Juniata is a two-part novel. Loyalhanna, the second book in the series will complete the tale. The sky is on fire. All along the frontier, the flames are spreading eastward, settlement by settlement, born on a western wind and fanned by men clad in doeskin and daubed with greasepaint. The blazing settlements and farmsteads become a crimson reflection of the tumult transpiring along the disputed colonial back country. The future of North America is up for grabs. Two intrepid scouts, called by most of their fellow colonists, rangers, have been stalking a murderous Shawnee war party heading west, deeper in the wilderness for several days. They track the raiders over the Huntingdon Ridge and to George's Road, the only link between New Forge and Juniata. One of the scouts, a Susquehannock, stays on their trail, while the other Ranger, a former Jacobite, moves silently to the remote village of New Forge. In Europe, alliances and betrayals are the order of the day. After their success in the War of Austrian Succession, France is pushing against the English claims in the New World. But here the rules are different; the rugged terrain is hostile to the movements of large armies. So the tactics of the locals are adopted by the French military in Montreal. Small bands strike quickly, and then with captives and loot in hand, the raiders melt away into the mountains, as suddenly as they appear. The French are using their cat's paws of the native tribes and Canadian colonists to strike the first blows of the coming conflict. In the cities of the Eastern Seaboard, the wall of the Appalachians is looked as the end of the frontier. The lands beyond are looked upon as a private hunting preserve for the last two hundred years by the Six Nations. It is wilderness, devoid of human habitation, that is until newcomers, seeing its immense potential, begin to stake their claims. The waning influence of the Iroquois tempts wealth seekers from all directions to fill the power vacuum. As well as the colonial governments, France and England are looking to expand their New World domains. The tribes of the western slopes, Shawnee, Ojibwa, Delaware, Miami, Huron, Seneca, as well as explorers, trappers, and settlers, Virginian and Pennsylvanian, begin looking over the mountain fastness to the rich country beyond; each of them intent on marking their claim. The great rivers, Allegheny and Monongahela, flow westward from the north and south. They meet to form a great navigable river that will open the interior lands to the Mississippi River. The mighty Ohio, the gateway to the interior of North America. Its riches are worth fighting for. And dying.