Who attacks the Hobbit rooms?

[squinteyedsoutherner]

My apologies if this has been brought up before but:

I just finished re-reading the chapter Strider and A Knife in the Dark and something has occurred to me that I hadn’t thought of before. Do the wraiths actually trash the hobbit’s room, or do the Breelander spies do it? I had always assumed it was the wraiths but:

“What will happen” asked Merry “will they attack the Inn?”

“No, I think not” said Strider. “They are not all here yet. And in any case that is not their way. In dark and loneliness they are strongest; they will not openly attack a house where there are lights and many people – not until they are desperate, not while all the long leagues Eriador still lie before us. But there power is in terror, and some in Bree are in their clutch. They will drive these wretches to some evil work: Ferney, and some of the strangers, and maybe the gatekeeper too. They had words with Harry at Westgate on Monday. I was watching them. He was white and shaking when they left him.”

It seems odd to me that Tolkien would put these words into Strider’s mouth if he is going to have the Wraiths attack the Inn that night. It seems as though he is suggesting that the some of the villagers will do it for them; chasing the horses off, and forcing open the window. If it were some of the villagers, it would explain why the wrong room is attacked (although the other wraiths are attacking Fatty so I’m not sure how far this line of reasoning goes toward proving anything). Tolkien never says who actually attacked the room that night, (and unlike the Bakshi and Jackson films no one hears anything either) but he does say that the squint-eyed southerner was up to no good, and he has disappeared.

So who attacked the room? And if it was the wraiths; why is Tolkien introducing Strider to the reader by giving the hobbits information that turns out to be completely wrong. The more I think about it the more it seems to me that the wraiths snuck into Bree through the back gate and are lurking in the shadows getting information and driving the villagers to do all of the work that is in the open either by paying them or scaring the crap out of them. Any thoughts?