Gollum: Shire! Ahh! Baggins!

Frodo: Shire? Baggins? But that would lead them here!

(scene cuts to Nazgûl riding through foggy woods)

Gate Keeper: Who goes there?

(The Nazgûl abruptly takes out his sword and beheads the perplexed hobbit. Scene cuts back to Bag End)

Frodo: (offering Gandalf the Ring, worriedly frantic) Take it, Gandalf! Take it!

Gandalf: (calmly) No, Frodo.

Frodo: (insistant) You must take it!

Gandalf: You cannot offer me this Ring!

Frodo: I'm giving it to you!

Gandalf: (yelling) Don't tempt me Frodo! (calmly continuing as Frodo withdraws his hand) I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo, I would use this Ring from a desire to do good, but through me, it would wield a power to great nad terrible to imagine.

Frodo: But it cannot stay in the Shire!

Gandalf: No. No it can't.

Frodo: (understanding, clutching the Ring in his palm) What must I do?

(Frodo throws open chest doors and begins grabbing clothes and stuffing them into a sack)

Gandalf: You must leave. And leave quickly.

Frodo: Where? Where do I go?

Gandalf: Get out of the Shire. Make for the village of Bree.

Frodo: Bree. (walks down the hall) What about you?

Gandalf: I'll be waiting for you at the inn of the Prancing Pony.

Frodo: (stuffing apples in his sack) And the Ring will be safe there?

Gandalf: I don't know, Frodo. I don't have any answers. I must see the head of my order. He is both wise and powerful. Trust me, Frodo. He'll know what to do. You'll have to leave the name of Baggins behind you, for that name is not safe outside the Shire. Travel only by day.

Frodo: I can cut across country easily enough.

Gandalf: (endearingly) My dear Frodo. Hobbits really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.

(Both here a noise outside the open window)

Gandalf: (whispering harshly) Get down.

(Frodo drops to the floor and Gandalf takes his staff, walking warily to the window. A flower moves and he stabs it with his staff. There is a squeal of pain from below the plants. Gandalf lowers his hand into the bushes and thrusts a body onto the table)

Gandalf: Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee! Have you been eavesdropping?

Sam: (nervously) I haven't been droppin' no eaves, sir, honest. I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you follow me.

Gandalf: A little late to be trimming the verge, don't you think?

Sam: I heard raised voices.

Gandalf: What did you hear? Speak!

Sam: N-n-nothin' important! That is, I heard a good deal about a Ring, a Dark Lord and something about the end of the world, but please Mr. Gandalf, sir, don't hurt me. Don't turn me into anything unnatural.