Son of an Outlaw — Max Brand

Elizabeth Cornish knew that the outlaw left behind an infant son. She told her brother Vance to find that infant and bring him to her. Calling herself his aunt and Vance his uncle, Elizabeth Cornish raised the boy she called Terry Colby. Vance was skeptical from the beginning, insisting that blood, not nurture, determines character, and that an outlaw's son would inevitably become an outlaw. Elizabeth has invested her faith in the belief that the life and world in which Terry grew up would form his character and make him all she wanted him to be. She had built up her ranch into a prosperous enterprise, and she informs her brother that it is her intention to make Terry the sole heir to Cornish Ranch on his twenty-first birthday. Vance decides to somehow make Terry aware of his outlaw heritage and invites a famous lawman as a guest at his birthday party--the man whose career was launched when he shot and killed Black Jack Hollis.