Frodo in the Tower of Cirith Ungol

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Clearly, there is no reason to suppose that Shagrat and Gorbag knew the right questions to ask to really get to the bottom of things and Frodo would certainly not want to volunteer any information in that direction.

I agree. If the idea of an enemy trying to enter Mordor with the aim of reaching Mt. Doom in order to destroy the One Ring had not occurred to Sauron himself, lowly fighting-orcs couldn't have been any more perceptive regarding Frodo.

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

But that begs the question of what he could have told them to satisfy them.

Well, I think it's safe to say the presence of Faramir's band in Ithilien was known to the orcs in the area. Frodo had a staff given him by Faramir, and maybe that would have been observed as being a product of Gondor. The orcs might have begun with the assumption that Frodo was indeed just a forsaken spy sent by the hated men of Minas Tirith.

Also, judging from the conversation of Shagrat and Gorbag as overheard by Sam, the orcs were considering that Frodo was the lesser of two spies in the area, the one still loose maybe being an elf-warrior. That being the case, Frodo himself would probably have been the main focus of the orcs' worries.