When Sister Ruth came out of the saloon, she was somewhat irritated that Hank had tried to intimidate her from her given task, but her heart ached for him too. There was nothing sadder to her than a person who didn't know the Lord. Hank hadn't seen the last of her during her stay and from the sound of things, Hank didn't intend to let it be the last time he saw her either though for entirely different reasons.

She reached her destination, the telegraph office.

"Sister Ruth, what can I do for you?" Horace said, standing up with a beam of welcome.

"I need you to send a message for me, Brother Horace, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs," she answered, pulling out a slip of paper with a short message she had composed.

He read over the message. It was a request that she be allowed to work on the reservation. "You're sending this all the way up to Washington?"

"Some people like to work their way up, but I like to go straight to the top. I've already went to the Lord, so the commissioner is next on the totem pole," she said with a smile. "And as I hear Sully tell it, he might be a bit more friendly to the cause than the more local honcho."

Horace immediately began telegraphing the message. After he was finished and the payment had been received, he told her, "I just want you to know I think what you're doing with the Indians is great," he said with a defiancy and honesty in his expression that proved Hank and some of the others had already tried to tell him differently.

Sister Ruth threw her arms around Horace in gratitude. "Bless you, brother. You're the first person to tell me that. You have no idea what those words mean to me."

"Well, I ain't forgot what you did, helping me believe in the Lord's power to heal. Why shouldn't everyone experience God too, not only for what He can do for the body but what He can do for the soul?"

"Amen," she said, giving a slight thump on her Bible to punctuate it like a preacher slapping the pulpit to make a point.

The lady who had just walked in gave a jump at the noise.

"Sorry, sister," Ruth apologized. "I'll get on out of here now."

"I'll deliver the reply to you personally when it comes in," Horace promised.

sss

She had received a wire back that told her he had set her up a meeting for her with the District Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Michaela was seeing her off at the depot.

"I wish you would have taken someone with you, Sister Ruth," she said with a frown of worry on her face. "Matthew would have been perfectly happy to go with you to Denver."

"I enjoy having a traveling buddy, but I don't need one. I've been on the road in some form or fashion since I was old enough to leave my momma's home. Besides, I'm bound to make some friends on the train."

The hiss of the steam and the cries of the porter reminded them that it was time for her to board.

Sister Ruth had an uneventful trip to Denver. She sat next to an elderly lady who shared all about her children and grandchildren, which wiled away the time, and when the woman nodded off for a nap, she spent the rest of the time praying for success. When she got to Denver, she got a coach to take her to the address she had been given.

The district supervisor's office was imposing with its dark, heavy furniture and prestigious finery. She didn't know what she expected to see. Maybe she'd thought to see a dream catcher or an arrowhead somewhere. Something to show that he had at least a small level of fondness for them, but there wasn't so much as a painting of an Indian in white man's clothing or otherwise.

"Have a seat, Mrs. Cole," directed the middle-aged man behind the desk by way of greeting. "I'm very busy, and I don't have all day."

She promptly took a seat in the high back chair. "You know what I'm here for?"

"I do. The commissioner told me. I have to tell you that it's already a mark against you that you went over my head to arrange this little meeting," he spoke even as he continued to write a letter.

"Would you have met with me if you knew I was connected with Sully or Dr. Quinn in any way, brother?"

"That's Mr. Hazen, madam, and your point is taken. I don't know if you know it, but we have a missionary there already, Mrs. Cole. His name is Henry Wray, I believe. Doing a good job from all I hear."

"So I've heard, and I'm not looking to boot him out of his position. I just want to work alongside him. The harvest is plenty and the workers are few."

"I don't know what you can do that isn't already being done, but you have my approval. I'm quite sure the heathens can use all the religion they can get. You really wasted train fare just to come all the way to ask. I would have given the same answer by telegraph wire."

"There's more."

He set down the pen and gave a sigh that said he was already losing patience before he even heard the question. "I assumed there was. Well?"

"Sully could be just the thing we need to help the Indians see the light of God's love."

"You mean he actually is going to help you change them?" he said, his face and voice full of doubt.

"He's already started helping me by teaching me how they think."

Lucien shook his head. "I don't want Sully anywhere near them. That would be nothing but trouble."

"Would you hinder the work of the Lord?"

From the glare she was given, she could seen that Lucien Hazen didn't care much about the work of the Lord, but he said, "I have more pressing matters to attend to, so I'm going to give consent on that too, but you're responsible for Mr. Sully. If he causes the least bit of trouble, if he so much as gives them a feather for their hair, you're both going to be banned from the reservation. I've made too much progress since he has been gone to go backwards."

"I don't know about that, but I'll agree to the condition," she said, standing up.

sss

Sully met Sister Ruth at the depot when she got back to Colorado Springs, to give her a ride back to the house. He helped her down the steps of the train.

Sister Ruth grinned at him and the first words out of her mouth were, "You're going with me to the reservation."

Sully was stunned at first and then he grinned back. "How in the world did you manage that? Lucien Hazen hates me with a passion."

"I didn't manage it; the Lord did, and I think Mr. Hazen was eager to get shed of me."

Sully chuckled as he helped her over to the wagon. He looked very happy at the news.

During the trip back to the house, Ruth glanced over at Sully. He was a good man she knew. He acted with more kindness, love, and courage than some Christians ever did. If he ever came to the Lord's side, he would be a force to behold. He was a conundrum though. He wasn't hostile toward God from what she could see, or at least he wasn't hostile toward those who had found Him. He didn't even seem to be altogether indifferent to God, but he had a wall around his heart that seemed to protect him against God as if he was afraid God was going to hurt him if He got in, and she was leery of pushing too hard with words for fear he would build that wall even higher.

Her hope was that he would begin to discover the Lord in the work that they were about to do together, the primary reason she wanted him at the reservation.

"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform," she sang softly under her breath.

"What's that, Sister Ruth?" Sully asked, turning to look at her.

"One of my favorite hymns is all. I was just thinking that you and I are about to see some wonderful things happen because of God."

Sully was too polite to refute her, but his stance said he wasn't as sure.

Ruth only smiled and continued her song more loudly this time, "He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm."