In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild.

When fifteen-year-old Francis and two younger children lose their way in the wilderness of the Southwest, they face capture at the hands of dangerous men.

Francis Tucket, Lottie, and Billy have survived many hair-raising adventures, joined together by their goal to find the family Francis lost when he was kidnapped from a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. And now they are also joined by a secret -- the gold they discovered in a Spanish grave. This time, the trio meets up with a British adventurer and bloodthirsty ex-soldiers, and has a tragic, heroic encounter with Jason Grimes, the mountain man. In...