Lane walked forward boldly to inspect this alien creature. He acted as though he were not a prisoner, but a visitor—and it was probably that attitude that saved him from further cat-and-mouse, for the catman seemed unsure of the next move.
The catman was more man than cat, just as the human—in the catman's nomenclature an apeman—the human was more man than ape. He stood erect. His legs were long and excellently muscled. His shoulders were broad and sloping, and his arms were well rounded. The temperature was high—to Lane's liking, being Venusite—and the scanty uniform of the catman matched the shorts, high-laced boots, shoulder straps and cape of the Solarian. The catman's hands were long and spatulate, and the fingernails were as broad as Cliff's. The retractile claws were gone—deleted in a hundred thousand years of evolution. Gone were the fur and the tail and the slitted eyes, and all of the other basic cat-characteristics. The whiskers were gone also, and the ears were no longer mobile, but on each side of the head just as the human's. They were still pointed on top and resembled, or at least reminded Cliff of a cat's ears modified in human mold.
Catman?
Well, there was something distinctly feline about the creature, humanoid though he seemed. He was lithe, and instead of walking forward, he prowled. There was a quick alertness—not visible, but felt—to the catman's every move.
Yes, this creature was definitely of feline evolution.
And Cliff Lane walked forward boldly. He smiled inwardly, gaining confidence from the fact that he was still alive and unharmed. Prisoner he might be, but he was no humble prisoner. He was proud and haughty, and he was not taking any guff.
He strode forward to hasten the first meeting between Primate and Feline on the common ground of civilization.
VI.
The catman's steps faltered. This alien, that had come from some distant star, was definitely primate in evolution. He knew primates—they had primates on Sscantoo, here—and primates were nasty animals. They were filled with curiosity—mass curiosity—that had been the basis for a platitude on Sscantoo: "Curiosity saved a mansee." When you killed or wounded a primate, the woods would fill up with curious, chattering hordes of his fellow-primates. It made life rather dangerous unless you were prepared to fight your way out.