"A mountain man's first duty ain't to no king," yelped Lightnin' Jack Hawkins. "It's to survive!" That was enough justification for his fellow scouts, Bearbite Bob Winslow and young Will Cutler, when they fled from the massacre of General Edward Braddock's redcoats near Fort Duquesne. Yes, survival was an everyday priority for these hardy men who trapped beaver and hunted for their meat in the primordial forests of the Alleghenies. Dangers lurked everywhere here in the form of ferocious cougars, scalp-stealing savages, and white water rivers of immense fury.

The woodsmen's worst nemesis, though, was Bold Wolf, the vicious Ottawa chief who brutally murdered Cutler's father and wanted to kill all the English like one pigeon. If that failed, the ruthless villain was more than willing to torture his enemies in the gauntlet or burn them at the stake. It was only through Bold Wolf's demise that Cutler could achieve inner peace. But would the resourceful lad be brave enough to meet the challenge when his cruel foe ambushed him in the dense hemlocks of the Alleghenies?