The drum beat gets louder

One of my favorite scenes in The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, is when they're in the crypt of Balin in Moria. They're all standing there in silent fear after Peregrin Took accidentally pushed a skeleton on a chain into into a well. It tumbles down into the depths in a crashing disturbance.

Suddenly, a faint but unmistakably sinister drum beat resounds from far below, in the fathomless depths of the gloomy mine. Orcs!

The drum beat repeats and grows stronger, louder -- is joined by others until a steady booming is reverberating through the mine, the crypt and the nerves of the fellowship.

Such is the sense of this article in today's Philadelphia Inquirer. The drum beat is foreboding, far off, but growing stronger.