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

twice, even three times as swiftly as human eyes. Their balanced movement at such a high speed
indicated vision that could read photographically reduced print across a room. What sharp, what
incredibly sharp images that brain must see.
All this I saw within the space of a few seconds. Then the creature moved.
It stood up, not hurriedly, but casually, easily, and yawned and stretched. Finally, it took a step
forward. Brief panic ensued among the women in the audience, that ended as the guide said
quietly:
"It's all right, folks. He frequently comes down and looks us over. He's harmless.
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The crowd stood its ground, as the cat came down the steps from the dais and approached me.
The animal paused in front of me, and peered at me curiously. Then it reached gingerly forward,
opened my coat, and examined the inside breast pocket.
It came up holding the postcard with the picture of Silkey on it. I had brought it along, intending
to ask Silkey about it.
For a long moment the cat examined the card, and then it held it out to Silkey. Silkey looked at
me.
"Okay?" he said.
I nodded. I had a feeling that I was witnessing a drama the motivations of which I did not
understand. I realized that I was watching Silkey intently.
He looked at the picture on the card, and then started to hand it to me. Then he stopped. Jerkily,
he pulled the card back, and stared at the photograph.
"For cripes sake," he gasped. "It's a picture of me."
There was no doubt about his surprise. It was so genuine that it startled me. I said:
"Didn't you send that to me? Didn't you write what's on the back there?"
Silkey did not answer immediately. He turned the card over and glared down at the writing. He
began to shake his head.
"Doesn't make sense," he muttered. "Hmmm, it was mailed in Marstown. That's where we were
three days last week."
He handed it back to me. "Never saw it before in my life. Funny."
His denial was convincing. I held the card in my hand, and looked questioningly at the cat. But it
had already lost interest. As we stood there, watching, it turned and climbed back up to the dais,
and slumped into a chair. It yawned. It closed its eyes.
And that's all that happened. We all left the tent, and Virginia and I said goodbye to Silkey.
Later, on our way home, the episode seemed even more meaningless than when it had happened.
I don't know how long I had been asleep before I wakened. I turned over intending to go right
back to sleep. And then I saw that my bedside light was burning. I sat up with a start.
The cat was sitting in a chair beside the bed, not more than three feet away.
Part Two of
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THERE WAS silence. I couldn't have spoken at the beginning. Slowly, I sat up. Memory came
of what the guide at the show had said... "Harmless!" But I didn't believe that anymore.
Three times now this beast had come here, twice to leave messages. I let my mind run over those
messages, and I quailed " . . . The cat wants to talk to you!" Was it possible that this thing could
talk.
The very inactivity of the animal finally gave me courage. I licked my lips and said:
"Can you talk?"
The cat stirred. It raised an arm in the unhurried fashion of somebody who does not want to
cause alarm. It pointed at the night table beside my bed. I followed the pointing finger and saw
that an instrument was standing under the lamp. The instrument spoke at me:
"I cannot emit human sounds with my own body, but as you can hear this is an excellent