] The dog is dreaming.--He growls in his
sleep.
CHANTECLER
[_Inside the hen-house._] Coa--
THE OWLS
[_Frightened._] Himself!
THE TURKEY
Fly!
FIRST OWL
No need. The night is dark. We can vanish by merely closing our eyes.
[_They shut their luminous eyes. Darkness._ CHANTECLER _appears at the
top of the ladder._]
CHANTECLER
[_To the_ BLACKBIRD.] Did you hear anything, Blackbird?
THE BLACKBIRD
I did, indeed, old chap.
THE OWLS
[_Frightened._] What's this?
THE BLACKBIRD
A black conspiracy--
CHANTECLER
Ah?
THE BLACKBIRD
[_With melodramatic emphasis._] Against you!--Tremble!
CHANTECLER
[_Going in again, unalarmed._] Joker!
THE OWLS
He has gone in.
THE BLACKBIRD
I have betrayed no one!
AN OWL
The Blackbird then is with us?
THE BLACKBIRD
No--but may I come and look on?
AN OWL
A Night-bird never eats a black bird. You can come.
THE BLACKBIRD
The password?
THE OWL
Terror and Talons!
THE PHEASANT-HEN
[_Putting her head out of the dog-kennel._] I can't breathe in that
stifling, low-roofed little house, and--[_Catching sight of the_
NIGHT-BIRDS.] Oh!--[_She darts aside, behind the kennel, and watches._]
THE OWLS
Hush! [_They close their eyes._ THE CAT _does the same. After a time,
hearing no further sound, they open them again._] It was nothing. Let
us be off.
THE GROUP OF THE DISAFFECTED
[_With fawning obsequiousness to the_ NIGHT-BIRDS.
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