Othneil Jones, so goes this unrevolutionary novel of the Revolution, is a farmer, a superb woodsman, an over-dotng son, living with a sick mother and with a soul unsettled by the fear that white man's and Cherokee blood -- all well and good by themselves -- have found in him their ruinous confluence. This fear is seemingly borne out when Neil, in blind vengeance at his mother's death, kills a Cherokee cousin who was responsible for it. Traveling to the Carolina low country, he falls in with a Rebel band and gets a first glimpse, during a raid on a supply train, of Sally who is to be his love and salvation. He then saves her from a villainous Redcoat and next, when she is nursing him, he reveals his buried fear. Sally is able to establish, through records and family knowledge, that he has no Cherokee heritage. Neil, through his construction of a lookout tower, makes possible the capture of a British fort, and, through his discovery of Cornwallis' secret whereabouts, makes available information of most vital importance. A first novel shows evidence of intimate knowledge of the history of the area and respectful admiration for the qualities of its people.