Montana and the Pioneer Mountains near Virginia City in 1870 background a story of two boys and a silver mine. It has all the elements of hardy living, knowledgeable mining procedure and a crime chase, but little of the spark needed to make it of interest to non-addicts. When Jim and Earl Norton go to the Johnny Cake with their uncle, they have difficulty after difficulty- which they surmount, and trouble with Bull Maguire- in which justice triumphs, but there's no quicksilver here.