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.As fast as he could he trudged up the road.If he had lookedback, he might have seen not far below Gollum turn again, and then with a wildlight of madness glaring in his eyes come, swiftly but warily, creeping onbehind, a slinking shadow among the stones.The path climbed on.Soon it bent again and.with a last eastward course passedin a cutting along the face of the cone and came to the dark door in theMountain's side, the door of the Sammath Naur.Far away now rising towards theSouth the sun, piercing the smokes and haze, burned ominous, a dull bleareddisc of red; but all Mordor lay about the Mountain like a dead land, silent,shadow-folded, waiting for some dreadful stroke.Sam came to the gaping mouth and peered in.It was dark and hot, and a deeprumbling shook the air.'Frodo! Master!' he called.There was no answer.For amoment he stood, his heart beating with wild fears, and then he plunged in.Ashadow followed him.At first he could see nothing.In his great need he drew out once more thephial of Galadriel, but it was pale and cold in his trembling hand and threw nolight into that stifling dark.He was come to the heart of the realm of Sauronand the forges of his ancient might, greatest in Middle-earth; all other powerswere here subdued.Fearfully he took a few uncertain steps in the dark, andthen all at once there came a flash of red that leaped upward, and smote thehigh black roof.Then Sam saw that he was in a long cave or tunnel that boredinto the Mountain's smoking cone.But only a short way ahead its floor and thewalls on either side were cloven by a great fissure, out of which the red glarecame, now leaping up, now dying down into darkness; and all the while far belowthere was a rumour and a trouble as of great engines throbbing and labouring.The light sprang up again, and there on the brink of the chasm, at the veryCrack of Doom, stood Frodo, black against the glare, tense, erect, but still asif he had been turned to stone.'Master!' cried Sam.Then Frodo stirred and spoke with a clear voice, indeed with a voice clearerand more powerful than Sam had ever heard him use, and it rose above the throband turmoil of Mount Doom, ringing in the roof and walls.'I have come,' he said.'But I do not choose now to do what I came to do.Iwill not do this deed.The Ring is mine!' And suddenly, as he set it on hisfinger, he vanished from Sam's sight.Sam gasped, but he had no chance to cryout, for at that moment many things happened.Something struck Sam violently in the back, his legs were knocked from underhim and he was flung aside, striking his head against the stony floor, as adark shape sprang over him.He lay still and for a moment all went black.And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even inSammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dûr was shaken,and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown.TheDark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows lookedacross the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his ownfolly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of hisenemies were at last laid bare.Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, buthis fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him.For he knew his deadlyperil and the thread upon which his doom now hung.From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagemsand wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slavesquailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft ofwill, wavered and despaired.For they were forgotten.The whole mind andpurpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overwhelming forceupon the Mountain.At his summons, wheeling with a rending cry, in a lastdesperate race there flew, faster than the winds, the Nazgûl the Ringwraiths,and with a storm of wings they hurtled southwards to Mount Doom.Sam got up.He was dazed, and blood streaming from his head dripped in hiseyes.He groped forward, and then he saw a strange and terrible thing.Gollumon the edge of the abyss was fighting like a mad thing with an unseen foe.Toand fro he swayed, now so near the brink that almost he tumbled in, nowdragging back, falling to the ground, rising, and falling again.And all thewhile he hissed but spoke no words.The fires below awoke in anger, the red light blazed, and all the cavern wasfilled with a great glare and heat.Suddenly Sam saw Gollum's long hands drawupwards to his mouth; his white fangs gleamed, and then snapped as they bit.Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm's edge.But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger stillthrust within its circle.It shone now as if verily it was wrought of livingfire.'Precious, precious, precious!' Gollum cried.'My Precious! O my Precious!' Andwith that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he steppedtoo far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek hefell.Out of the depths came his last wail _Precious_, and he was gone.There was a roar and a great confusion of noise.Fires leaped up and licked theroof.The throbbing grew to a great tumult, and the Mountain shook.Sam ran toFrodo and picked him up and carried him.out to the door.And there upon thedark threshold of the Sammath Naur, high above the plains of Mordor, suchwonder and terror came on him that he stood still forgetting all else, andgazed as one turned to stone.A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers andbattlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne aboveimmeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs,and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]