"He did. But he's not the kind to hang round a hotel. He's all man--if I
do say it." And Mrs. Adams glanced at her husband. In his lithe,
well-set-up figure she saw what her son would be at forty. "Yes, Jim,
he's man size--and I've raised him to go straight."

Waring laughed. "Of course you have! What name will I sign, Annie?"

"Folks here call me Mrs. Adams."

"So you're Annie Adams again! Well, here's your husband's name, if you
don't mind." And he signed the register, "James Waring, Sonora, Mexico."

"Isn't that risky?" she queried.

"No one knows me up here. And I don't intend to stay long. I'd like to
see the boy."

"Jim, you won't take him away!"

"You know me better than that. You quit me down there, and I won't say
that I liked it. I wondered how you'd get along. You left no word. When
I realized that you must have wanted to leave me, that settled it.
Following you would have done no good, even if I had known where you had
gone. I was free. And a gunman has no business with a family."

"You might have thought about that before you came courting me."

"I did. Didn't you?"