Detective Bob Bridger

This issue of *The Secret Service Series* features "Detective Bob Bridger, or The Man from Scotland Yard" by R.M. Taylor (No. 34, August 1890). The narrative follows Detective Bridger, a seasoned U.S. Government secret service officer, through interconnected mysteries on a railroad line. A conductor's account of a German immigrant's death profoundly affects Bridger; when he later touches a sleeping raftsman, he apparently transmits this vivid memory telepathically, causing the man to dream he is jumping from the raft and subsequently leap from the train to his death. A second identical incident occurs, sparking public accusations that Bridger and his crew murder passengers for robbery. When a newspaper correspondent questions the engineer's integrity, the suspicious reporter publishes damaging allegations. Rather than face investigation, Bridger resigns. However, the railroad's general manager offers him a new position: detective in Europe to recover sixty thousand dollars embezzled by Richard Hanford, the treasurer's clerk, who has sailed to London. Bridger accepts this diplomatic assignment.