Peering into the cup, Aunt Honora read the tea leaves for the Irish lad, Conn. "Mind well what I'm telling you, now. Your fortune lies to the west. Keep your face to the sunset an follow the evening star, and one day you'll ride the greatest wheel in all the world."

Conn was puzzled about the wheel—and his mother was frankly worried. The west could only mean America, which she felt had already claimed far too many fine young men of Erin.

But six years later Conn did sail. On the ship he met Martin Brennan, a master rigger who had been crippled in a fall when he was a seaman. He was to become a firm friend. And then there was Trudy! Conn had never had much to do with girls, but Trudy was beautiful and easy to talk to. He was never to forget her.

In New York, Uncle Michael wanted Conn for a partner in his thriving business of building sewers and pavements, but Conn was persuaded by his Uncle Patrick to go to Chicago instead, to help in construction work for the World's Fair.

Martin went with him, and together they worked, through bitter weather and under conditions that were back-breaking but often exhilarating. And it was here that Aunt Honora's prophecy, made almost a decade before, and far across the sea, was finally fulfilled.

From the dust jacket