"THE IDEA OF LEAVING THAT BIG FORTUNE TO A BOY LIKE YOU."
Dick Hamilton's Fortune. (Frontispiece.)

i

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.

ii

Copyright, 1909, by
Grosset & Dunlap

PRESS OF
THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.
CLEVELAND

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PREFACE

My Dear Boys:

Allow me to introduce to you my friend, DickHamilton.

Dick, here are the boys, thousands of them.

Boys, here is Dick Hamilton.

Now I hope you will shake hands and becomegood friends; not doing as I have sometimes seenboys do, when introduced, hang back and sizeeach other up, as if distrusting each other.

Go right up to Dick, get a good grip on hishand, and squeeze for all you're worth. I'llwager you can't make him cry "enough!"

I know he will like you, boys, and I hope you'lllike Dick. He's a fine fellow, if I do say it myself,for I'm a sort of relation to him. He's gotlots of money, but he uses it in the right way, tohelp his friends, and it doesn't keep him fromgetting into trouble.

I have endeavored to give you a story of Dickand his fortune; how he tried to fulfil the strangecondition of his mother's will; how he escaped thetoils of the sharper, was the target for manycranks, as well as well-meaning persons; how heaided the "fresh-air kids," and, finally, when theivgold mines had failed, how he worked hard toescape the clutches of his uncle Ezra.

As you have taken kindly to some of the otherbooks I have been privileged to write for you, Ihope you will like this one; and now, if you haveread thus far, you may turn the pages and findout what Dick had to do in order to retain hismillions.

Yours sincerely,
Howard R. Garis.

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CONTENTS.