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.‘Worm killed your Chief, poor little fellow, yournice little Boss.Didn’t you, Worm? Stabbed him in his sleep, I believe.Buriedhim, I hope; though Worm has been very hungry lately.No, Worm is not reallynice.You had better leave him to me.’A look of wild hatred came into Wormtongue’s red eyes.‘You told me to; youmade me do it,’ he hissed.Saruman laughed.‘You do what Sharkey says, always, don’t you, Worm? Well, nowhe says: follow!’ He kicked Wormtongue in the face as he grovelled, and turnedand made off.But at that something snapped: suddenly Wormtongue rose up,drawing a hidden knife, and then with a snarl like a dog he sprang on Saruman’sback, jerked his head back, cut his throat, and with a yell ran off down thelane.Before Frodo could recover or speak a word, three hobbit-bows twanged andWormtongue fell dead.To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mistgathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a paleshrouded figure it loomed over the Hill.For a moment it wavered, looking tothe West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with asigh dissolved into nothing.Frodo looked down at the body with pity and horror, for as he looked it seemedthat long years of death were suddenly revealed in it, and it shrank, and theshrivelled face became rags of skin upon a hideous skull.Lifting up the skirtof the dirty cloak that sprawled beside it, he covered it over, and turnedaway.‘And that’s the end of that,’ said Sam.‘A nasty end, and I wish I needn’t haveseen it; but it’s a good riddance.’‘And the very last end of the War, I hope,’ said Merry.‘I hope so,’ said Frodo and sighed.‘The very last stroke.But to think that itshould fall here, at the very door of Bag End! Among all my hopes and fears atleast I never expected that.’‘I shan’t call it the end, till we’ve cleared up the mess,’ said Sam gloomily.‘And that’ll take a lot of time and work.’Chapter 9The Grey HavensThe clearing up certainly needed a lot of work, but it took less time than Samhad feared.The day after the battle Frodo rode to Michel Delving and releasedthe prisoners from the Lockholes.One of the first that they found was poorFredegar Bolger, Fatty no longer.He had been taken when the ruffians smokedout a band of rebels that he led from their hidings up in the Brockenbores bythe hills of Scary.‘You would have done better to come with us after all, poor old Fredegar!’ saidPippin, as they carried him out too weak to walk.He opened an eye and tried gallantly to smile.‘Who’s this young giant with theloud voice?’ he whispered.‘Not little Pippin! What’s your size in hats now?’Then there was Lobelia.Poor thing, she looked very old and thin when theyrescued her from a dark and narrow cell.She insisted on hobbling out on herown feet; and she had such a welcome, and there was such clapping and cheeringwhen she appeared, leaning on Frodo’s arm but still clutching her umbrella,that she was quite touched, and drove away in tears.She had never in her lifebeen popular before.But she was crushed by the news of Lotho’s murder, and shewould’ not return to Bag End.She gave it back to Frodo, and went to her ownpeople, the Bracegirdles of Hardbottle.When the poor creature died next Spring-she was after all more than a hundredyears old - Frodo was surprised and much moved: she had left all that remainedof her money and of Lotho’s for him to use in helping hobbits made homeless bythe troubles.So that feud was ended.Old Will Whitfoot had been in the Lockholes longer than any, and though he hadperhaps been treated less harshly than some, he needed a lot of feeding upbefore he could look the part of Mayor; so Frodo agreed to act as his Deputy,until Mr.Whitfoot was in shape again.The only thing that he did as DeputyMayor was to reduce the Shirriffs to their proper functions and numbers.Thetask of hunting out the last remnant of the ruffians was left to Merry andPippin, and it was soon done.The southern gangs, after hearing the news of theBattle of Bywater, fled out of the land and offered little resistance to theThain.Before the Year’s End the few survivors were rounded up in the woods,and those that surrendered were shown to the borders.Meanwhile the labour of repair went on apace, and Sam was kept very busy.Hobbits can work like bees when the mood and the need comes on them.Now therewere thousands of willing hands of all ages, from the small but nimble ones ofthe hobbit lads and lasses to the well-worn and horny ones of the gaffers andgammers.Before Yule not a brick was left standing of the new Shirriff-housesor of anything that had been built by ‘Sharkey’s Men’; but the bricks were usedto repair many an old hole, to make it snugger and drier.Great stores of goodsand food, and beer, were found that had been hidden away by the ruffians insheds and barns and deserted holes, and especially in the tunnels at MichelDelving and in the old quarries at Scary; so that there was a great deal bettercheer that Yule than anyone had hoped for.One of the first things done in Hobbiton, before even the removal of the newmill, was the clearing of the Hill and Bag End, and the restoration of BagshotRow.The front of the new sand-pit was all levelled and made into a largesheltered garden, and new holes were dug in the southward face, back into theHill, and they were lined with brick [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]

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