return

1332 the return of the king
the bell-chain was dangling loose, and the bell would not
ring. Knocking brought no answer. At length they pushed
and the door yielded. They went in. The place stank and was
full of filth and disorder: it did not appear to have been used
for some time.
‘Where is that miserable Lotho hiding?’ said Merry. They
had searched every room and found no living thing save rats
and mice. ‘Shall we turn on the others to search the sheds?’
‘This is worse than Mordor!’ said Sam. ‘Much worse in a
way. It comes home to you, as they say; because it is home,
and you remember it before it was all ruined.’
‘Yes, this is Mordor,’ said Frodo. ‘Just one of its works.
Saruman was doing its work all the time, even when he
thought he was working for himself. And the same with those
that Saruman tricked, like Lotho.’
Merry looked round in dismay and disgust. ‘Let’s get out!’
he said. ‘If I had known all the mischief he had caused, I
should have stuffed my pouch down Saruman’s throat.’
‘No doubt, no doubt! But you did not, and so I am able to
welcome you home.’ There standing at the door was
Saruman himself, looking well-fed and well-pleased; his eyes
gleamed with malice and amusement.
A sudden light broke on Frodo. ‘Sharkey!’ he cried.
Saruman laughed. ‘So you have heard the name, have you?
All my people used to call me that in Isengard, I believe. A
sign of affection, possibly.* But evidently you did not expect
to see me here.’
‘I did not,’ said Frodo. ‘But I might have guessed. A little
mischief in a mean way: Gandalf warned me that you were
still capable of it.’
‘Quite capable,’ said Saruman, ‘and more than a little. You
made me laugh, you hobbit-lordlings, riding along with all
those great people, so secure and so pleased with your little
selves. You thought you had done very well out of it all, and
* It was probably Orkish in origin: sharkû, ‘old man’.