説明
GIDEON rode into trouble when he mounted the family mule and left on a trip to recover the gold coins his ill father had hastily buried when they were caught in the first major battle in Virginia. After intense efforts, Gideon finds and recovers the gold his family needs– bult it is again stolen from Gideon. His desperation to again recover the gold is delayed by surprise complications that make it seem impossible to ever reach his objective. Gideon is challenged by a final deadline of returning to Briarstone Plantation in time to say goodbye to Emily. (97 words)EMILY, a high-spirited, orphaned Northern girl forced to live with her slave-holding relatives in Virginia, is plunged into danger when she intervenes with her cousin William for severely whipping Nat. He had been caught off of Briarstone Plantation without a pass. William angrily reminds Emily to keep her Yankee opinions to herself. When she defies William in front of the other slaves, he furiously orders her to leave Briarstone and never return. (72 words)NAT, recently purchased as William’s body servant, barely survives his cruel whipping, But as additional punishment, he is to be sold so deeply into the Confederacy that he can never escape to freedom in the Union. He has no choice but to run into Black Water Swamp in hopes of arriving at an Underground Railroad “station” for a risky trip toward freedom. With a slave catcher’s hounds hotly baying on his trail, can Nat escape the swamp’s deadly dangers and reach the “station” before the dogs are upon him? (89 words)