he authorities can report is that the
missing one is hale, happy, and hearty and wants to stay missing.

Under the law, a minor is a minor and there is no proposition that
divides one degree of minority from another. Major decisions, such as
voting, the signing of binding contracts of importance, the determination
of a course of drastic medical treatment, are deemed to be matters that
require mature judgment. The age for such decisions is arbitrarily set at
age twenty-one. Acts such as driving a car, sawing a plank, or buying
food and clothing are considered to be "skills" that do not require
judgment and therefore the age of demarcation varies with the state and
the state legislature's attitude.

James was a minor; presumably he could repudiate contracts signed while a
minor, at the time he reached the age of twenty-one. From a practical
standpoint, however, anything that James contracted for was expendable
and of vital necessity. He could not stop payment on a check for his
rent, nor claim that he had not received proper payment for his stories
and demand damages. Paul Brennan might possibly interfere with the smooth
operation by squawking to the bank that Charles Maxwell was a phantom
front for the minor child James Holden. And bankers, being bankers, might
very well clog up the operation with a lot of questions. But there was
the possibility that James Holden, operating through the agency of an
adult, would switch his method. He could even go so far as to bring
Brennan to lawsuit to have Brennan stopped from his interference. Child
or not, James Holden had been running a checking account by mail for a
number of years which could be used as evidence of his good faith and
ability.

Indeed, the position of James Holden was so solid that Brennan could only
plead personal interest and personal responsibility in the case for
securing a writ of habeas corpus to have the person of James Holden
returned to his custody and protection. And this of itself was a bit on
the dangerous side. A writ of habeas corpus will, by law, cause the
delivery of the person to the right hands, but there is no part of the
writ that can be used to guarantee that the person will remain
thereafter. If Brennan tried to repeat this program, James Holden was
very apt to suggest either the rather rare case of Barratry or
Maintenance against Brennan. Barratry consists of the constant harassment
of a citizen by the serial entry of lawsuit after lawsuit