As an incident of the Underground Railway that could have happened anywhere during the pre-Civil War years, this is a warming, suspenseful story with some good portrayals of human relationships. In Marietta, Ohio, young Andy Pierce discovers that his father has started to help runaway slaves. Outstanding among the runaways, and the pursuers, with whom they come in contact are young Charles whose successful flight from a Virginia plantation has left him without his little sister- the professional slave hunter Kirby who haunts the river islands-pro-slavery Col. Webb who turns out to be an Abolitionist. There's warmth when Charles' sister is finally brought to freedom, a thrill for the town when Salmon Chase comes to defend the Pierces from Kirby's invocation of the Anti-Fugitive slave law. Good reading.