Chapter I: Preface: My Dear Boys

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,

HOWARD R. GARIS.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I QUEER ACTIONS 1

II UNCLE EZRA 11

III GOOD NEWS 20

IV TO THE AUTO SHOW 28

V THE BIG CAR 41

VI THE RUINED MILLIONAIRE 48

VII ON THE ROAD 56

VIII UNCLE EZRA LAUGHS 64

IX DICK MAKES PLANS 73

X MR. WARDELL'S CONFESSION 81

XI OFF ON THE TRIP 89

XII UNCLE EZRA PLOTS 96

XIII THE HAND IN THE DARK 105

XIV A BLOCKED ROAD 114

XV PUZZLED 121

XVI THE LAME MAN 129

XVII GIVING HIM A LIFT 137

XVIII A DISAPPEARANCE 142

XIX A SIMPLE TRICK 147

XX DOWN HILL 155

XXI MAROONED 164

XXII AN ENGINEERING PROBLEM 169

XXIII OFF AGAIN 176

XXIV A NIGHT ENCOUNTER 182

XXV INTO THE LONELINESS 189

XXVI BAD NEWS 198

XXVII THE MAN IN THE DESERT 206

XXVIII IMPORTANT INFORMATION 211

XXIX ON TO 'FRISCO 221

XXX PURSUED 229

XXXI A BREAKDOWN 236

XXXII THE RACE 244

XXXIII JUST IN TIME 249

XXXIV THE FORTUNE SAVED 255

DICK HAMILTON'S TOURING CAR