Sam and the Gold Fever

Join Sam Hopwood as he discovers that members of his old ragged school in London are being kidnapped and sent to the new world in order to be sold and work under harsh conditions. Along with his adoptive parents he travels to Canada in hot pursuit of his kidnapped friends only to find that they have been taken to California. Then In the company of William Swain, a real historical figure, Sam experiences a hazardous journey across the Great Lakes, through a burning desert, followed by the perilous Rocky Mountains, in the days before cross-continental rail travel. After arrival in California Sam becomes involved in the Gold Rush and meets another historical figure, California pioneer Alvin Coffey, a slave freed by his own efforts, in the days long before the American Civil War. Will Sam succeed in freeing his friend from the clutches of the wicked fake clergyman Heracleitus Hawthorne and his gang?