Sonora

Sonora is the place where Ben Caxton is found after his disappearance, asleep in a cheap lodging while recovering from a prolonged drinking binge. The discovery resolves where he has been, but the authorities turn his vulnerability into leverage: they return him to Jubal Harshaw in a deliberately humiliating state while insisting that Harshaw attend talks.

Discovery and Official Account

The official explanation is that Caxton is not missing in the ordinary sense. He has been located in Sonora, sleeping off one of his periodic binges, and authorities say he has been drunk for a week. The account reframes a disappearance that had caused alarm as a personal failing, allowing the officials to present Caxton less as a detained or endangered person than as a disreputable drunk.

The authorities have picked him up on a technical vagrancy charge, which they say will not be pressed. Instead, they arrange to release him to Harshaw. Their choice of charge and the promise to drop it make the transfer sound like a favor, even as their control over Caxton remains unmistakable.

Return to Harshaw’s Home

Caxton is sent from Nogales in a courier aircraft traveling at Mach three or better. Its pilot has instructions to deliver him to Harshaw and obtain a receipt, turning his return into a formally documented handover. The rapid transport contrasts with the degrading condition in which the officials insist he arrive.

An official explicitly intends Harshaw to see Caxton filthy, unshaven, and smelling of alcohol. The delivery is therefore not simply a practical response to the search: it is meant to discredit Caxton in front of Harshaw. At the same time, the official declares that, once Caxton has been delivered, he will wash his hands of the matter, while still expecting Harshaw and his client to appear for talks.

The Encounter and Its Significance

Caxton reaches Harshaw’s home twenty minutes later. The officer commanding the courier car takes Harshaw’s signature and thumbprint on a prepared receipt, then leaves immediately. The paperwork closes the official transfer; inside, Jill continues sobbing on Caxton’s shoulder, a sign of the distress his absence has caused.

Harshaw looks Caxton over by the pool’s light and bluntly acknowledges his disheveled appearance and the report that he has been drunk for a week. Caxton responds by cursing fluently while continuing to pat Jill’s back. Sonora thus marks both the mundane explanation for his disappearance and the beginning of his return to the circle of people who feared he was lost. The episode also exposes the authorities’ method: they can resolve a crisis while shaping its public meaning, presenting a vulnerable man as a tramp and his release as a favor.