Chapter 13. At the End of the Day

'Very well,' the Steward said, turning to Hunethon. 'These unfortunate men have been kept awaiting their fate for an unconscionable length of time. The justice of the King is to be swift and sure, granting them death and that quickly, not tormenting them by drawing out the process...'

'Swift and sure,' Pippin said, stepping forward. Merry put out a hand to his cousin, and then let it fall to his side. He couldn't imagine how things could get any worse than they stood now. If the King did not return in the next few moments...

The Steward turned to eye the hobbits, and nodded gravely. 'That is correct,' he said. 'Swift and sure, and conducted with a certain amount of order, if they would go to their deaths with dignity. Not some sort of faire or festival, a mockery of celebration for what ought to be a solemn and sober occasion.'

'Swift, sure...' Pippin repeated, and cocked his head as he added another word. '...and... just?'

A shadow of annoyance crossed the Steward's face, but as he was dealing with the Prince of the Halflings he schooled his expression. Pleasant, but firm, and suitably sober in keeping with the occasion. 'Just?' he echoed, adding patiently, 'Of course it is just--that is why we call it "justice". These law-breakers knew the penalty when they chose to violate the King's edict...'

'Did they?' Pippin challenged. 'Jack knew, perhaps, but Will and Rob...'

'Perhaps I was hasty in adding young Rob's name to the death warrant,' the Steward said, with a slight bow to Pippin. 'I am indebted to you for correcting that wrong. It remains to be seen, removed from the influence of the law-breakers, if he will choose the upright way.'

Pippin bristled at this, but took a firm grip on his temper and said, 'And Will...'

'Will was... fourteen at the time, I believe,' the Steward said dismissively. 'Old enough to do a man's work, and old enough to be reckoned as a man for the choices he made. He and his brother knew that Jack was leading them into the Shire in search of the Thain's gold...' He stared curiously at Pippin. '...your gold. Hasn't there been a great deal of trouble over ruffians coveting your gold? Did not you and more than one of your kinsmen nearly die at the hands of ruffians?'

He looked to Merry and added, 'Did you Brandybucks not cooperate with the King in trapping the ruffians? Those law-breakers paid with their lives!' In frustration he added, 'I do not understand how you can plead for the lives of these ruffians! How can the consequences be death for some, but not all?'

'My lord,' Hunethon said, the urgency of his message causing him to break in. 'The sunset bells will not be long in ringing. If these men are to have timely justice, I must see to my duties now, or else have them marched to the dungeons until the morning light.'

'Yes,' Pippin urged. 'March them to the...'

But the Steward interrupted, saying in reproach, 'And have them wait through an undoubtedly sleepless night, more torment added to their lot? I think not.' And to Hunethon he said, 'Do your duty by them, as swiftly as may be.' Hunethon nodded and mounted the steps to the scaffold, where he began to inspect the ropes waiting there.

'But the King...!' Samwise burst out.

'The King will not thank me to find his justice so shabbily carried out,' the Steward said.

'The King will undoubtedly pardon these men and remit all penalty for their actions,' Pippin said through his teeth, 'if only you do not rush them to their deaths!'

'They have hardly been rushed to their deaths,' the Steward chided, and the hobbits had the feeling that he heard their protests not at all.

This was not surprising to Pippin, after hearing Diamond's story. She had been summoned to see the Steward, gently questioned as to the details of Jack's intrusion into the Shire, and dismissed. Turning back at the door, she'd seen the Steward sign and blot a paper, roll it and hand it to Haleth, saying, "You have your warrant. Arrest them."

Hurrying back to the desk, Diamond had asked quick questions, and had been quietly told that a guardsman had overheard the young hobbits excitedly discussing the revelation of Jack's identity and reported this fact to the Steward. Diamond had tried to tell of Jack's deeds, only to be "patted on the head and told to run along" in effect, and when she burst into tears of frustration and fear for the doomed men, the Steward had called for a healer to escort her from the room and "give her something soothing, poor woman, after her terrible ordeal."

'Will saved my kinsman...!' Pippin said, only to be interrupted.

'Yes,' the Steward said, nodding wisely. 'Your wife told me all about that, very clearly and earnestly. There have been known cases like this before, where a hostage warms to the hostage-takers, even takes their part...'

'That is not at all what happened!' Pippin said, and then he lost his patience completely. 'If you will not listen to reason, I have no choice in the matter but to...'

The Steward raised an eyebrow, however his expression became one of complete shock as the hobbit continued.

'...offer my life for his!'

'And I,' Sam said steadily, stepping forward. 'I offer myself in place of Jack, for he saved the life of my son. I owe him a life.'

'But you, yourself, do not owe Will a life,' the Steward said firmly to Pippin. 'If it were your kinsman standing here, I would have no choice but to accept, should he offer himself in place of Will, as you well know from your time in Minas Tirith.'

Pippin knew to be sure, which was one of the reasons he'd sent Hilly with Bergil. He didn't want to lose Will, but then, he didn't want to lose his cousin, either, if things went badly wrong. As they seemed to be going. Very badly, indeed. Where in the world was Bergil? And the King, for that matter?

The Steward was eyeing Samwise, however. 'Your son?' he said. 'I don't understand. Jack saved the life of your son?'

'And mine,' Pippin said, stepping back into the fray.

'I don't understand,' the Steward repeated.

'Ten years ago, on our first visit to new Annuminas,' Sam said, 'ruffians plotted to take the son of the Thain, to offer his life for gold...'

The Steward nodded. Had he not spoken of such, earlier?

'They shot down the guardsman who was escorting us that morning,' Sam said, 'though as he fell, Denny was able to strike down the bowman with his sword, leaving only one ruffian.'

'I remember,' the Steward said thoughtfully. 'The bowman was tried and hanged for his part in the affair, as is only right. And the other man...'

'He pulled the son of the Thain, and my son, from the tree branch where they sat together, and carried them away,' Sam said. 'I could not follow, for my leg was broken, but Pippin followed, and saw what transpired...'

'The ruffian fell while crossing the river above the falls,' the Steward said, 'and a man who'd been gathering mushrooms rescued the little hobbits from the rocks at the edge of the highest waterfall.' He shook his head. 'He went over the falls, and all we found of him was his bag of mushrooms...'

'That man was Jack,' Pippin said in an intense tone, and the Steward looked sharply from his face to Jack's, as the old man stood at the base of the steps in the grip of his guards, hopelessly waiting for the order to ascend.

'Jack was the rescuer?' the Steward said slowly, as if this were a new thought, difficult to comprehend. A ruffian, a law-breaker, a hostage-taker had risked his own life to save the young hobbits, evidently with no thought for himself or for profit?

'He was!' Pippin and Sam said together.

'I see,' the Steward said. The hobbits exchanged hopeful glances. They seemed to be making progress. But his next words caught them by surprise. 'And Will... was he there that day?' At their hesitation he nodded to himself. 'Only one man was reported, only one rescuer.'

'But Will...' Pippin said desperately.

Too late. He no longer had the Steward's ear; the man had already turned away, calling to the guards to pull Jack away from the steps. 'The King will want to question him on his return,' he said.

Just then, Hunethon called, 'Ready!' The Steward nodded to Will's guards, and they took his arms to guide him up the steps.

'No!' Jack choked, trying to move to Will, but his guards held him fast.

The hobbits echoed his cry, moving forward, only to be stopped by the sergeant, who was attending to details after sending a man in search of Captain Bergil. 'I'm sorry, sirs,' he said, deferential but firm, and several of his men moved in at his signal to block the hobbits from the gallows. 'You'll need to stay back.'

Pippin, arguing vehemently with the guardsmen, ducked his head to the side just in time to see Will collapse upon the steps, only the firm grip of his guards saving him from a heavy fall. Pippin managed to wriggle free and reached the Steward as Hunethon made the pronouncement, 'Fainted, apparently. I can't hang him like this!'

Pippin felt a moment of hope, but this was dashed as Hunethon directed the guards to turn Will on his back and lay him on the steps that he might be roused.

Jack, the hobbits, Haleth and indeed not a few of the other disgraced guards watched with bated breath, but the young man lay senseless, even after several buckets of cold water were thrown over him. A man in a swoon would most likely have wakened, and surely a man pretending to be overcome would not have been able to sustain the pretence under the onslaught; as it was, Merry muttered, 'Do they plan to drown him first, and then hang him?'

'You cannot do this!' Pippin cried, with the feeling that he was trapped in a nightmare, with no awakening in sight. 'Hunethon himself said he cannot hang him like this!'

'Well, Hunethon?' the Steward said.

'Well, I could, sir, but if we cannot get him to hold himself upright, he's more likely to strangle slowly than to be killed outright by the snap of the rope,' Hunethon said apologetically.

Pippin fought the urge to be sick, and looking to Merry and Sam's white faces, he knew he was not alone. 'You cannot...' he whispered.

The Steward eyed the horizon. 'Sunset bells will be sounding soon,' he said. 'If he refuses to cooperate, he must reap the consequences of his choice.' He shook his head and said regretfully, 'This farce has been stretched out long enough. Do your duty.'