by A. S. Fleischman (Author), David Laurence Wilson (Introduction by)

BLOOD ALLEY

First they help Wilder escape from his Red China prison. Then they take him to their village. They have a proposition for him. The village needs a ship captain to take them out of Red China, through the Straits of Formosa-Blood Alley-and to the freedom of Hong Kong. Wilder soon discovers that he isn't going to be captaining a ship, but a paddle-driven, wood-burning ferryboat.

The idea is too crazy. It can't be done. The village elders are convinced otherwise. And then there's Cathy, the English doctor's daughter. She knows he can do it, if he can only be persuaded. And that is how Wilder finds himself captaining a decrepit ferryboat with an entire Chinese village packed inside-men, women, children, chickens, pigs and goats-sailing toward freedom with barely a hope of survival!