Fourteen-year-old Florence Huyler didn't expect to end up a prisoner in a Kentucky mountain cabin, but that's exactly where she finds herself after venturing into the hills to secure coal land for her community's school. Guarded by mysterious men who clearly want her silent, Florence is cut off from the world above, except for one thin thread of hope: her friend Marion, who climbs the far ridge each day and waits for her signal fire. The plan is simple but daring: send news of the land claim through smoke and flame, before the men who captured her figure out what she's really doing in these mountains. But time is running short, and the mountain has eyes. Written in the early twentieth century, this adventure story pulses with the quiet courage of a girl who refuses to be broken, even when the whole world seems stacked against her. It's a tale of friendship tested by danger, poverty met with determination, and the kind of bravery that doesn't shout, it signals.
