[Child of the 7th Age]

Hob Greenhand scowled and stalked up to the front of the gathering standing right in front of Mayor Samwise and wagging a finger under his nose. "I'll speak plain to you. All these suggestions are well and good. But we still don't know who these bandits are, or even where they come from."

"In the past week, I've heard all kinds of funny stories flying about the Shire. Some say it's the Chief's men who've ridden back to taunt us. Others say Sharkey himself has risen once again."

Sam stared at Hob with a look of pure alarm. "Now don't be speading rumors like that. We all saw Sharkey blow away in a puff of wind. I don't expect to be seeing him again, at least not anytime soon."

Hob shook his head and grimaced, "Maybe so, but there's still doesn't change the truth. We don't know who these men are, or where they come from, or even what they want. How can we fight something when we don't even know what it is?"

The entire room suddenly became silent. What Hob was saying made a lot of sense.

Cami was the first to break the silence, "And just exactly how do you propose that we do this? Invite them into our burrows for tea? We have no idea where they've squirelled up."

"Maybe not an exact idea, no. But all this trouble started east of us. I expect that's where the problem lies. Perhaps, we can send scouts out, and have them take a look, and figure out where all this is coming from."

Maura stomped to his feet in frustration, "Hold on, Hob. I'm all for sending out scouting parties, if we have some realistic idea of where they should look. But we don't have any notion. My wife delights in telling me that the Shire covers over 20,000 square miles. Even if we confine ourselves to the portion that lies the furthest east, you're talking about a huge tract of land that lies two days away from here."

"Surely the hobbits in the Eastfarthing are trying to locate the bandits' headquarters so they can rescue the kidnapped children. If they can't find them, and they know that territory so well, I expect the bandits have chosen a very clever spot to hide."

"In any case, unless the scout was very clever, he'd probably end up dead. The minute the bandits see a hobbit face near their headquarters, they're going to strike out as hard and fast as they can."

"So you're saying that we should sit here and do nothing?"

"No, but I am saying to use common sense. Before you send a group out on some wild chase, first find out from the hobbits who live in the Eastfarthing exactly what they've learned about these men."

It was at this point that Prim stood up and cleared her throat, "Maura, that's exactly what I was thinking. There's a fellow staying at the Inn whom Mayor Sam or the Shirriff might want to speak with. He's a trader, a decent sort of hobbit, who hails out of Whitfurrows. He's apparently heard a thing or two about these bandits and knows exactly what the folk there have done to try and find the children."

Maura immediatey responded, "That's just the kind of information we need. Any chance this fellow would be willing to come and talk to us tonight?"

Prim shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't say, but I know he's at the Inn, so I could easily slip out and ask him, and see if he'd agree to do that."

Mayor Sam nodded his head and even the Shirriff seemed interested to hear this news. So it was quickly agreed that Mistress Prim should return to the Inn, and try and locate the gentlehobbit in question, while the rest continued their discussion in the Town Hall.

[ April 03, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]