Explore "The Riddle of Three-Way Creek" by Ridgwell Cullum on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The things Lightning discovered at McFardell's homestead and later learned in Hartspool instantly suggested headlong action. He wanted to fling everything to the winds and get after the "gopher police-scab" with his old guns primed and a supply of bullets in his pockets.
But there was something, some subtle claim that was infinitely stronger, holding him back. He felt he would be serving Molly better by remaining at her call on the farm. Since that hour or so of meditation in the shade of his wagon at McFardell's there had steadily grown up within him a conviction that, whatever his devotion might prompt in Molly's defence, his place must be near her all the time now. He felt that never in all her young life had Molly had so great a need of him.