Why Did the Nazgul Wait at Crickhollow?

[Holbytlass]

Originally Posted by The Might

But this raises another question, if they didn't follow Fatty because they noticed he doesn't have the Ring, why did they attack the house in the first place?
Were they really so overconfident that they were blinded by this and unable to notice the Ring was no longer in the Shire?

We see them usually as very capable and useful servants, but here they clearly failed...

They do "feel" the ring but the feel doesn't seem to be powerful.
They don't feel that the ring isn't in the CrickHollow house.
They don't feel that the ring is right under them when the hobbits hide under the tree (please forgive me for this example if this only happened in the movie, I can't remember)
They don't feel that the ring isn't in the room where they attack in Prancing Pony and yet don't feel that the ring is still in the Prancing Pony.

Fatty Bolger had not been idle. As soon as he saw the dark shapes creep from the garden, he knew that he must run for it, or perish. And run he did, out of the back door, through the garden, and over the fields. When he reached the nearest house, more than a mile away, he collapsed on the doorstep. "No, no no!" he was crying "no, not me! I haven't got it!"

I always envision the yard and gardens surrounded by the gate very large, in fact the home is on a bit of hill. So it is feasible to me that Fatty looked out and saw the shadow at the gate, locked the front door, escaped by the back door quietly and once beyond the back fence ran like heck.