And at a little before two
Steve, Joe and Wink once more climbed the narrow stairway to Lawyer
Hyatt's office.
"I have here," said Mr. Hyatt, when they had seated themselves and
greetings had been exchanged and the weather duly and thoroughly
disposed of, "a telegram from Barrows and Leland, of Norfolk, Virginia,
agents for the owners of the schooner _Catspaw_. In it they make an
offer of settlement of your claim, subject, of course, to the facts and
conditions being as stated in my telegram to them."
He paused impressively and the boys shuffled their feet in silent
expectancy.
"Hm. Now I'm not going to advise you to accept their offer and I'm not
going to advise you not to," he rumbled. "Only, I do say this,
gentlemen. If you take your case to the Admiralty Court it will cost you
a good deal of money and you won't get a final judgment for a long time.
Of course, you might, in the end, get a better figure. I'd almost be
willing to guarantee that you would. But you want to remember that the
costs of a trial aren't small and that they might eat a big hole in the
difference between the present offer and the court's award."
"What--what do they offer us?" asked Steve as the lawyer paused to clear
his throat.
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