Ben Swann made them a speech.
He told them that anybody with half an eye could tell they were bothered by something, that they acted as if they were running away.

Now, running in itself was perfectly all right and quite in order when it was impossible to outface or outbluff a danger.

He himself, Ben Swann, believed in such tactics.

He wasn't a soldier; he was a cowpuncher.

So were the rest of the boys out yonder, and though they'd stay by their work in ordinary times, and they'd face ordinary trouble, they were not minded to abide the coming of Dan Barry.
"So," concluded Swann, "I want to ask you straight.