Hooflepoof stops by the cart and tells Bilbo and Barry about the men under the cart and the hobgoblins in the bushes. Bilbo is ready to battle some hobgoblins, but Noohar looks sternly at Barry and he decides he had better stay and perform his bodyguard duties. Hooflepoof and Bilbo go back to the rest of the group, who are following along a ways behind the cart, and they huddle to make a plan. Hooflepoof suggests sneaking up on the hobgoblins from behind, but they decide that going quietly through these woods is probably not possible. They decide just to each pick a hobgoblin, and attack them directly from the road.

Unfortunately it's difficult to hit hobgoblins in the bushes where they can barely be seen, but they don't seem to fight back very much, in fact they disappear into the bushes. Elfo throws a fireball in the general vicinity where they are located on the left side of the road, BOOM, and after the explosion all goes quiet.

A number of trees are burned, but the forest is pretty wet this time of year, so the fire doesn't catch very much. The dry underbrush still smolders, and the strangers' cart and dead horse are a little bit singed.

At Karat's suggestion, Hooflepoof sneaks up invisibly to check out whether the hobgoblins are dead. As soon as he steps into the forest on the left side of the road, where the fireball hit, he can feel the heat of the burning undergrowth on his feet, so he steps back onto the road. He checks the right side of the road, and sees no hobgoblins. Elbolin goes over to talk to the people under the cart, and tells them that the hobgoblins ran off, and they are safe to come out. The noble thanks them profusely for the rescue. "I thought we were done for," he says, "but unfortunately our horse didn't get so lucky."

"You need a horse?" asks Elbolin. "I think we might be able to help you out there."

"Sure, that would be great!" says the noble.

Elbolin confers with his group, and Gourbain volunteers to give up his horse. Elbolin leads the horse over to the noble's cart, and the guards start hooking him up immediately, anxious to get out of this area. The noble ducks into his cart and returns with 150 gold pieces - a quite high price for a common horse - handing it over to Elbolin. "I'd be in a heap of trouble out here without a horse, if I was even alive," he says.

Nobody else sees how much the noble gave to Elbolin, and he doesn't mention the count. "He gave me some money for you to get a new horse when the opportunity arises," he tells Gourbain.

They start gathering up to continue, but they have to wait a few minutes for the noble to get his cart hooked up. As they are milling about, waiting, they are suddenly hit with a volley of arrows, coming from both sides of the road, deep in the forest. Both Barry and Elbolin take some damage, and they have some trouble getting good shots at the hidden enemies. Elfo throws another fireball in the area from where the arrows seem to be originating, but it's not apparent if he hits anybody. The battle continues.