Not quite seventeen, Bartholomew Hatherly faces hanging in the colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts. An orphan, and at the mercy of a vicious old man, he flees for his life to the haven of Rhode Island, where with Roger Williams he finds sanctuary and, as a participant in the war against Philip and the hostile Indians, establishes his position in that free society. A counter theme of a white girl, seeking to find her identity between two worlds--the Indians who have nurtured her and the white community which claims her--adds a romantic element to this compassionate, richly historical novel. By the author of Rebel Drums, The Yellow Hat, etc.