"J.R.R. Tolkien - 2 - The two towers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

it; but where are the Ring and the Bearer? How shall I find them and save the Quest from
disaster?'
He knelt for a while, bent with weeping, still clasping Boromir's hand. So it was that
Legolas and Gimli found him. They came from the western slopes of the hill, silently, creeping
through the trees as if they were hunting. Gimli had his axe in hand, and Legolas his long knife:
all his arrows were spent. When they came into the glade they halted in amazement; and then they
stood a moment with heads bowed in grief, for it seemed to them plain what had happened.
'Alas!' said Legolas, coming to Aragorn's side. 'We have hunted and slain many Orcs in the
woods, but we should have been of more use here. We came when we heard the horn-but too late, it
seems. I fear you have taken deadly hurt.'
'Boromir is dead,' said Aragorn. 'I am unscathed, for I was not here with him. He fell
defending the hobbits, while I was away upon the hill.'
'The hobbits!' cried Gimli 'Where are they then? Where is Frodo?'
'I do not know,' answered Aragorn wearily. 'Before he died Boromir told me that the Orcs had
bound them; he did not think that they were dead. I sent him to follow Merry and Pippin; but I did
not ask him if Frodo or Sam were with him: not until it was too late. All that I have done today
has gone amiss. What is to be done now?'
'First we must tend the fallen,' said Legolas. 'We cannot leave him lying like carrion among
these foul Orcs.'
'But we must be swift,' said Gimli. 'He would not wish us to linger. We must follow the Orcs,
if there is hope that any of our Company are living prisoners.'
'But we do not know whether the Ring-bearer is with them or not ' said Aragorn. 'Are we to
abandon him? Must we not seek him first? An evil choice is now before us!'
'Then let us do first what we must do,' said Legolas. 'We have not the time or the tools to
bury our comrade fitly, or to raise a mound over him. A cairn we might build.'
'The labour would be hard and long: there are no stones that we could use nearer than the
water-side,' said Gimli.
'Then let us lay him in a boat with his weapons, and the weapons of his vanquished foes,'
said Aragorn. 'We will send him to the Falls of Rauros and give him to Anduin. The River of Gondor
will take care at least that no evil creature dishonours his bones.'
Quickly they searched the bodies of the Orcs, gathering their swords and cloven helms and


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shields into a heap. 'See!' cried Aragorn. 'Here we find tokens!' He picked out from the pile of
grim weapons two knives, leaf-bladed, damasked in gold and red; and searching further he found
also the sheaths, black, set with small red gems. 'No orc-tools these!' he said. 'They were borne
by the hobbits. Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for
what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor. Well, now, if
they still live, our friends are weaponless. I will take these things, hoping against hope, to
give them back.'
'And I,' said Legolas, 'will take all the arrows that I can find, for my quiver is empty.' He
searched in the pile and on the ground about and found not a few that were undamaged and longer in
the shaft than such arrows as the Orcs were accustomed to use. He looked at them closely.
And Aragorn looked on the slain, and he said: 'Here lie many that are not folk of Mordor.
Some are from the North, from the Misty Mountains, if I know anything of Orcs and their kinds. And
here are others strange to me. Their gear is not after the manner of Orcs at all!'
There were four goblin-soldiers of greater stature, swart, slant-eyed, with thick legs and