"A. E. Van Vogt - The Rat & the Snake & Other Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Van Vogt A E)

Because, even as I stared at them, they began to fade. By the time I finished breakfast they were
gone.
I was disturbed now rather than angry. Such persistence on Silkey's part indicated neurotic
overtones in his character. It was possible that I ought to go to his show, and so give him the
petty victory that would lay his ghost, which had now haunted me two nights running. However,
it was not till after lunch that a thought occurred to me that suddenly clinched my intention. I
remembered Virginia.
For two years I had been professor of biology at State. It was an early ambition which, now that I
had realized it, left me at a loose end for the first time in my life. Accordingly, for the first time
in my rather drab existence the mating urge was upon me. Virginia was the girl, and,
unfortunately, she regarded me as a cross between a fossil and a precision brain. I felt sure that
the idea of marrying me had not yet occurred to her.
For some time it had seemed to me that if I could only convince her, without loss of dignity, that
I was a romantic fellow she might be fooled into saying yes. What better method than to pretend
that I still got excited over circuses, and, as a grand climax to the evening I would take her in to
THE CATAAAA
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6
see Silkey Travis, and hope that my acquaintance with such a character would thrill her exotic
soul.
The first hurdle was bridged when I called her up, and she agreed to go to the circus with me. I
put the best possible face on for the preliminaries, riding the ferris wheel and such juvenilia. But
the moment of the evening for me came when I suggested that we go and see the freaks being
shown by my friend, Silkey Travis.
It really went over. Virginia stopped and looked at me almost accusingly.
"Philip," she said, "you're not trying to pretend that you know a person called Silkey? She drew a
deep breath. "That I have to see."
Silkey came through beautifully. He was not in when we entered, but the ticket taker called into
some rear compartment. And a minute later Silkey came charging into the main freak tent. He
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