By Secret Railway: A Story of the Underground Railroad

When David Morgan decided that school was a waste of time in a city as exciting as Chicago in 1860, he set out to get a job on the bustling, noisy waterfront. He didn't get the job, but he met Jim. That chance encounter with a young black boy led David into strange and thrilling adventures that took him far from home, involved him in the mysteries of the Underground Railroad, and ended with his meeting President-elect Abraham Lincoln, whom David had long wanted to meet for a particular reason. How David rescued Jim, who had been kidnapped and taken to Missouri, and how the two boys escaped to the free state of Illinois with the help of courageous "conductors" on the Underground, makes a fascinating yarn which holds the interest of young readers to the last line. But By Secret Railway is more than an absorbing adventure story. It is the account of a loyal friendship between two boys in a situation with important implications for young Americans of today. It is also a vivid picture of uneasy times during which ideals of individual freedom were on trial in America, as they are now throughout the world.