“Sure. He’s not Union. He’s not Confederate. If there’s some awful conspiracy, you don’t think it covers both territories and Texas, too, do you? Texians don’t answer to either one, except when they feel like answering to the South.”

“It’s a good thought, Angeline. Thank you, I’ll try him again—through the rangers office in Austin.”

“Good girl. Don’t you give up on it yet. Too many people know about that train for everybody to vanish at once. You’ll find him,” she vowed, and she tipped her hat before leaving the nurse alone.

When Angeline was gone, Mercy sat back down at her desk.

She picked up a piece of paper and pencil, but her hand hovered over the blank sheet. She changed her mind and put down the pencil, pushing away the paper and worrying about the Texas Ranger who’d been her companion on the westward journey.

Where had he gone? Where had everybody gone?

She murmured, “And if I hadn’t disappeared into Seattle, would I have disappeared anyhow … just like everyone else?”