Bilbo, Gollum and Sam

[doug*platypus]

He began to age faster immediately because he did not care for the ring as Gollum did, he let it go.

Excellent point, Lady. It seems, as I hinted at earlier, that the Ring must have still had power over Gollum, not only to arouse a desire for It in him, but to continue to prolong his life. It would only have been when the Ring was destroyed that he would have ceased to exist, which he somehow knew. So Gollum's very existence depended on him getting the Ring back before Frodo could destroy It - I can understand his motive!

The tricky question seems to be how did the Ring exert its power? It seems to have had an enormous range of influence. The Nazgûl were expected to be drawn to It from a distance, otherwise Sauron could have sent anyone after Frodo. And the Ring weighs Frodo down even when it isn't on his finger. It appears to have a great amount of power even when it is not being actively used.