As night crept up from the valley that stormy afternoon, Sawyer's Ledge was at first quite blotted out by wind and rain, but presently reappeared in little nebulous star-like points along the mountain side, as the straggling cabins of the settlement were one by one lit up by the miners returning from tunnel and claim.

The story takes place in a small struggling mining town located in the foothills of the California mountains at the time of the gold rush. The camp is suffering from a long string of bad luck. With only one woman in their midst, it seems as though the miners have no future. However, the tide turns when a small boy is born. Thomas Luck is the first newborn the camp has seen in ages; things are looking up. The miners become cheerful, foliage begins to grow, and there is talk of building a hotel to attract outsiders. Unfortunately, the hope is wiped out by the sudden death of Luck in a flood.

Clarence by Bret Hart. When Clarence Brant married the mother of his childhood playmate, Susy, he had no idea of the dilemma ahead of him. This was California, after all -- thousands of miles away from the trouble brewing between the North and the South. When duty calls, Clarence joins the Union Army and becomes a General. Susy marries a politician. Of course, Mrs. Brant must come along to Washington D.C. to be beside her husband. But although Clarence knows that his wife sympathized with the cause of the Secessionists, little did he know that she was a part of a California conspiracy, that she was a spy for the Confederates -- And that, in the midst of fevered battle, he would be accused of treason!