Produced by David Edwards, Verity White and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: "THE IDEA OF LEAVING THAT BIG FORTUNE TO A BOY LIKE YOU." _Dick Hamilton's Fortune._ (Frontispiece.)] DICK HAMILTON'S FORTUNE OR THE STIRRING DOINGS OF A MILLIONAIRE'S SON BY HOWARD R. GARIS AUTHOR OF "FROM OFFICE BOY TO REPORTER," "LARRY DEXTER, REPORTER," "LARRY DEXTER'S GREAT SEARCH," ETC. _ILLUSTRATED_ THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING CO. CLEVELAND MADE IN U. S. A. Copyright, 1909, by Grosset & Dunlap PRESS OF THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO. CLEVELAND PREFACE My Dear Boys: Allow me to introduce to you my friend, Dick Hamilton. Dick, here are the boys, thousands of them. Boys, here is Dick Hamilton. Now I hope you will shake hands and become good friends; not doing as I have sometimes seen boys do, when introduced, hang back and size each other up, as if distrusting each other. Go right up to Dick, get a good grip on his hand, and squeeze for all you're worth. I'll wager you can't make him cry "enough!" I know he will like you, boys, and I hope you'll like Dick. He's a fine fellow, if I do say it myself, for I'm a sort of relation to him. He's got lots of money, but he uses it in the right way, to help his friends, and it doesn't keep him from getting into trouble. I have endeavored to give you a story of Dick and his fortune; how he tried to fulfil the strange condition of his mother's will; how he escaped the toils of the sharper, was the target for many cranks, as well as well-meaning persons; how he aided the "fresh-air kids," and, finally, when the gold mines had failed, how he worked hard to escape the clutches of his uncle Ezra. As you have taken kindly to some of the other books I have been privileged to write for you, I hope you will like this one; and now, if you have read thus far, you may turn the pages and find out what Dick had to do in order to retain his millions. Yours sincerely, Howard R. Garis. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE