Böcker av Colin Thomas

Towards the end of the American Civil War in 1863, Sergeant Zack Jackson, a black Confederate soldier, wakes up after a battle in Virginia, in a field full of his dead comrades, and he sees a hand held up in the middle of all the dead bodies. On further investigation, a dying soldier hands him a wallet, with both monies, his home address, and the deeds of a map of his claim to a gold mine. He requests, with his dying wish, that Zack takes the contents to his wife and family and to eventually go and find the gold mine. He then dies of his wounds. Zack, also gravely wounded, sets off to find the dead soldier's home but collapses along the way. Isaac, a young 11-year-old Jewish boy, finds him and manages to take him back to his parents' home where they look after him until he is fully recovered. Zack, fully refreshed, goes to find the dead soldier's wife and hands her the wallet. She thanks him for his courage and honesty and agrees for him to search for the mine. Together with Isaac and his dog, they begin their journey through the dangerous terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Unknown to them, they were being followed by an outlawed gang of Chinese immigrants, who had overheard their plans. They eventually manage to find the mine, but it is not what they expected. Ancient settlers from various Red Indian tribes appear and create havoc, and the two heroes are tasked with unbelievable struggles to save their own lives.

This work presents a European view of Central Asia before the large-scale influx of Russian peasant settlers that followed the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.