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the scouring of the shire 1333
could now just amble back and have a nice quiet time in the
country. Saruman’s home could be all wrecked, and he could
be turned out, but no one could touch yours. Oh no! Gandalf
would look after your affairs.’
Saruman laughed again. ‘Not he! When his tools have done
their task he drops them. But you must go dangling after
him, dawdling and talking, and riding round twice as far as
you needed. ‘‘Well,’’ thought I, ‘‘if they’re such fools, I will
get ahead of them and teach them a lesson. One ill turn
deserves another.’’ It would have been a sharper lesson, if
only you had given me a little more time and more Men. Still
I have already done much that you will find it hard to mend
or undo in your lives. And it will be pleasant to think of that
and set it against my injuries.’
‘Well, if that is what you find pleasure in,’ said Frodo, ‘I
pity you. It will be a pleasure of memory only, I fear. Go at
once and never return!’
The hobbits of the villages had seen Saruman come out of
one of the huts, and at once they came crowding up to the
door of Bag End. When they heard Frodo’s command, they
murmured angrily:
‘Don’t let him go! Kill him! He’s a villain and a murderer.
Kill him!’
Saruman looked round at their hostile faces and smiled.
‘Kill him!’ he mocked. ‘Kill him, if you think there are enough
of you, my brave hobbits!’ He drew himself up and stared at
them darkly with his black eyes. ‘But do not think that when
I lost all my goods I lost all my power! Whoever strikes me
shall be accursed. And if my blood stains the Shire, it shall
wither and never again be healed.’
The hobbits recoiled. But Frodo said: ‘Do not believe him!
He has lost all power, save his voice that can still daunt you
and deceive you, if you let it. But I will not have him slain. It
is useless to meet revenge with revenge: it will heal nothing.
Go, Saruman, by the speediest way!’
‘Worm! Worm!’ Saruman called; and out of a nearby hut
came Wormtongue, crawling, almost like a dog. ‘To the road