Will Martin can't believe that his father is guilty and sentenced to hang from the gallows in less than two weeks. He knows in his heart that his father, Lieutenant James Martin, could not have stolen the money stored overnight in the blockhouse of The Isthmus and then brutally murdered his commanding officer, Colonel Forrester. But the jury has been swayed by damning circumstantial evidence. Now it's up to fourteen-year-old Will to find the real murderer and stop the hangman's noose. Only one slim clue guides him: the colonel's missing pet parrot, whose strange and eerie mutterings may hold the key to James Martin's life.