[Child of the 7th Age]

Despite everything Hob did to try and encourage his companions to get moving, a full hour had passed before they finished breakfast and sat down to discuss their plans for the day. Ferny's men were still nowhere in sight.
"But, weren't they supposed to meet us outside of town," Brass objected. "So we can all go together to the Tooks?"

"I thought so," responded Hob. "But maybe we're mistaken." After much debate back and forth, Hob suggested he take a look around town to see if Ferny's henchmen were already there. Olo gave his consent, albeit grudgingly, since Hob was the only one of the three Shirriffs who'd spent any time in Tukborough and knew his way around the place.

Swathed in a heavy woolen cloak with the hood pulled down over his face, Hob disappeared over the ridge and made his way towards the Great Smials. Once in the center of town, he was careful to give a wide berth to anyone who might recognize him and generally stuck to the side streets and alleyways, taking care to ask questions only of folk he did not know. If the whole truth be told, Hob spent as much time searching for Cami as he did for Ferny and his men. But the results were equally discouraging. There were no reports of any Big Folk in town and no hobbit travellers who fit Cami's description.

It was on the way back towards camp that Hob first got sight of the band of hobbits heading eastward. They were walking briskly along the road, evidently on some kind of an important errand, and were carrying an assortment of weapons, as if they feared to run into trouble along the way. Hob's eyes widened in surprise as he saw Josh Brandybuck leading the band, since the latter was known to have close ties with the Took and to be unsympathetic to the Shirriffs and all the new ways that the Chief had brought in.

Taking a shortcut across the wooded grove to avoid detection, Hob came running in to camp, bubbling over with the news about the hobbit band heading out on the road.

Olo was frankly perpelexed. "You're sure Ferny's men weren't in Tukborough?"

Hob vigorously nodded his head. "I'm sure. Someone would have seen one of the Big Folk and been talking about it."

"And you're sure about this other group. Perhaps they were just out on a picnic or other such foolishness."

"No, I'm sure. Come, they should be coming this way soon. We'll hide in the bracken on either side of the road, and you have a look. Then tell me what you think."

Within a few moments Josh and the other travellers came swinging down the track, looking very determined, and discussing some sort of errand on which they'd been sent by the Tooks."

As they watched the lads and lasses march by, Olo stood up and shook his head, whispering to Hob, "I hate to admit it, but I think you may be right. That bunch is up to no good. Maybe we better have a look."

Brass cut in, "But what if Ferny's men come? They'll be angry we're not here."

Olo thought a minute and sighed, "But Ferny will be even angrier if he hears we let a whole crew of armed hobbits get away and not find out what they're up to."

The three agreed to trail along behind to try and find out what was happening. Hob heaved a sigh of relief. As much as he'd like to have caught up with Cami, anything was better than their original mission of launching an assault on the Great Smials, even tracking a group of hobbits out into the countryside. For the rest of the afternoon, the Shirriffs cautiously made their way through the underbrush along the side of the road, close enough to keep an eye on Josh, but always being careful to stay out of sight.