The Riddle of Three-Way Creek

The Riddle of Three-Way Creek by Ridgwell Cullum

The opening of The Riddle of Three-Way Creek follows Jim Pryse, an Alaska prospector sentenced to five years’ hard labour for helping his brother Eddie escape after Eddie killed the man who had wronged his wife. While Corporal Andrew McFardell escorts him through the foothills in a gathering snowstorm, McFardell’s horse falls. Pryse disarms the stunned policeman and escapes, despite still being shackled. After days of starvation and exposure, he reaches the farm of George Marton, who believes his account, releases his manacles, feeds and treats him, and equips him to flee. Marton’s daughter Molly unknowingly helps prepare the food that saves him. Soon afterwards George Marton is crushed beneath a falling tree while cutting timber. Molly and the old hired man Lightning Rogers find him too late. McFardell, meanwhile, returns to Calford after a fruitless pursuit. Though he admits the escape, his superiors condemn him for cowardice because he did not resist Pryse when held at gunpoint. He is reduced to the ranks, imprisoned with hard labour, and recommended for dismissal. The police intensify their hunt for Pryse, whose earlier actions in helping Eddie evade arrest have already damaged their prestige. Pryse survives the winter hidden in a remote fertile valley reached by Three-Way Creek. Dan Quinlan, an Irish rancher living with his Blackfoot wife Cama and her relations, secretly supplies him and helps him evade the patrols. When Pryse learns from his sister Blanche that his wealth is secure and the police have abandoned the search, he resolves to return to the valley. Grateful for the compassion shown him by Marton and Quinlan, he conceives a scheme to make the “Valley of Hope” a refuge for men pursued by the law who are willing to work honestly. In New York, Pryse tells Blanche of Eddie’s flight, his own ordeal, and his intention to establish this refuge in the Canadian hills. Blanche agrees to leave the city and support the venture. Two years after Marton’s death, Pryse, Blanche, Dan, and Laurence Manford have transformed the Valley of Hope into a working settlement of cattle, grain fields, houses, corrals, and fenced land. It shelters fugitives and disgraced men under strict rules: they must surrender their weapons, work for wages, obey discipline, and receive protection in return. Jim and Larry worry that some residents, including violent men such as Dago Naudin, Slattery, and the newcomer Jack Pike, may threaten the community and Blanche’s safety. Molly has resumed control of the Marton farm with Lightning’s help. When six milk cows disappear, Lightning insists they were stolen and suspects Dan Quinlan, whose unexpectedly large cattle shipments have aroused local suspicion. Molly believes the cattle merely strayed. Lightning also distrusts McFardell, who has taken up a nearby homestead after his discharge from the Police. Molly, however, admires McFardell’s apparent courage in trying to build a farm alone and pities his misfortune. McFardell’s homestead is increasingly neglected. He spends money and time drinking, gambling, and seeking company in Hartspool, while his farm, animals, and machinery suffer. Yet Molly sees chiefly his industrious appearance and responds to his attention. He invites her to the farmers’ dance in Hartspool, and she is thrilled by the prospect, though uncertain how Lightning will react. McFardell’s desire for Molly is selfish and possessive, while he also begins to consider Lightning’s suggestion that exposing Quinlan as a cattle thief might restore his standing with the Police. During her search for the missing cows, Molly meets Pryse at a creek. His white hair, city clothes, black horse, and smiling blue eyes fascinate her. He learns that she is George Marton’s daughter but does not reveal his own identity. Together they find her cows, proving that Lightning’s suspicions were mistaken. Molly privately names the stranger “Silver-Thatch” and is annoyed that he leaves without telling her who he is. Pryse tells Blanche that Molly is the daughter of the man who saved his life and that she is poor, brave, and beautiful. Blanche recognizes that her brother’s interest may be love and promises to help Molly. Disguising her connection to Jim, Blanche rides to the Marton farm, charms both Molly and Lightning, and gives Molly an unworn blue dance gown, silk stockings, shoes, and a wrap for the Hartspool ball. Molly is delighted, while Lightning is angered when he learns that McFardell will escort her. McFardell soon arrives with the costly dance tickets and declares that he would give everything he has for Molly.

By Ridgwell Cullum · First published 1917 · Genre: Western, Adventure Fiction, Frontier Fiction · 38 chapters · 118,595 words

First lines

The trail fell away to the heart of a valley, which nursed in its bosom a watercourse that was frozen solid to its bed. The hummocks of the foothills rose up in every direction. Many of the hills were sheer slopes of tawny, sun-scorched grass that had lost the last of its summer hue. Some were barren crags; others, again, were covered with woodland bluffs of spruce, and pine, and the generous poplar, whose dead foliage lay thick upon the ground, stripped from parent boughs by the wintry breath of the late season.

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Canadian frontier fiction · early 20th-century adventure novel · Rocky Mountain foothills · winter wilderness · Alberta ranch country · Mounted Police · escaped convict · brotherly loyalty · vigilante justice · law versus conscience · survival in a blizzard · Alaska gold prospector

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