"In a wallet, in this inside coat pocket," replied the peddler,
holding his frayed coat open at the right side.

"You carried your wallet as conspicuously as that when traveling
over lonely country roads?" cried Prescott in amazement.

"I had a lot of letters and papers in front of the wallet, so
that no one would suspect that I had the wallet or the money,"
explained Reuben Hinman.

"I don't see any papers there now," Tom interposed.

"They're gone," replied Mr. Hinman. "Probably the thief thought
the papers valuable, also, but they weren't.-----"

"You were robbed---when?" asked Dick.

"When I was sleeping."

"At some farm house?" Reade inquired.

"No; I slept on a pile of old rags that I had taken in trade."

"In the wagon?-----" from Prescott.

"Yes."

"But why did you sleep in the wagon? And where did you have the
wagon?" Dick pressed.