He hesitated. "This much I will tell you. There are two factions in L'Lan. One is the party of the Humanites, of which I am one of the leaders. The other party is the Brotherhood.
"We Humanites are all men and women as our name implies. We believe in the superiority of humanity to all other forms of life and are ready to fight for it. But the Brotherhood, our enemies, are not all men!"
Sloan stared. "What do you mean? What are those of the Brotherhood who are not men?"
"Beasts!" hissed Shan Kar. "Beasts who assert their equality with men! Yes, in L'Lan the wolf and tiger and eagle claim themselves the equals of humans!"
His black eyes flashed. "And they'll not stop there! The winged ones and the hairy ones and the clawed ones — all the forest clans — will eventually aspire to dominance over man! Is it strange that we Humanites are preparing to crush them before that can happen?"
There was stunned silence for a moment, then Lefty Wister's shrill laughter crowed. "Didn't I tell you the man was cracked? We've come half into Tibet on a wild-goose chase with a crazy native for guide!"
Nick Sloan's face darkened and he started toward Shan Kar. Eric Nelson intervened hastily.,
"Sloan, wait! That platinum was real enough!"
Sloan stopped. "So it was. And we're going to find its source. But we won't find it by listening to crazy talk of wild beasts plotting against men!"
"The beasts of the Brotherhood are not the brute beasts of your outer world!" flared Shan Kar. "They are intelligent, as intelligent as men."