Cloistered in a small section of the bayou bottoms in Arkansas through the 'great depression' Ted Shannon believed in God and 'the code of the backwoods' as taught to him by his father, a quarter breed Indian, and his mother, a southern lady. At age twelve Ted, a tried and true backwoods native, was moved into town and over the next few years he became accustomed to living among the 'civilized people'. After slowly but surely accepting his conversion he graduated from high and left home to go on a construction job with his dad, not knowing that it was forever.
Of course he had dated a few girls, and away from home he began spreading his wings until he finally got married. But a 'Dear John' letter while he was overseas in the army ended that. Divorced and discharged he left the army determined to see the world and he met her on a Gray-hound bus half way across Arizona, and after their brief affair he could not forget her.
After a gun battle in Alabama, life on the board the GOLDEN GOOSE and number of boat wrecks, a close call in Cuban waters, fighting rebels in Nicaragua, a storm in the Caribbean, and attacked by pirates before finally reaching the Panama Canal.
Finally utopia, legally opening the manganese mine. Illegally, running the black-market as agreed to with the Panamanian officials. The secret, and ours alone, searching for and bootlegging riches out of the southern Caribbean countries and an unlimited bank account in Costa Rico through which money could be laundered.