"Why, sir, if you are asking about your legal chance of getting half of that ten dollars from the lawyer," Dick answered, "then I'm afraid you stand a poor show. If the lawyer won't pay you the money, then you would have to sue him. Even if you won the suit, the fight would cost you a good deal more than the amount you would recover. And the lawyer might beat you, even if you sued him."
"Then—-what's the answer?" demanded the peddler slowly.
"I know the answer," said Tom confidently, "but it would be a shame to tell you, sir."
"Just the same, I wish you would," replied the peddler coaxingly.
"The answer," replied Reade, "is that you have been cheated."
"But it looks to me like a mean trick," Dick went on.
"What am I going to do about it?" asked the peddler wonderingly.
"I don't believe you can do anything about it, sir," Prescott answered, "unless you are willing to sue the lawyer, or can make him agree to fair play. But I certainly would drop in to see him and tell him that you expect just half of what he has so far collected."
"I believe I'll do that," replied Peddler Hinman, judging from the address on the letter, that was his name. "I don't like to be made a fool of by any man—-especially when I need money as badly as any other man on my route."
Dick took a sweeping glance at the peddler's shabby attire. While, of course, the size of a man's bank account cannot be judged from his wardrobe, Mr. Hinman had the appearance of needing money as much as he declared. The horse, too, looked as though a generous feed of oats would do him good.