“And leave your wife?” he exclaimed.
“She is in love with the Dorking cock, so she can stay with him. I have known it for some time. There he is, standing on one leg by the wood-pile.”
“I will come too,” said the game-fowl, who was a bachelor, “but do you go on. I will just go and break every bone in the drake’s body, and I can catch you up before you are out of sight.”
“Oh, no! no! Promise you won’t do that!” implored Maggie.
It took some time to persuade him to be quiet, but at last it was done.
“It is better to get the business over at once,” said the Cochin-China cock. “If Alfonso is ready, we will start.”
“And pray, who says I am not ready for anything?” inquired the other. “Anyone who wants to eat his words has only to come to me!”
“But nobody says it,” replied Maggie soothingly. “I am sure no one ever had two such dear, brave friends as I have.”
And with that the three set forth on their travels.
They went up the road that runs north, round the other side of the dam, for they were anxious to get as far as possible without being seen, in case anyone should come after them to try and make the cocks go back. Sometimes they ran, they were in such a hurry. At last they came to where the old gipsy track crosses the way, and turned into it; feeling much safer for the shelter of the whins and bushes in that green place.