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.