THE STEADFAST HEART
self and for the development of skill in self-defense….
The story of the attack was told and retold throughout Rainbow. It was magnified to sinister proportions, lifted to an epic in which Angus, gone berserk, had viciously attacked a dozen boys going peaceably about their business…. He was dangerous, the possessor of a homicidal mania. Something must be done, Rainbow declared. Were their children to be endangered every time they walked the streets?… It is of such stuff that reputation is made; from such fabric that public opinion is formulated….
It was a week later that Angus, with Bishwhang for bodyguard, was trudging along through the more aristocratic portion of Rainbow. Their destination was a spot far up the river where wintergreen was reputed to grow in abundance. On the brow of the hill above them, maple-shaded, with green expanse of well-kept lawn, stood the Canfield residence. It was neither new nor ostentatious, but substantial, dignified, a typical Michigan small-town dwelling of the best class. Here lived Jethro Canfield, nearing the age of retirement, more than comfortably well-off, with sufficient lands and goods and stocks to insure an opulent old age with bounty left over for expectant heirs. With him
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