1. "I wouldn't have been as good a father as you were."

He's never been exactly careful… never spilled his seed on a woman's belly lest they insisted, and they rarely insist because a girl don't think that far ahead. Ben doesn't like to think about how many whelps he has in Dodge City alone, let alone the West, but each and every one of the little bastards is better off without him. Seeing the way Dan protects his boys makes Ben wish he'd tried.

2. "I'm a tad bit scared of trains, Dan."

He told him the story about his mother and the Bible and the train station where he spent a week thieving for his next meal, back when he was as fresh-faced as Will ever was, but he didn't come around to the point. Sometimes the story is the point, but this time the sympathy was the point and Ben wanted to admit there were times he was worried about dying. Dying seemed like a train going into a dark tunnel. You never knew what was at the other end.

3. "You're not interesting anymore."

This one he's glad he never said. Because ten seconds after he thought it Dan had to tell him that stupid story about losing his leg and making his son proud and Ben started wishing he had an old man to look up to. The admiration Will feels for the deadly outlaw Ben Wade is as easy to read as a penny dreadful and damn if Ben's gonna let their kid grow up like him. There aren't enough men like Dan Evans in the world. There's gonna be one more: His son.

4. "You're worth ten of me."

And his family's worth ten hundred. And damnit, Dan, why'd you have to be so goddamn stupid as to try and change things that are as fixed as one of your fucking barn's fucking fenceposts?

5. "I'm going to miss you."

The boys in the gang care because Ben's their meal ticket. The railroad and the law cares because Ben is a killer and a robber. The whores care because Ben pays them to and the rest of the women like as not don't care. Dan cares because he cares about everybody, even that fucking prick Tucker, like the sun don't shine a little brighter because it doesn't have to light on his ass.

It's his own damn fault, Ben tells himself on the 3:10 to Yuma, where they'll hang him as sure as a trigger brings a bullet. Dan Evans. The stupidest fucking man Ben Wade ever met.