For hours they walked or clambered, and though their legs began to ache and their eyes to feel strange and twitchy, neither boy would have thought of stopping. They both knew that on this first night they must get as far away as possible from Sparta.

Theras was a boy of Athens, rival and enemy city of Sparta. Taken against his will from Athens and kept virtually a prisoner under his uncle's "protection" in the boys' military camp at Sparta, Theras had grown to hate their way of life. His friend Abas also had good reason for wanting to escape the brutal Spartan camp.

Together they fought their way across many dangerous miles of the rugged Greek peninsula, pursued by the Spartan soldiers and their dogs and threatened by unfriendly innkeepers who wanted to capture them for sale at the slave markets, toward Theras' beloved Athens.

From the dust jacket of the 1961 edition