Jacob Bartholomule -- known only as Jake B - learned how to deal with hard men while growing up in the logging camps of northern Michigan. A widow hires the drifter and lawyer Howard Edgemont to find her son Dan, who's struck it rich in the frozen north. Taking care of a little Easterner - and a lawyer to boot -- is not part of Jake's plan but he doesn't have many options. Their way isn't easy; killing is part of a day's work for the tough men who brave the Chilkoot trail headed to Alaska's gold fields.Relying on the wilderness skills he learned from the Indians, Jake keeps Howard alive, only to face a bloodthirsty band of hired gunmen. Can they save Dan, whose mine has been stolen by the richest man in the Fairbanks mining district? During their quest, they fight armed killers, build a snow cave, drive a dog team and evade wolves and outlaws. Deadly cold temperatures, snowstorms, dangerous animals and heartless men also await the pair as they work to rescue Dan.Quick with a gun and deadly with his fists, Jake teaches Howard how to stay alive as they take on both the wilderness and the meanest gang of desperadoes to rule a mining town. Readers will grit their teeth while being swept along on a deadly ride down the mountain and a crash through ice. Jake and Howard battle trained killers, relying on sheer nerve and commando tactics. In the end, all that matters is to stay alive and save Howard's sweetheart, Alice, from the killers of the Golden Calf mine.Jack Singer gained a taste for adventure while reading stories of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey. His earliest adventure took place at the age of 15 when he and a friend took a boat for a joy ride on the Atlantic Ocean. A motor malfunction stranded them overnight. Upon receiving a forestry degree from Rutgers University, Singer headed west to fight forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. After attending a talk on teaching in Bush Alaska Jack earned a teaching degree at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and then he and his wife taught in a remote Eskimo village on the Yukon River. Learning survival skills from Yupik Eskimo elders and enduring life-threatening experiences in the Alaska wilderness inspired this book.