Born and raised on an isolated ranch just north of the Mexican Border, Linnaeus Hart has mixed feelings about his pending sixteenth birthday. zDon{u2019}t put your hand where your eye can{u2019}t see!y has been his mother{u2019}s daily advice for as long as he can remember. She reminds him yet again as he and his classmate and neighbor, Anita Lopez, set out into the mountains above their ranch on what seems to be a routine errand. The two teenagers soon find that their rugged mountains conceal far more than rattlesnakes and scorpions. An unexpected discovery takes them back to the era of slavery in West Africa and the American South, war with Mexico and treaties made and broken with the Indians that once called the Sonoran Desert home. As sinister forces drive them ever deeper into the wilderness, the two friends must rely on their skill with horses and their intimate knowledge of the high desert to survive as they learn hard lessons about love, loyalty, family and faith. --P. [4] of cover.