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+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's note: | | | |Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | | | +-------------------------------------------------+
[Illustration: INTO THE WATER SPLASHED THE BIG TOURING CAR.
_Dick Hamilton's Touring Car._ _Frontispiece_--(_Page 168._)]
AUTHOR OF "DICK HAMILTON'S FORTUNE," "DICK HAMILTON'S STEAM YACHT," "FROM OFFICE BOY TO REPORTER," "LARRY DEXTER AND THE STOLEN BOY," ETC.
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO. AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK
I am not going to detain you long over this, for, if you are anything like I was, when I was your age, you don't want a lengthy introduction. But I just want a moment or so of your time, to explain something of the kind of story this is--a sort of bill of fare, as it were.
This is an account of how the young millionaire, Dick Hamilton, unexpectedly did a great service for a stranger, and how, later learning that this same stranger needed help in saving his fortune, Dick took strenuous action.
For excellence in his studies at the Kentfield Military Academy, Dick's father gave him his choice of any automobile he wished. Dick found just the kind of a touring car he wanted--one large enough to sleep and live in, as he and his friends traveled about.
In this car, which Dick named the _Last Word_, the boys set out for San Francisco. What happened to them on the way, how they foiled the plans of Dick's Uncle Ezra, how they came upon the strange man in the great salt desert, and how, in an exciting race, they tried to save him and blocked the plans of those who would take Mr. Wardell's fortune from him--all this you may read of in this book.
It is the fifth volume of the "Dick Hamilton Series," and that you will like it as well as you have the preceding ones is the sincere wish of your friend,
"Here's cheerful news--not!" exclaimed Dick Hamilton, as he tossed a letter on the bed of the room occupied by himself and his chum, Paul Drew, at the Kentfield Military Academy. "Nice, rich, juicy news, Paul!"