Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 671

Shadowing the Shadower This detective serial by T. C. Harbaugh begins with Captain Catchem (Burt Butler), a prominent New York detective, waiting at a remote Jersey railway station. A station agent recounts the six-year-old Murchison robbery: wealthy Mark Murchison was bound and gagged by masked burglars who stole $200,000 in securities and papers from his safe. A local boy, Jed Jeffreys, witnessed the robbers hiding but refused to testify due to a feud between Murchison and Jed's widowed mother. The boy vanished, as did his mother; the case remained unsolved despite detectives' efforts and a standing $5,000 reward. Returning to New York, Catchem meets with Murchison, his employer, who reveals the robbers are now extorting him for $200,000 through anonymous demands. Catchem identifies the missing Jed Jeffreys as the crucial "lost link" needed to identify the criminals and break their hold over Murchison.