But the ruffians could not now be cowed so easily. A few