Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 196

This dime novel installment, published by Beadle and Adams in 1881, features "Shadowed; or, Bob Rockett's Fight for Life" by Charles Morris, an installment in the Bob Rockett series. Bob Rockett, a fugitive sought by police for involvement in a bank robbery, hides in the squalid East River apartment of his associate Beau Bink. When police descend on the building searching for him, Bob methodically scouts escape routes while Beau stalls the officers. Police interrogate Beau, revealing they seek Bob for murder—specifically the killing of a woman named Sally Crapper—not merely the bank crime. Though officers search the premises thoroughly, Bob vanishes, apparently slipping past the police through tactics involving the back stairway. The narrative emphasizes Bob's coolness under pressure, resourcefulness, and the contrast between his bearing and his criminal circumstances, alongside Beau's comic, evasive patter.