“Well, come now!  I think we had better not move out from here again, until it has gone quite dark.  So you shall tell me how you know, and all about what happened.  If you can do so quietly.”  (Chapter 2: “The Land of Shadow,” Book 6, The Return of the King)

As Frodo and Sam sat hiding underneath the stunted thorn bush, Frodo sat pressing his gardener’s hand in his own.  Sam had just finished telling his master all about his own experiences from the moment that Gollum had attacked him in Cirith Ungol to the moment that he had finally found Frodo in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.  Frodo could think of nothing to say in response.

Poor Sam! he thought.  While I was lying helpless in Shelob’s tunnel, and then in that awful dungeon in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, Sam was facing his own dangers.  Shelob could have killed him; she could have poisoned him and then eaten us both.  He could have been caught and imprisoned by those orcs, the same as I was.  Not to mention he bore the Ring the whole time I was a prisoner; who knows what torments it wrought upon his heart?  And the desperation he felt the whole time he was trying to find me in that horrible tower!  He winced at the thought.

Glancing down at Sam’s callused hand, Frodo let go and stirred.  It was time to go.  They still had a Quest to finish, hopeless as it appeared.