“_Don’t look now!_”
The brown man glanced at Lyman’s white face reflected in the mirror
before them.
“It’s all right,” he said. “There aren’t any Mar—”
Lyman gave him a fierce, quick kick under the edge of the bar.
“Shut up! One just came in!”
And then he caught the brown man’s gaze and with elaborate unconcern
said, “—so naturally, there was nothing for me to do but climb out on
the roof after it. Took me ten minutes to get it down the ladder, and
just as we reached the bottom it gave one bound, climbed up my face,
sprang from the top of my head, and there it was again on the roof,
screaming for me to get it down.”
“_What?_” the brown man demanded with pardonable curiosity.
“My cat, of course. What did you think? No, never mind, don’t answer
that.” Lyman’s face was turned to the brown man’s, but from the corners
of his eyes he was watching an invisible progress down the length of the
bar toward a booth at the very back.
“Now why did he come in?” he murmured. “I don’t like this. Is he anyone
you know?”
“Is who—?”
“That Martian. Yours, by any chance? No, I suppose not. Yours was
probably the one who went out a while ago. I wonder if he went to make a
report, and sent this one in? It’s possible. It could be. You can talk
now, but keep your voice low, and stop squirming. Want him to notice we
can see him?”
“I can’t see him. Don’t drag me into this. You and your Martians can
fight it out together. You’re making me nervous. I’ve got to go,
anyway.” But he didn’t move to get off the stool. Across Lyman’s
shoulder he was stealing glances toward the back of the bar, and now and
then he looked at Lyman’s face.
“Stop watching me,” Lyman said. “Stop watching him. Anybody’d think you
were a cat.”
“Why a cat? Why should anybody—do I look like a cat?”
“We were talking about cats, weren’t we? Cats can see them, quite
clearly. Even undressed, I believe. They don’t like them.”
“Who doesn’t like who?”
“Whom. Neither likes the other. Cats can see Martians—sh-h!—but they
pretend not to, and that makes the Martians mad. I have a theory that
cats ruled the world before Martians came. Never mind. Forget about
cats. This may be more serious than you think. I happen to know my
Martian’s taking tonight off, and I’m pretty sure that was your Martian
who went out some time ago. And have you noticed that nobody else in
here has his Martian with him? Do you suppose—” His voice sank. “Do you
suppose they could be _waiting for us outside_?”
“Oh, Lord,” the brown man said. “In the alley with the cats, I suppose.”
“Why don’t you stop this yammer about cats and be serious for a moment?”
Lyman demanded, and then paused, paled, and reeled slightly on his
stool. He hastily took a drink to cover his confusion.
“What’s the matter now?” the brown man asked.
“Nothing.” Gulp. “Nothing. It was just that—he _looked_ at me.
With—you know.”
“Let me get this straight. I take it the Martian is dressed in—is
dressed like a human?”
“Naturally.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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