Tommy Yates has escaped his cruel stepfather. He is traveling down the mighty Cumberland River in a canoe to meet a man he has never met before, who is supposedly going to take him in and protect him from his stepfather, that is, if he can cover the long sixty miles by himself. For after all, he is only ten years old and going down the Cumberland by himself. Tommy wasn't at all afraid by this time, for he had spent the last several nights totally alone, on this big lonely old river. So far nothing had hurt him at all, besides that, his newly found friend, Wash, had told him just a few days back, ""Tommy, now when you're all alone and mighty scairt of the dark, jest 'member that they ain't nothin' thar in th' dark, that ain't thar in th' daytime.""