"A. E. Van Vogt - The Cataaaa" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

was plump with the plumpness of a well fed shark. His eyes were narrowed as if he had spent the
past fifteen years calculating the best methods of using other people for his own advantage. He
had none of the haunted look of the photograph, but there were ghosts in his face. Ghosts of
greed and easy vices, ghosts of sharp dealing and ruthlessness. He was all that I had hoped for,
and, best of all, he was pathetically glad to see me. His joy had the special quality of the lonely
nomad who is at last looking longingly at the settled side of life. We both overdid the greeting a
little but we were about equally pleased at each other's enthusiasm. The hellos and introductions
over, Silkey grew condescending.
"Brick was in a while ago. Said you were teaching at State. Congrats. Always knew you had it in
you.
I passed over that as quickly as possible. "How about showing us around, Silkey, and telling us
about yourself?"
WE HAD already seen the fat woman and the human skeleton, but Silkey took us back and told
us his life history with them. How he had found them, and helped them to their present fame. He
was a little verbose, so on occasion I had to hurry him along. But finally we came to a small tent
within the tent, over the closed canvas entrance of which was painted simply, "THE CAT". I had
noticed it before, and the chatter of the barker who stood in front of it had already roused my
curiosity:
"The cat . . . come in and see the cat. Folks, this is no ordinary event, but the thrill of a lifetime.
Never before has such an animal as this been seen in a circus. A biological phenomenon that has
amazed scientists all over the country... Folks, this is special. Tickets are twenty-five cents, but if
you're not satisfied you can get your money back. That's right. That's what I said. You get your
money back merely by stepping up and asking for it..."
And so on. However, his ballyhoo was not the most enticing angle. What began to titillate my
nerves was the reaction of the people who went inside. They were allowed to enter in groups,
and there must have been a guide inside, because his barely audible voice would mumble on for
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com THE CATAAAA 7
some minutes, and then it would rise to a hearable level, as he said, "And now, folks, I will draw
aside the curtain and show you--the cat!"
The curtain must have been pulled with a single jerk, on a carefully timed basis. For the word,
cat was scarcely out of his mouth, when the audience reaction would sound:
"Aaaaaa!"
Distinct, unmistakable exhalation of the breaths of a dozen startled people. There would follow
an uncomfortable silence. Then, slowly the people would emerge and hurry to the outer exit. Not
one, that I was aware of, asked for his money back.
There was a little embarrassment at the gate. Silkey started to mumble something about only
owning part of the show, so he couldn't give passes. But I ended that by quickly purchasing the
necessary tickets, and we went inside with the next group.
The animal that sat in an armchair on the dais was about five feet long and quite slender. It had a
cat's head and vestiges of fur. It looked like an exaggerated version of the walkey-talkey animals
in comic books.
At that point resemblance to normalcy ended.
It was alien. It was not a cat at all. I recognized that instantly. The structure was all wrong. It
took me a moment to identify the radical variations.
The head! High foreheaded it was, and not low and receding. The face was smooth and almost
hairless. It had character and strength, and intelligence. The body was well balanced on long,
straight legs. The arms were smooth, ending in short but unmistakable fingers, surmounted by
thin, sharp claws.
But it was the eyes that were really different. They looked normal enough, slightly slanted,
properly lidded, about the same size as the eyes of human beings. But they danced. They shifted