Chapter 1
Spring 1769
The Kentucky Wilderness
The chain of men worked feverishly, passing bucket after bucket of muddy water from the pit that Duncan McCallum stood in. The youngest members of their keelboat crew ran the buckets back to the pit as they were emptied, excitedly handing them down to the broad-shouldered man who stood beside Duncan, thigh-deep in the muck of the pit. Ezra’s good-natured calls to the crew above them were becoming forced, Duncan realized, for he saw an unexpected cloud on his friend’s countenance and had begun to hear whispered prayers in the tongue of his African tribe.
“Praise God! ’Tis a miracle!” came a cry in an Irish brogue from above as Duncan once again pulled at the slippery object of their attention and it began to rise into view, raising a chorus
