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settlers, making life easier for her. She was proudest of her huge iron stove that she now used for cooking.
    â€œOh, Lord, please let Sage make the right decision,” she whispered. “What Runner said made so much sense. He’s such a brilliant young man.”
    Every day she thanked the Lord for having been blessed with the opportunity to have seen Runner grow from a young boy of five into a young man of twenty-three. She had to believe that his mother, Carole, was up there in the heavens somewhere, looking down at her son and smiling.
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    Runner rode his feisty black stallion beside his father’s strawberry roan and gave Sage a quick glance. “I have to think that Damon Stout has some involvement in this railroad spur going on past Fort Defiance,” he said, his long, black hair fluttering in the breeze. “That rancher has been nothing but trouble since he settled on land that is part of the reservation. What are treaties for if the government hands out land as though it is candy to ranchers like Damon Stout?”
    â€œThe government has watched us cross the treaty boundaries as our sheep need more grazing land, so they see no harm in allowing white men to come onto land that by treaty is ours ,” Sage said, frowning at Runner. “Yet what does the government do when our horses are stolen by the likes of this man called Damon? They look past the truth, ignoring it.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do if our horses continue to be stolen?” Runner asked, his eyes filled with fire at the thought of someone coming under the cover of darkness to steal from the Navaho.
    â€œIn time, my son, the one responsible for the stealing will make a wrong move,” Sage said, nodding. “Then he will never steal from anyone again.” He tightened his hold on his reins. “Damon. Damon Stout. He will be caught redhanded one day. Pity him then.”
    The small adobe schoolhouse came into view, the sun beating down upon its flat roof. Thunder Hawk emitted a groan, then broke away from Runner and Sage and rode in a hard gallop away from them, toward the school.
    They drew a tight rein and stopped their horses. They watched Thunder Hawk tie his horse with the others at the hitching rail, then walk with slumped shoulders into the schoolhouse.
    â€œHe does not walk like a man,” Sage complained.
    â€œThat will come to him when his education is completed,” Runner said, reaching to clasp his father’s shoulder. “Learning is best for him.”
    Sage nodded, covered Runner’s hand with his own, then drew his hand away and gripped the reins again. “ Ei-yei! Let us ride, my son,” he shouted, sinking his moccasined heels into the flanks of his horse.
    Before they had ridden far, they heard the shriek of a train whistle in the far distance. Great billows of black smoke rising into the sky drew their attention.
    â€œThe iron fiend,” Sage said, then urged his horse into an even harder gallop, Runner keeping steadfastly at his side.
    Runner could not help but feel a strange, building excitement every time he watched a train traveling along on the gleaming tracks. Like something magical, on and on it would go, rumbling and flashing in the sun.

Chapter 3

    Love sent me thither, sweet,
And brought me to your feet,
He willed that we should meet,
And so it was.
    â€”J OHN N ICHOLS

    The sun was pouring its heat from the sky, reflecting on the steel rails of the railroad tracks like white lightning. Runner rode at a gentle canter beside his father, squinting his eyes as he studied the new rails being laid, even now, by the work gangs. Although he felt a deep hatred for this invasion on the land of the Navaho, he was undeniably in awe of the power of the trains that rode these sorts of tracks. Distances were joined like magic.
    â€œDo you see how the land is being destroyed by those men?” Sage said, as he edged his strawberry roan closer to