Outdoor writer and adventurer Sydney Wilder is comfortable in her cabin in the Ozark Mountains. She is busily trying to complete an assignment for Cave Explorer Magazine when a visit from a
tall slender man of indeterminate age and background causes Wilder to change her whole schedule and head for Colorado. Akiela, the mysterious hermit of the Ozarks, visits in the dead of the
night and tells Wilder that he has an assignment for her. He asks Wilder to go to Colorado to assist Monty Linn with a dangerous situation brought on by the greed of an unscrupulous land
developer, smuggler of white slaves, and drug dealer. Akiela has powers that Wilder doesn’t begin to understand, but she accepts him as a friend. Akiela leaves a small leather bag of gold, and
a map of a mysterious trail in the Rocky Mountains. He tells Wilder she will know what to do when she arrives at Monty’s ranch. When she sees the bag of gold and map Akiela left on her bedside
table, she remembers the previous night’s visitor and what he had said. Wilder packs up her Jeep Commander and heads west to Colorado, and begins the most exciting and dangerous adventure she
has ever been involved in up to this point in her career as a writer and adventurer. The Ancient Ones she is to meet have strange powers with the ability to disappear in one place and appear
somewhere else in another form. With outlaws led by Grogan following Wilder and her small band of adventurers, the Ancient Ones slow down the pursuers by appearing to them as a great snow owl,
a very large rattlesnake, and a giant white wolf. Many other animals of the great Rocky Mountains watch over and protect Sydney Wilder and her adventurous Colorado uncle and friends. Who are
these people she is to meet? Where do they originate? How did they accumulate a treasure, and why would The Ancient Ones give it to save Monty Linn’s ranch? What are these strange powers and
abilities they seem to possess? Mystery and adventure awaits Wilder and she is again ready for the challenge.