"Andre Norton - Cat's eye" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

that something had very lightly touched what was his
inner self in exploration. Touched—and flashed in-
stantly away—so that the sensation was cut off almost
the same moment that he was aware of it. Troy helped
Zul boost the cage onto the platform. There was no
feeling of movement from within—nothing at all. Had
there ever been?

Two

The cage was stowed with extra care just behind the
driver's seat in the flitter, and during the transfer
from warehouse to flyer there had been not the slightest
sound from its interior. Yet twice more Troy had been
aware of those paw taps of exploration, touches that
were gone the instant he was alert to them. He was
thinking hard as he left Zul in the flitter and went to
return the platform. The other had shown no signs of
17




surprise or interest in the cage. Did Zul find those
subtle inquiries ordinary—or did he not feel them at
all? What kind or species of animal traveled in that
container?

Native life on a thousand worlds was now known to
spacers, explorer scouts, pioneers. And Troy had heard
tales told in the Dipple by men gathered from planets
in a wide sector of the galaxy. Yet never before had
there been any suggestion that a form of life existed
that was able to contact men mentally. Mentally!

Troy paused. Mentally! So—that was it! He had put
a name to that elusive touch. But—

He did not know that his eyes had narrowed, that
his fingers were drumming a faint tattoo on his belt.
This was something to consider by himself. Out of the
far past an emotion other than surprise awoke, sent a
warning through him. Look, listen, and keep one's
thoughts to oneself—the law of survival.

Troy swung around so suddenly that he caught the
slight movement of a man he must have startled into
that tiny betrayal. Varms stood just outside, his elbow
resting on a pile of boxes, obviously waiting for orders.
Yet he had been watching Troy, just as he was so