A Letter from Leavenworth
- Bishop Latour receives a long letter from another Bishop, who says that a recent gold rush in Colorado has caused tons of men to move there.
- The problem is that there is hardly any church presence in this area.
- That means that someone is going to have to make the dangerous journey to Colorado in order to establish a church. Father Vaillant immediately volunteers, even though he's sad that he won't be able to finish what he started in Arizona.
- While Vaillant and Latour chat, Latour remembers when he was asked to speak to a murderer from Chimayo. The murderer was only a 20-year-old man, and the details surrounding his crime were strange.
- It turns out that this young man was really fond of cockfighting. He loved it so much that he bred the greatest rooster in all the land. The problem is that once his rooster won too many fights, a jealous man reached into the ring and strangled the bird. Before the guy had dropped the bird, the 20-year-old had plunged his knife into the guy's heart.
- In reality, the young man should have gotten a lighter sentence because of what the victim had done to provoke him. But the judge who did the sentencing hated cockfighting and needed to make an example of someone. So he sentenced the young man to death.
- As Father Vaillant gets ready to leave, he hopes that the men in Colorado won't be hardened criminals or murderers.