n' from--Barry!"

It scattered the others to the windows, to the door.

"What d'you see?"

"Nothin'."

"Swann, if Barry is comin' to these parts, I'm goin' to pack my
war-bag."

"Me too, Ben. Them that get ten thousand'll earn it. I heard about the
Killin' at Alder."

"Listen to me, gents," observed Ben Swann. "If Barry is comin' here we
ain't none of us goin' to stay; but don't start jumpin' out from under
till I get the straight of it. I'm goin' to take the kid up to the house
right now and find out."

So he wrapped up Joan in an old blanket, for she was shivering in the
cold of the early morning, and carried her up to the ranchhouse. The
alarm had already been given. He saw Buck Daniels gallop toward the
front of the place leading two saddled horses; he saw Haines and Kate
run down the steps to meet them, and then they caught sight of the
foreman coming with Joan on his shoulder.

The joy of that meeting, it seemed to Ben Swann, was decidedly
one-sided. Kate ran to Joan with a little wailing cry of happiness and
gathered her close, but neither big Lee Haines nor ugly Buck Daniels
seemed overcome with happiness at the regaining of Joan, and the child
herself merely endured the caresses of her mother. 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. Is him they call
Whistlin' Dan comin' this way? Are you runnin' from him? And did you
steal the kid from him?"

Lee Haines took upon his competent shoulders the duty of answering.

"You look like a sensible man, Swann," he said severely. "I'm surprised
at you. In the first place, two men don't run away from one."

A fleeting smile appeared and disappeared on the lips of Ben Swann.
Haines hastily went on: "As for stealing the baby from Dan Barry, good
heavens, man, don't you think a mother has a right to her own child? Now
go back to that scared bunch and tell them that Dan Barry is back in the
Grizzl