The Dugdale Millions

The Dugdale Millions *The Dugdale Millions: A Novel* by Barclay North (William C. Hudson) centers on a search for a missing heir to an English textile fortune. Dick Mason, a young clerk at the counting house of Hetlow, Altmount & Co., is entrusted by his employer Mr. Hetlow with a delicate commission: discovering whether Edmund Dugdale's son still lives. The child, born to Edmund and a public dancer in poverty-stricken New York thirty years prior, vanished after his father's death and remained unfound despite searches. If the grandson cannot be located, Hetlow's daughter Bessie—as the daughter of Samuel Dugdale's sister—inherits the vast estate, generating over two hundred thousand pounds annually. The novel follows Dick's investigation to verify the heir's existence or confirm his death, while navigating his romantic interest in Bessie amid these complex financial stakes. Subsequent chapters develop counterplots, discoveries, and complications surrounding the Dugdale inheritance.