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realized that she’d closed her bedroom door when she’d come out, and he stomped over to open it. The sight that greeted him was a shock. There was a half-dressed strange man lying unconscious in his daughter’s bed. He could see the bandages on the man’s head and chest and he wondered what in the world had happened while he’d been gone.
    “Get into the kitchen,” he ordered, shutting the door again.
    He followed Sarah there and sat down facing her at the table.
    “I want to know everything—now!” The last thing he’d wanted tonight was trouble. He’d done his drinking and he’d even won a little playing poker. He’d been feeling half good until he’d come home to this—
    “I was out riding with Andy and we heard some gunshots. We went to check and found the Ranger unconscious in a ravine. He was lucky to be alive. Whoever ambushed him just barely missed killinghim. The bullet grazed his head, and then his horse must have thrown him.”
    “How do you know he’s a Ranger?” Nat challenged.
    “He was wearing his badge,” she told him.
    “So, has he come to yet?”
    “Yes. He woke up for a little while earlier.”
    “What did he say?”
    “Not much. I think he has amnesia,” Sarah said. “He couldn’t even remember his own name. I gave him his badge, thinking it might jar his memory, but it didn’t help. He couldn’t remember anything. It was a little frightening for him.”
    Nat wasn’t happy about the state of things, but, even drunk as he was, he knew there was nothing more he could do that night.
    “You go wake your brother up. I don’t want you in a bedroom at night with a strange man. I don’t care if he’s injured or not. It ain’t right.”
    She started to tell him Andy hadn’t been in bed all that long, but knew what would happen if she tried to contradict one of her father’s orders when he was drunk. “Yes, Papa.”
    “I’m going to bed. You make sure I ain’t woke up in the morning.”
    “Yes, Papa.” She watched him disappear into his own room and shut the door. Then she hurried off to wake Andy.
    Her brother was sleepy, but he understood why she was getting him up. Neither one of them ever wanted to rile their father when he’d been drinking. She told him all that had happened.
    “What do I do if the Ranger wakes up again?”
    “Come and get me right away. I’ll be in your room.”
    Andy went to keep watch over the wounded man, while Sarah sought what rest she could in her brother’s bedroom. But even as tired as she was, sleep would not come. Her concern for the Ranger troubled her. She worried that if the ones who’d tried to kill him learned he was still alive, they would come back looking for him to finish the job. Somehow, she had to convince her father to let him stay on the ranch until his memory returned. Only that way could the man be safe.
    It was daylight when Frank awoke to find himself alone in the strange bedroom. He lay there for a long moment, trying to remember how he’d come to be there—what had happened—but there was nothing. His only memory was of the girl named Sarah who’d been by his side the night before and who had told him he was a Texas Ranger. He lifted the badge that he still held clutched in his hand to look at it, but it stirred nothing within him.
    His whole life was a blank.
    It was as if he’d never existed before now.
    A moment of panic threatened Frank. His head was still pounding and his side hurt. He knew only that he’d been injured, nothing else.
    Determination filled him. He couldn’t just lie there. He had to move. It took all the strength he could draw upon, but he did it. He managed to swing his long legs over the side of the bed and situp. A wave of dizziness swept over him, and he rested his head in his hands as he fought for control.
    “You’re moving—” Sarah had been cooking breakfast for Andy and had decided to look in on him. She was glad she had as she hurried to his side. He looked as if he was