"You're either guessing, or hoping I won't fire, or perhaps praying that whatever you have for protection will work," said Murdoch flatly. "Otherwise you wouldn't talk so smooth."
"You black-hearted baby-killing rotter," snarled Don Channing. "I'm not chinning with you for the fun of it. You'll shoot anyway, and I want to see how good you are. Get it over with, Murdoch."
"What I have here is plenty good," said Murdoch. "Good enough. Do you know about it?"
"I can guess, but you tell me."
"Naturally," said Hellion. He explained in detail. "Can you beat that?"
"We may not be able to outfire you," gritted Channing, "but we may be able to nullify your beam."
"Nonsense!" roared Murdoch. "Look, Channing, you'd best surrender."
"Never!"
"You'd rather die?"
"We'd rather fight it out. Come in and get us."