It was not until President McKinley had been fatally shot in 1901—the third assassination of a President of the United States in thirty-six years—that the Secret Service was assigned to the complete and vigilant protection of the Government's chief executive. Since that time, Secret Service men have prevented crimes against Presidents of the United States which, had they been perpetrated, might have altered the entire course of history. But this is only one of the responsibilities of the Secret Service man, who is a policeman and a detective as well as a bodyguard. It is also his job to track down counterfeiters, and to apprehend forgers of government checks, of which 400 million are issued annually.

This book is not only the story of the origin of the Service and an account of what it does, but an exciting collection of case histories taken from the Secret Service files. "The New Jersey Nickel Mystery", "The Man Who Changed His Fingers", "The Mystery Man on Pier 59", and "The Music-Making Moneymaker" are just a few of the true "thrillers" recounted here in which the men who carry the star-shaped badge have played courageous and dramatic roles.

In his Foreword to this book, Mr. U.E. Baughman, Chief of the United States Secret Service, says: "It is a good thing for young Americans to know what is being done to keep law and order in the United States.... Mr. Kuhn shows the men as they really are, and the cases as they actually happened, and for this we are everlastingly grateful."

From the book