Things would have gone ill with Sam, if he had been alone. But Frodo sprang up, and drew Sting from its sheath. With his left hand he drew back Gollum's head by his thin lank hair, stretching his long neck, and forcing his pale venomous eyes to stare up at the sky.

"Let go! Gollum," he said. "This is Sting. You have seen it before once upon a time. Let go, or you'll feel it this time! I'll cut your throat."

Gollum collapsed and went as loose as wet string. Sam got up, fingering his shoulder. His eyes smouldered with anger, but he could not avenge himself: his miserable enemy lay grovelling on the stones whimpering.

"Don't hurt us! Don't let them hurt us, precious! They won't hurt us will they, nice little hobbitses? We didn't mean no harm, but they jumps on us like cats on poor mices, they did, precious. And we're so lonely,gollum . We'll be nice to them, very nice, if they'll be nice to us, won't we, yes, yess."

"Well, what's to be done with it? ' said Sam. "Tie it up, so as it can't come sneaking after us no more, I say."

"But that would kill us, kill us," whimpered Gollum. "Cruel little hobbitses. Tie us up in the cold hard lands and leave us,gollum ,gollum ." Sobs welled up in his gobbling throat.

"No," said Frodo. "If we kill him, we must kill him outright. But we can't do that, not as things are. Poor wretch! He has done us no harm."

"Oh hasn't he! ' said Sam rubbing his shoulder. "Anyway he meant to,and he means to, I'll warrant. Throttle us in our sleep, that's his plan."

"I daresay," said Frodo. "But what he means to do is another matter." He paused for a while in thought. Gollum lay still, but stopped whimpering. Sam stood glowering over him.

It seemed to Frodo then that he heard, quite plainly but far off, voices out of the past:

What a pity Bilbo did not stub the vile creature, when he had a chance!

Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.

I do not feel any pity for Gollum. He deserves death.

Deserves death! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give that to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.

"Very well," he answered aloud, lowering his sword. "But still I am afraid. And yet, as you see, I will not touch the creature. For now that I see him, I do pity him."

Sam stared at his master, who seemed to be speaking to some one who was not there. Gollum lifted his head.

"Yess, wretched we are, precious," he whined. "Misery misery! Hobbits won't kill us, nice hobbits."

"No, we won't," said Frodo. "But we won't let you go, either. You're full of wickedness and mischief, Gollum. You will have to come with us, that's all, while we keep an eye on you. But you must help us, if you can. One good turn deserves another."

"Yess, yes indeed," said Gollum sitting up. "Nice hobbits! We will come with them. Find them safe paths in the dark, yes we will. And where are they going in these cold hard lands, we wonders, yes we wonders? ' He looked up at them, and a faint light of cunning and eagerness flickered for a second in his pale blinking eyes.

Sam scowled at him, and sucked his teeth; but he seemed to sense that there was something odd about his master's mood and that the matter was beyond argument. All the same he was amazed at Frodo's reply.

Frodo looked straight into Gollum's eyes which flinched and twisted away. "You know that, or you guess well enough, Smeagol," he said. quietly and sternly. "We are going to Mordor, of course. And you know the way there, I believe."

"Ach! sss! ' said Gollum, covering his ears with his hands, as if such frankness, and the open speaking of the names, hurt him. "We guessed, yes we guessed," he whispered; "and we didn't want them to go, did we? No, precious, not the nice hobbits. Ashes, ashes, and dust, and thirst there is; and pits, pits, pits, and Orcs, thousands of Orcses. Nice hobbits mustn't go to - sss - those places."

"So you have been there? ' Frodo insisted. "And you're being drawn back there, aren't you?"

"Yess. Yess. No! ' shrieked Gollum. "Once, by accident it was, wasn't it, precious? Yes, by accident. But we won't go back, no, no!" Then suddenly his voice and language changed, and he sobbed in his throat, and spoke but not to them. "Leave me alone,gollum ! You hurt me. O my poor hands,gollum ! I, we, I don't want to come back. I can't find it. I am tired. I, we can't find it,gollum ,gollum , no, nowhere. They're always awake. Dwarves, Men, and Elves, terrible Elves with bright eyes. I can't find it. Ach! ' He got up and clenched his long hand into a bony fleshless knot, shaking it towards the East. "We won't! ' he cried. "Not for you." Then he collapsed again. 'Gollum,gollum ," he whimpered with his face to the ground. "Don't look at us! Go away! Go to sleep!"

"He will not go away or go to sleep at your command, Smeagol," said Frodo. "But if you really wish to be free of him again. then you must help me. And that I fear means finding us a path towards him. But you need not go all the way, not beyond the gates of his land."

Gollum sat up again and looked at him under his eyelids. "He's over there," he cackled. "Always there. Orcs will take you all the way. Easy to find Orcs east of the River. Don't ask Smeagol. Poor, poor Smeagol, he went away long ago. They took his Precious, and he's lost now."

"Perhaps we'll find him again, if you come with us," said Frodo.

"No, no, never! He's lost his Precious," said Gollum.

"Get up! ' said Frodo.

Gollum stood up and backed away against the cliff.

"Now! ' said Frodo. "Can you find a path easier by day or by night? We're tired; but if you choose the night, we'll start tonight."

"The big lights hurt our eyes, they do," Gollum whined. "Not under the White Face, not yet. It will go behind the hills soon, yess. Rest a bit first, nice hobbits!"

"Then sit down," said Frodo, "and don't move!"

The hobbits seated themselves beside him, one on either side. with their backs to the stony wall, resting their legs. There was no need for any arrangement by word: they knew that they must not sleep for a moment. Slowly the moon went by. Shadows fell down from the hills, and all grew dark before them. The stars grew thick and bright in the sky above. No one stirred. Gollum sat with his legs drawn up, knees under chin, flat hands and feet splayed on the ground, his eyes closed; but he seemed tense, as if thinking or listening.

Frodo looked across at Sam. Their eyes met and they understood. They relaxed, leaning their heads back, and shutting their eyes or seeming to. Soon the sound of their soft breathing could be heard. Gollum's hands twitched a little. Hardly perceptibly his head moved to the left and the right, and first one eye and then the other opened a slit. The hobbits made no sign.