
Step into the bustling streets of early‑20th‑century America, where Shorty McCabe prowls the alleys and offices with a razor‑sharp wit and a pair of boxing gloves at the ready. In this rollicking debut, Shorty is thrown into a sudden showdown with a hot‑headed minister before a mysterious card‑bearing messenger, Swifty Joe, delivers news of a shady figure named J. Bayard Steele. The dialogue crackles with period slang, and the scene is set for a tangled web of fraud, insurance scams, and underhanded radio deals that threaten an unsuspecting Mrs. Benny Sherwood.
As Shorty confronts the polished yet slippery Steele, the stakes rise: a counterfeit radio scheme, a life‑insurance plot, and a personal vendetta that could upend the lives of those around him. With humor as his weapon and street‑smart intuition as his guide, McCabe must untangle the mess before the conspirators pull the rug from under the city’s everyday folk. Listeners will enjoy the rapid‑fire repartee and the vivid portrait of a gumshoe who’s as quick with a quip as he is with a punch.
Language
en
Duration
~7 hours (409K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2007-04-07
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1868–1946
Best remembered for the lively "Torchy" and "Shorty McCabe" stories, this American writer built a large popular readership with brisk, humorous fiction. His work moved easily between magazine entertainment and longer novels, giving early-20th-century readers plenty of wit and energy.
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