Secret of the Golden Key

As one of the current good reads for pre-teens and young teens, orphaned brothers, Rusty and Willy (14 and 10), find themselves fleeing for their lives across frontier Kansas (1880) in an old west adventure. Rusty witnessed a murder shooting and the bad guy saw him. He is determined to catch them and do them harm. The boys' parents had prepared a set of clues for them to follow so they could learn who they 'really' were. In one action packed adventure after the other, they solve the clues, and demonstrate their strong bond of brotherly love. Along the way they encounter Renegade Indians, highwaymen, a raging prairie fire, and, make fine, new friends, saving the life of an Indian boy their age, the son of a chief. Presented as one of David Drake's beloved western novels in his long list of young adult fiction.